Thinking Basketball

Download Thinking Basketball PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781532968174
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (681 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Thinking Basketball by : Ben Taylor

Download or read book Thinking Basketball written by Ben Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-29 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are top scorers really the most valuable players? Are games decided in the final few minutes? Does the team with the best player usually win?Thinking Basketball challenges a number of common beliefs about the game by taking a deep dive into the patterns and history of the NBA. Explore how certain myths arose while using our own cognition as a window into the game's popular narratives. New basketball concepts are introduced, such as power plays, portability and why the best player shouldn't always shoot. Discover how the box score can be misleading, why "closers" are overrated and how the outcome of a game fundamentally alters our memory. Behavioral economics, traffic paradoxes and other metaphors highlight this thought-provoking insight into the NBA and our own thinking. A must-read for any basketball fan -- you'll never view the sport, and maybe the world, the same again.

When The Game Was Ours

Download When The Game Was Ours PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0547416814
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (474 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis When The Game Was Ours by : Larry Bird

Download or read book When The Game Was Ours written by Larry Bird and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2009-11-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestseller from the Hall of Fame basketball legends. “Finally a book that tells the story of Magic and Larry from their vantage point.” —Denzel Washington In Celtic green was Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick, with laser-beam focus, relentless determination, and a deadly jump shot, a player who demanded excellence from everyone and whose caustic wit left opponents quaking in their high-tops. Magic Johnson was Mr. Showtime, a magnetic personality with all the right moves. Young, indomitable, he was a pied piper in purple and gold. And he burned with an inextinguishable desire to win. When their matchup started they were bitter rivals, but along the way they became lifelong friends. With intimate, fly-on-the-wall detail, When the Game Was Ours transports readers to this electric era of 1980s basketball and reveals for the first time the inner workings of two players dead set on besting one another. From the heady days of trading championships to the darker days of injury and illness, we come to understand Larry’s obsessive devotion to winning and how his demons drove him on the court. We hear him talk with candor about playing through chronic pain and its truly exacting toll. In Magic we see a young, invincible star struggle with the sting of defeat, not just as a player but as a team leader. We are there the moment he learns he’s contracted HIV and hear in his own words how that devastating news impacted his relationships in basketball and beyond. But always, in both cases, we see them prevail. “An exhilarating ride down one of the most competitive rivalries ever.” —Pat Riley

LeBron James

Download LeBron James PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN 13 : 1467701548
Total Pages : 116 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (677 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis LeBron James by : Anne E. Hill

Download or read book LeBron James written by Anne E. Hill and published by Twenty-First Century Books. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether he's soaring through the air for a powerful slam dunk, threading the ball to a teammate for a key shot, or launching a new pair of Nikes, the Miami Heat's LeBron James is one of the most exciting athletes in the world. As USA TODAY, the Nation's No. 1 Newspaper, puts it, "He is hailed as the successor to Michael Jordan's marketing throne off the court. On the court, he is frequently compared to Magic Johnson because of his size, floor vision and passing ability." LeBron was a famous basketball player before he ever set foot on an NBA court. Predicted to be one of the game's best players since childhood, LeBron appeared on magazine covers as a teenager, and his high school games aired on national television. The hype rose to a new level when his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers chose LeBron with the first pick in the 2003 NBA draft. The high-flying forward played seven seasons in Cleveland before joining the Miami Heat in 2010, and LeBron immediately helped his new team reach the NBA Finals. Find out how a skinny kid from Akron, Ohio, became one of the NBA's biggest stars.

Who Shot Sports

Download Who Shot Sports PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0385352239
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (853 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Who Shot Sports by : Gail Buckland

Download or read book Who Shot Sports written by Gail Buckland and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator/editor of Who Shot Rock & Roll (“I loved this book” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times. “Whatever Gail Buckland writes, I want to read”), a book that brings together the work of 165 extraordinary photographers, most of their images heralded, most of their names unknown; photographs that capture the essence of athletes’ mastery of mind/body/soul against the odds, doing the impossible, seeming to defy the laws of gravity, the laws of physics, and showing what human will, discipline, drive, and desire look like when suspended in time. The first book to show the range, cultural importance, and aesthetics of sports photography, much of it legendary, all of it powerful. Here, in more than 280 spectacular images—more than 130 in full color—are great action photographs; portraits of athletes, famous and unknown; athletes off the field and behind the scenes; athletes practicing, working out, the daily relentless effort of training and achieving physical perfection. Buckland writes that sports photographers have always been central to the technical advancement of photography, that they have designed longer lenses, faster shutters, motor drives, underwater casings, and remote controls, allowing us to see what we could never see—and hold on to—with the naked eye. Here are photographs by such masters as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Danny Lyon, Walker Evans, Annie Leibovitz, and 160 more, names not necessarily known to the public but whose photographic work is considered iconic . . . Here are photographs of Willie Mays . . . Carl Lewis . . . Ian Botham . . . Kobe Bryant . . . Magic Johnson . . . Muhammad Ali . . . Serena Williams . . . Bobby Orr . . . Stirling Moss . . . Jesse Owens . . . Mark Spitz . . . Roger Federer . . . Jackie Robinson. Here is the work of the great sports photographers Neil Leifer, Walter Iooss Jr., Bob Martin, Al Bello, Robert Riger, and Heinz Kleutmeier of Sports Illustrated, who was the first to put a camera at the bottom of an Olympic swimming pool and photograph swimmers from below . . . Here are pictures by Charles Hoff, the New York Daily News photographer of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, whose images of the 1936 Berlin Olympics still inspire shock and awe . . . and those of Ernst Haas, whose innovative color pictures of bullfighting of the 1950s remain poetic evocations of a bloody sport . . . To make the selections for Who Shot Sports, Buckland, a former curator of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and Benjamin Menschel Distinguished Visiting Professor at Cooper Union, has drawn upon the work of more than fifty archives, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to Sports Illustrated, Condé Nast, Getty Images, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, L’Équipe, The New York Times, and the archives of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne. Here are classic and unknown sports images that capture the uncapturable, that allow us to experience “kinetic beauty,” and that give us the essence and meaning—the transcendent power—of sports.

Peter Read Miller on Sports Photography

Download Peter Read Miller on Sports Photography PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : New Riders
ISBN 13 : 0133087077
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (33 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Peter Read Miller on Sports Photography by : Peter Read Miller

Download or read book Peter Read Miller on Sports Photography written by Peter Read Miller and published by New Riders. This book was released on 2013-08-31 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Peter Read Miller on Sports Photography, the 30-year Sports Illustrated veteran photographer takes you into the action of many of his most iconic shots, relating the stories behind the photos of some of the world’s greatest athletic events, including the Olympics and the Super Bowl. Discussing the circumstances surrounding particular shots, Peter shares observations of the athletes themselves, and provides tips and techniques for sports photographers of all levels looking to capture great photos of football, track and field, gymnastics, and swimming, as well as dynamic portraits of athletes. Unlike photo collections by other greats of sports photography, this book seamlessly interweaves the images and the fascinating stories behind them with photographic instruction, while giving you an inside look at what it’s like to work at the nation’s leading sports publication. Beautifully illustrated with images from the Olympics, football, and portrait sessions with professional athletes, this book offers a rich and inspiring experience for sports photographers, sports fans, and Sports Illustrated readers.

Hoops

Download Hoops PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harry N. Abrams
ISBN 13 : 9780810959217
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (592 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hoops by : Walter Iooss Jr.

Download or read book Hoops written by Walter Iooss Jr. and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2005-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of photographs and essays that highlight the players, coaches, fans, and momements that have shaped professional basketball in the last four decades.

Long Shot

Download Long Shot PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Haymarket Books
ISBN 13 : 1608467465
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (84 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Long Shot by : Craig Hodges

Download or read book Long Shot written by Craig Hodges and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2017-01-09 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this memoir, the Chicago Bulls basketball star details his life on the court as an athlete and off the court as an activist. As a member of the 1992 world-champion Chicago Bulls, a dashiki-clad Hodges delivered a handwritten letter to President George H. W. Bush demanding that he do more to address racism and economic inequality. Hodges was also a vocal union activist, initiated a boycott against Nike, and spoke out forcefully against police brutality in the wake of the Rodney King beating. But his outspokenness cost him dearly. In the prime of his career, after ten NBA seasons, Hodges was blackballed from the NBA for using his platform as a professional athlete to stand up for justice. In this powerful, passionate, and captivating memoir, Hodges shares the stories—including encounters with Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, Jim Brown, R. Kelly, Michael Jordan, and others—from his lifelong fight for equality for Black Americans. Praise for Long Shot “A skillfully told, affecting memoir of sports and social activism.” —Kirkus Reviews “Hodges has told his compelling life story with fiery passion, looping around a cast of characters stretching from Jordan, Magic Johnson and Phil Jackson back to Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, before returning to the present.” —Guardian “Craig Hodges is someone I looked up to as a child & now as an adult . . . I read Long Shot in like two hours, I couldn’t stop turning pages. There are so many hooks in it.” —Jesse Williams, actor, producer, director, activist “A beautifully written, brutally honest book. If you loved the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, if you love black history, or if you are fascinated by the politics of sports, I highly recommend this book. Simply put: Craig Hodges’ life is incredible and Long Shot is invaluable.” —AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature

Basketball's Best Shots

Download Basketball's Best Shots PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Dk Pub
ISBN 13 : 0789489147
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (894 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Basketball's Best Shots by :

Download or read book Basketball's Best Shots written by and published by Dk Pub. This book was released on 2002 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than three hundred photographs capture the achievements of some of the National Basketball Association's greatest players, including Michael Jordan, Dr. J., Kobe Bryant, Walt Frazier, and Larry Bird.

My Life

Download My Life PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Fawcett
ISBN 13 : 0449222543
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (492 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis My Life by : Earvin "Magic" Johnson

Download or read book My Life written by Earvin "Magic" Johnson and published by Fawcett. This book was released on 1993-09-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A true emotional phenomenon . . . Entertaining . . . Of particular interest to fans will be the evolution of Johnson’s relationship with Bird, his great karmic partner in the game.”—Newsday (New York) He's faced challenges all of his life, but now Magic Johnson faces the biggest challenge of all, his own brave battle with HIV. In this dramatic, exciting, and inspirational autobiography, Magic Johnson allows readers into his life, into his tirumphs and tragedies on and off the court. In his own exuberant style, he tells readers of the friends and family who've been constant supporters and the basketball greats he’s worked with. It’s all here, the glory and the pain the character, charisma, and courage of the hero called Magic. AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB

Dream Team

Download Dream Team PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ballantine Books
ISBN 13 : 0345520505
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (455 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Dream Team by : Jack McCallum

Download or read book Dream Team written by Jack McCallum and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team. As a writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona. Drawing on fresh interviews with the players, McCallum provides the definitive account of the Dream Team phenomenon. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial selection process. He takes us inside the team’s Olympic suites for late-night card games and bull sessions where superstars like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird debated the finer points of basketball. And he narrates a riveting account of the legendary intrasquad scrimmage that pitted the Dream Teamers against one another in what may have been the greatest pickup game in history. In the twenty years since the Dream Team first captivated the world, its mystique has only grown. Dream Team vividly re-creates the moment when a once-in-a-millennium group of athletes came together and changed the future of sports—one perfectly executed fast break at a time. With a new Afterword by the author. “The absolute definitive work on the subject, a perfectly wonderful once-you-pick-it-up-you-won’t-be-able-to-put-it-down book.”—The Boston Globe “An Olympic hoops dream.”—Newsday “What makes this volume a must-read for nostalgic hoopsters are the robust portraits of the outsize personalities of the participants, all of whom were remarkably open with McCallum, both then and now.”—Booklist (starred review)

Showtime

Download Showtime PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698148614
Total Pages : 563 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (981 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Showtime by : Jeff Pearlman

Download or read book Showtime written by Jeff Pearlman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestselling author of Sweetness delivers the first all-encompassing account of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of professional sports’ most-revered—and dominant—dynasties. The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s personified the flamboyance and excess of the decade over which they reigned. Beginning with the arrival of Earvin “Magic” Johnson as the number-one overall pick of the 1979 draft, the Lakers played basketball with gusto and pizzazz, unleashing their famed “Showtime” run-and-gun style on a league unprepared for their speed and ferocity—and became the most captivating show in sports and, arguably, in all-around American entertainment. The Lakers’ roster overflowed with exciting all-star-caliber players, including center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they were led by the incomparable Pat Riley, known for his slicked-back hair, his Armani suits, and his arrogant strut. Hollywood’s biggest celebrities lined the court and gorgeous women flocked to the arena. Best of all, the team was a winner. Between 1980 and 1991, the Lakers played in an unmatched nine NBA championship series, capturing five of them. Bestselling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost three hundred interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end—marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV—Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.

Magic/Bird

Download Magic/Bird PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Dramatists Play Service Inc
ISBN 13 : 0822228017
Total Pages : 61 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (222 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Magic/Bird by : Eric Simonson

Download or read book Magic/Bird written by Eric Simonson and published by Dramatists Play Service Inc. This book was released on 2013-12-02 with total page 61 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MAGIC/BIRD is the inspiring true story of basketball legends Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird, their rivalry and touching friendship.

The Comic Book Story of Basketball

Download The Comic Book Story of Basketball PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Ten Speed Graphic
ISBN 13 : 1984856189
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (848 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Comic Book Story of Basketball by : Fred Van Lente

Download or read book The Comic Book Story of Basketball written by Fred Van Lente and published by Ten Speed Graphic. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fast-break history of basketball--from its humble beginnings to its all-time great players--featuring engaging true tales from the court and vivid, dynamic illustrations. Whether it's millionaire pros facing off in an indoor arena full of screaming fans or a lone kid shooting hoops on an outdoor court, basketball is one of the most popular and widely played sports in the world. The Comic Book Story of Basketball gives you courtside seats to the history of hoops. It chronicles the sport from its beginnings in a YMCA in Massachusetts to its current status as a beloved international game for men and women of all ages. Learn the true stories behind the college game, the street game, the women's game, and the international game, with legendary players and coaches like Dr. J, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Steph Curry profiled throughout.

Basketball

Download Basketball PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 1524761796
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (247 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Basketball by : Jackie MacMullan

Download or read book Basketball written by Jackie MacMullan and published by Crown. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Inspired by a major ESPN film series, this is an extraordinary oral history of basketball—its eye-opening untold history, its profound deeper meaning, its transformative influence on the world—as told through an unprecedented series of candid conversations with the game’s ultimate icons. This is the greatest love story never told. It has passion and heartbreak, triumph and betrayal. It is deeply intimate yet crosses oceans, upends lives and changes nations. This is the true story of basketball. It is the story of a Canadian invention that took over America, and the world. Of a supposed “white man’s sport” that became a way for people of color, women, and immigrants to claim a new place in society. Of a game that demands everything of those who love it, yet gives so much back in return. To tell this story, acclaimed journalists Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew and Dan Klores embarked on a groundbreaking mission to interview a staggering lineup of basketball trailblazers. For the first time hundreds of legends, from Kobe, Lebron and Steph Curry to Magic Johnson, Dr. J and Jerry West, spoke movingly about their greatest passion. Former NBA commissioner David Stern and iconic coaches like Phil Jackson and Coach K opened up like never before. Those who shattered glass ceilings, from Bill Russell and Yao Ming to Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie, explained what it really took to lay claim to their place in the game. At once a definitive oral history and something far more revelatory and life affirming, Basketball: A Love Story is the defining untold oral history of how basketball came to be, and what it means to those who love it.

Magic: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson

Download Magic: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Celadon Books
ISBN 13 : 1250248019
Total Pages : 498 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Magic: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson by : Roland Lazenby

Download or read book Magic: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson written by Roland Lazenby and published by Celadon Books. This book was released on 2023-10-24 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive biography of the basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, from the highly respected, career sportswriter and author of Michael Jordan: The Life. Magic Johnson is one of the most beloved, and at times controversial, athletes in history. His iconic smile lifted the dowdy sport of American professional basketball from a second-tier sport with low ratings into the global spotlight—a transformation driven by Magic’s ability to eviscerate opponents with a playing style that featured his grand sense of fun. He was a master entertainer who directed the Los Angeles “Showtime” Lakers to the heights of both glory and epic excess, all of it driven by his mind-blowing no-look passes and personal charm. Then, in 1991, at the height of his charismatic power, Johnson shocked the world with a startling cautionary tale about sexually transmitted disease that pushed public awareness of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Then out came his confession of unprotected sex with hundreds of women each year, followed by his retirement, an attempted return, and a proper farewell on the iconic 1992 Olympic Dream Team. Longtime biographer Roland Lazenby spent years tracking the unlikely ascension of Johnson—an immensely popular public figure who was instantly scandalized but who then turned to his legendary will to rise again as a successful entrepreneur with another level of hard-won success. In Lazenby’s portrayal, Johnson’s tale becomes bigger than that of one man. It is a generational saga spanning parts of three centuries that reveals a great deal, not just about his unique basketball journey but about America itself. Through hundreds of interviews with Johnson’s coaches, representatives past and present, teammates, opponents, friends, and loved ones, as well as key conversations with Johnson himself over the years, Lazenby has produced the first truly definitive study, both dark and light, of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jr.—the revolutionary player, the icon, the man.

The Science of Basketball

Download The Science of Basketball PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351789716
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (517 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Science of Basketball by : Alexandru Radu

Download or read book The Science of Basketball written by Alexandru Radu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Science of Basketball is the only book to examine the scientific principles underpinning preparation and performance in basketball, applied to both individual and team contexts. Drawing on the very latest scientific evidence, and including contributions from leading international coaches and scientists involved in the sport, the book explores every aspect of physical and mental preparation and performance, including: strength and conditioning, and training strategies physiological aspects of performance nutrition and supplementation psychological preparation skill acquisition biomechanical aspects of performance performance analysis injury epidemiology, prevention and rehabilitation coach education Incorporating case studies at the end of each chapter to demonstrate how scientific principles can be applied to practice, the book bridges the gap between theory and applied practice in basketball better than any other. It is essential reading for any student, researcher, sport scientist, coach, physiotherapist or clinician with an interest in the game, and illuminative supplementary reading for students of sport science and sports coaching.

Long Shot

Download Long Shot PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Orca Book Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1554696631
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (546 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Long Shot by : Eric Walters

Download or read book Long Shot written by Eric Walters and published by Orca Book Publishers. This book was released on 2002-02-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Nick and Kia arrive for try-outs for the basketball team they played on the previous year, they are surprised to meet their new coach. Coach Barkley is a former college star known for his fierce desire to win. Though the coach has been away from the game for many years, his competitive instincts are as strong as ever and his aggressive coaching techniques are a new experience for these kids. Suddenly making the rep team no longer seems the sure thing that Nick and Kia expected when they came to try-outs. This is hard on Nick and Kia, but especially difficult for the coach's son, L.B., who is also trying out for the team. When the coach matches them up against a team of older players and then refuses to accept their loss, the kids begin to wonder if they even want to make this team. Nick, Kia and L.B. finally have to decide whether to play for a tyrant or to take a stand on principle and face the consequences.