Basketball Books can be sources of inspiration for younger players, competitive players on the brink of a breakthrough, and casual basketball players who are curious about the pathway to success in a highly competitive environment (not necessarily sport).
Basketball books are also great resources for coaches and budding coaches, contributing to the advancement of the game at all levels. Finally, basketball books can also be great resources for players who might not have access to the best facilities and human resources that money can buy.
Whichever bracket you might fall into, this book-list will have you covered.
Top 15 Best Basketball Books
This is a book about coaching, by coaches, and for coaches. Published by Krause Publications, this 304-page release gives detailed instruction on how to extract the most value possible out of inexperienced and seasoned basketball players.
The book features 160 drills that are relevant to all facets of the game, whether that be offense, defense, dribbling, shooting, passing, pressing, breaking, conditioning, or rebounding. The basketball book would be an outstanding gift for high school or amateur club coaches, where more emphasis is placed on passion and human development, instead of financial reward.
Something worth noting about the book is that it has been written by four people who have vast experience coaching at some of the highest levels of the game. The information in the book is information that you could probably trust.
Recommended For: Coaches
Author: Clint Adkins, Steven Bain, Edward Dreyer, Robert A. Starky
Genre: Coaching Resource
This basketball book is available in paperback at online vendors like Amazon, while you can also get it on Kindle. Published by Human Kinetics, this 200-page book covers ground on the most essential basketball drills, practice plans, plays, and coaching that will help amateur and youth coaches identify and mold the best basketball talent in their communities.
Coaching young people can be an intimidating business, primarily because it is a job that carries with it enormous responsibility, but also because young people tend to question everything. Some of that behavior is genuine, as young people are just extremely curious, while some of them question everything as an act of rebellion. This basketball tool is ideal for volunteer coaches who are just as passionate about winning over the trust of young people. The hardest part with any sports coaching at this level is convincing young people to stick with the sport. Using this book will help you make them play and stay.
Recommended For: Coaches
Author: Greg Kot; keith Miniscalco
Genre: Coaching Resource
This basketball book is available in paperback at online vendors like Amazon. If you want it on Kindle, you can purchase the basketball book for a little less. This 276-page book offers comprehensive insights on how you can polish a basketball player.
There are thousands of basketball players around the world who possess extraordinary raw talent. However, they have no genuine grasp of how to channel that talent. The really unlucky ones will never run into a coach who has the skills to create complete basketball players. This book helps produce more coaches like that, by placing emphasis on more than just the basketball drills.
The book adopts a more holistic approach, which also covers ground on basketball concepts, philosophy, and sports psychology. So, there is just as much emphasis on the physical as there is on the psychological.
Recommended For: Coaches
Author: Tom Anstett; Tom McCormack
Genre: Coaching Resource
This book is available on audio, hardcover, paperback, and even audio CD if you have the budget for it. Published by Warner Business Books, this 291-page work of non-fiction carries considerable clout, purely because of the figure that it is associated with.
Even the most casual of basketball players and fans would have heard about Mike Krzyzewski at some point in their lives, even if it is just in passing. He has led the United States to three Olympic Gold medals in the basketball tournament. He is also associated with the United States basketball team that took home gold at the Barcelona Olympics, where he served as the assistant coach.
Then there is also the small matter of his achievements while coaching basketball at Duke University, where he won five NCAA Division I titles. Any normal human being would want to get into the mind of somebody who has achieved this much in sport and life. This book is your ticket to understanding just how Mike Krzyzewski ticks, or what makes him tick.
This book isn’t just about helping you become a better basketball player or coach, but it is also about becoming a better human. This is one of the Top Basketball Books currently on the market.
Recommended For: Coaches
Author: Mike Krzyzewski, Donald T. Phillips, Grant Hill
Genre: Inspirational Non-Fiction
This basketball book is available on Kindle, and in paperback for a little more. We have all seen those basketball movies, where coaches are in the locker room, standing in front of a blackboard or whiteboard. And on that board are all these diagrams and arrows. Well...it turns out that is not just a Hollywood invention and that basketball coaches really apply tactics in this way.
This book provides illustrations and explanations on numerous basketball plays, how you should implement them, and when you should implement them. The book is only 84 pages long, but these are probably the 84 most valuable pages you will ever consume.
The emphasis with this coaching manual is on how one goes about scoring in basketball, and helping players develop an earlier read on when and how those scoring opportunities will present themselves. This is as good a reference as you will encounter in a bookstore, where that be online or not.
Recommended For: Coaches
Author: Kevin Sivils
Genre: Coaching Resource
Once you manage to get past this God awful title for a book, you will actually find that it is a rather useful coaching tool to have, especially if you are working with a group of players that harbor championship ambitions.
In basketball, it is the finer margins that separate the good teams from the great, and this book will empower coaches to help maximize the potential of a talented group of players. The insights in this book are of tremendous value, especially when you consider that you cannot expect to spend a considerable amount for the purchase. At online vendors like Amazon, the book is also available on Kindle, which you can access with an Amazon Prime account. Where most basketball books place tremendous emphasis on the technical, this focuses more on building the individual, whether that be his testicular or mental fortitude.
This is one of the best Basketball Coaching Books.Recommended For: Coaches
Author: Dan Horwitz
Genre: Coaching Resource
This book is available on Kindle, while you can also purchase it in paperback for a little more. Now contrary to what the title of the book might suggest, this is actually a suitable resource for players and coaches competing at all levels of the game.
In essence this is just a collection of drills and instructions on how to best implement those drills. The thing about drills is that they are really quite useless if you don’t really know what they are designed to do.
Among the contributors to this book are Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt, both of whom are highly experienced basketball coaches. Both of them have been highly involved in the development of NCAA players, people who need to understand why they are being trained in the manner that they are. If you want to genuinely understand what a drill is about, these 336 pages will be worth your time.
Recommended For: Players
Author: Women’s Basketball Coaches Association
Genre: Coaching Resource
This book is available on Kindle, in paperback, and in hardcover. This relatively short book documents the life and career of American basketball player Kyrie Irving, who has turned out for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets in the NBA.
Irving is still an active player, making this story particularly relevant to the younger generation. This is the extraordinary story of a star that they will know and better appreciate than most. The player and the man are sometimes embroiled in controversy, and so this book will help give you some meaningful insights into the mind behind the player. This will be a great gift for a young basketball player who needs to understand just how much it takes to swim to the top in basketball.
Recommended For: Fans
Author: Shaun Carroll
Genre: Biography
You can secure this book for free on Kindle unlimited, if you have an Amazon Prime account, and in paperback. If you are really willing to shop around, the book should also be available on audio-book.
The book has been designed to equip basketball fans and aspiring professional players with the knowledge they will need to excel at an elite level of our sport. While there is a biographical element to this non-fictional work, it really is about discovering the man that made the player. What is it exactly that makes Stephen Curry in the NBA?
This book will take you on a journey through Stephan Curry’s entire regime, detailing some of the physical and material sacrifices one will need to make to not just reach the summit of the sport, but also stay at the top of the sport. It is sometimes said that the higher you go, the harder the wind blows. Stephan Curry’s book should help you navigate some of those headwinds with grace and efficiency.
Recommended For: Fans
Author: Steve James
Genre: Biography
You can access this book on Kindle Unlimited if you have Amazon Prime. Failing which, you can also purchase the audiobook at a minimal cost or you can get the book in paperback. In this book, the author interrogates just what it is that helps set Lebron James apart from all of his peers, many of whom have an equal claim to being called the greatest basketball players of their generation, if not all time.
The area of emphasis with this biographical work is on Lebron’s career, more so than his childhood years. It is about identifying the finer margins that have propelled him towards the success that he enjoys today.
Recommended For: Fans
Author: Steve James
Genre: Biography
The author Steve James has vast experience chronicling the careers of some of basketball’s greatest players, by extracting granular detail and determining what it is that makes these players tick. He has done the same kind of work on players like Stephen Curry and Lebron James, and he pursues a similar path with this book about Kevin Durant, another generational great.
If you want, you can access this book on Kindle Unlimited, or you can purchase it in paperback. You can also get the audio book if you have the budget for it. This book is among the lengthier of James’s offering, and that is because he really goes down the rabbit hole with this one.
Durant is one of those basketball players who have excelled a tremendous amount both on and off the basketball court. There is a balance to his life that is very difficult to strike and this book offers meaningful insights on how Durant strikes that balance so much better than most.
You will find very few better Books About Basketball.Recommended For: Fans
Author: Steve James
Genre: Biography
If you do not have access to Kindle Unlimited, you can also access the audio-book, or you could purchase the paperback version at a minimal cost. Michael Jordan is more than just a basketball great, still considered by most to be the greatest of them all, but he is also an accomplished businessman too.
In this biography, James does a deep dive into some of the secrets that have helped shape the career of Jordan, pre and post his playing days.
Recommended For: Fans
Author: Steve James
Genre: Biography13- Gregg Popovich: The Inspiring Life and Leadership Lessons of One of Basketball's Greatest Coaches
This is more than just a Book On basketball. It is also a book about leadership, in all its guises. You can access this book on Kindle Unlimited, while it is also available in paperback.
You can also purchase the audiobook at a minimal cost. Of the biographical works that we have listed in this article, this ranks as one of the longest reads. It is also probably not one of the easiest reads either.
For those who are not familiar with the man, Popovich is the one-man army that has led the San Antonio Spurs to five NBA titles, as President and as Head Coach. If there are any valuable insights to be had on dominating every facet of basketball, this book is where you are likely to find them.
Recommended For: Players
Author: Clayton Geoffreys
Genre: Biography
Contrary to popular belief, there is actually more to life than just professional sport...or any other profession for that matter. Outside of putting food on the table and clothes on your back, there are other elements of your life that ought to come together. This book has been drafted to help equip you with the skills that you need to achieve as much of that as possible.
You can either access the book online at Kindle Unlimited or you can purchase the paperback version for a little more. This book is useful for competitive and casual basketball players in equal measure.
It will also be of considerable value to people who actually have no ambitions of excelling on the basketball court, as it interrogates a series of core principles that can be applied in your life, to help further some of your personal ambitions. The author does extract from some of the core principles that have helped prominent basketball players like Lebron James and Michael Jordan succeed.
This ranks among the top basketball books for kids.Recommended For: Players
Author: Vernon Brundage Jr.
Genre: Inspirational Non-Fiction
If you do not have access to Kindle Unlimited, you could purchase the paperback version at a minimal cost. Alternatively, you could also purchase the audio-book for next to nothing too. This 356-page epic will give you all the insights you could possibly need on how to become a successful basketball coach at all levels.
This is also one of the most compelling Basketball Player books because it feeds off interviews with the best coaches, sports scientists, psychologists, and professional athletes. In many ways, this book can be viewed as the blueprint that you need to thrive at the highest levels.
Recommended For: Players
Author: John O'Sullivan
Genre: Coaching Resourceconclusion
Reading is something that should never be frowned upon, regardless of the source material at your disposal. However, reading about something you love will almost ensure that you extract maximum value from the material that you are consuming.
If you are a basketball player who is a little hesitant about literature, searching for the top basketball books at online vendors like Amazon will be an outstanding place to start a new adventure.
Hey, I’m Aleksandar and I am a Basketball freak! That is why I decided to create this blog. Teaching people How to dunk a basketball and How to Jump Higher in this sport or other related sports that require vertical jumping, is my specialty. If that’s your aim, then you have come to the right place.