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Sportswriter Mike Jensen would argue that Philadelphia has earned a unique place in basketball history. In Philly Hoops, he makes an incontrovertible case that the city contributed to the sport on and off the court. Jensen, who spent decades covering the game for The Philadelphia Inquirer, charts the strategies, players, coaches, and even some referees from the pre-Wilt Chamberlain days to the post-Kobe Bryant era to show the region’s impact and influence on the sport worldwide.

Philadelphia didn’t merely play the game. It shaped it through ahead-of-their-time approaches, such as the value of pushing the pace. Jensen chronicles Hall-of-Fame game changers, including Earl Monroe and Paul Arizin, and coaches John Chaney, Jack Ramsay, Jay Wright, and Geno Auriemma. He recounts how the powerhouse teams at Immaculata and Cheyney University, along with Dawn Staley’s landmark playing and coaching achievements, helped make Philadelphia ground zero for women’s basketball. Philly Hoops also celebrates the influence of the Big 5 glory days, Jewish teams like The SPHAS, and icons Kyle Lowry, Tom Gola, and Rasheed Wallace.

Jensen knows how and why Philly loves basketball. His Philly Hoops is all about that love of and for the game.  

Howard Nathan. A. J. Guyton. Sergio McClain. Marcus Griffin. Frank Williams. Shaun Livingston. This dazzling constellation of talent helped make Peoria a prep basketball hotbed from the 1980s to the 2000s. Jeff Karzen takes readers inside the lives of the players, coaches, and others who defined an era that produced six state titles and four Illinois Mr. Basketball winners.

Drawing on dozens of in-depth interviews, Karzen tells the stories behind the on-court triumphs while providing a panorama of the entire Peoria scene--the rivalries and relationships, the families and friendships, the hopes and hard work. Karzen also follows the players into their Division 1 and NBA careers and pays special attention to the pipeline that, by connecting Peoria to Champaign-Urbana, powered one of the most successful periods in Fighting Illini basketball history.

Intense and intimate, Playgrounds to the Pros chronicles a basketball golden age in America’s quintessential blue collar town.

An in-depth look at the timeless quandary of how average high school basketball players navigate their dreams of greatness with the adults who coach and support them.

We all admire the stories of famous athletes with humble origins who rose to the top through hard work and dedication. Michael Jordan and Steph Curry, after all, both started as second-string players. But their climbs to athletic dominance call to us because they seem to prove a message we all want to believe: Anything is possible with hard work and determination. But for most people, it simply isn’t. Most of us will end up being more or less average rather than extraordinary. 

In Playing Time, sociologist and sports scholar Scott N. Brooks introduces readers to young athletes who are middle-status players on their basketball teams—not the best, but not the worst—who often find themselves at odds with their coaches and teammates as they compete for playing time to show off their skills. Drawing on his extensive experience as a coach of middle and high school-age boys, Brooks invites us into the inner lives and daily experiences of kids, parents, and coaches, as players try to make sense of who they are and differentiate themselves on the court. These boys have been told by coaches, their parents, and society that hard work, effort, and attitude determine effectiveness, and Brooks reveals how that message affects them when it’s clear that their best efforts are not always enough. Middle-status boys often feel alone, alienated, socially stigmatized, and powerless to improve their fate. 

By focusing on the boys stuck in the middle, Brooks uncovers essential aspects of the formative years of adolescence when kids dream of and plan for a future. As many of us will recognize our own dreams of greatness in these kids, we can all learn to support them as they build their sense of self, both on and off the court.

Reveals the role of amateur Black football and basketball in Virginia before integration as a form of resistance to white supremacy

In Playing for Power, Marvin T. Chiles offers a fascinating account of amateur sports in Jim Crow Virginia, revealing how, in addition to churches, workspaces, and civil rights organizations, sports were also a key arena for Black resistance to white supremacy. Drawing from a rich trove of primary sources, Chiles recounts the development of Black football and basketball culture at the high school and college levels in Virginia from the 1890s to the early 1970s. Looking beyond their role as leisure pastimes, Chiles demonstrates how amateur sports strengthened education, neutralized class divisions, shaped Black masculinity, mentored Black male leadership, cultivated race pride, and reflected Black desires for urban modernity.

Illuminating the ways Black athletes created a world that pushed for racial progress through objective, meritocratic achievement anchored by masculine leadership and institutional success, Playing for Power traces how amateur sports coalesced into a key cultural institution that fostered Black Virginians’ collective sense of community, achievement, and purpose during segregation, cornerstones of later advances in the Civil Rights Movement. Playing for Power also contributes to a larger understanding of sports history and how amateur sports became favorite American spectacles and markers of Southern identity. Chiles’s groundbreaking work will interest historians, scholars, and individuals interested in the intersection of sports and civil rights and the history of Black sports during the Jim Crow era.