Total Basketball is the fifth book in the series of Total encyclopedias, following Total Baseball, Total Football, Total Hockey and Total Tennis. Combining original essays from award-winning authors, the most comprehensive statistical register available covering every player in NBA history, biographies of the top players in the game, plus complete results, award winners and records, Total Basketball sets the standard in the field of basketball reference books.

Total Basketball traces the evolution of the sport from its invention by James Naismith, through the first professional league in the 1890s, the formation of the NBA in 1946 and to its emergence as a multi-billion dollar business today. In addition to league histories, the book features team-by-team histories for every franchise to ever compete in the NBA. It also explores the history of several other professional leagues, including the American Basketball Association, as well as the NCAA, plus women's and Olympic basketball.

The book unites some of the finest sports writers in America, including: Leonard Koppett, exploring the birth of the professional game; Sam Smith, profiling the stars of the 1950s and '60s; and Bob Ryan, remembering Wilt Chamberlain.

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Ken Shouler is editor as well as a contributor to Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia. He has written Basketball's Best 50 Players in the Last 50 Years and has been a regular contributor to Cigar Aficionado magazine since 1993. He teaches philosophy at Westchester Community College and lives in Harrison, New York.

Leonard Koppett, one of the most respected sports writers of the 20th Century, is a member of the writers' wing in the Halls of Fame of baseball and basketball. He is the author of 17 books, including 24 Seconds to Shoot: The Birth and Improbable Rise of the NBA and The Rise and Fall of the Press Box. After a career spanning six decades, Leonard passed away in June 2003 at the age of 79.

Bob Ryan, a 35-year veteran of the Boston Globe, covered the Celtics for many years before winning acclaim as a general sports columnist. His 11 books include a bestseller with Larry Bird, Drive: The Story of My Life. In 1997 he was awarded the Curt Gowdy Media Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He is a regular on ESPN's The Sports Reporters, an occasional host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption and resides in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Sam Smith has been with the Chicago Tribune since 1979 as a political, business and sportswriter. He has been a basketball writer since 1984 and is now the pro basketball columnist. He is the author of two books on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the best selling The Jordan Rules and The Second Coming. He is a regular contributor to ESPN radio, ESPN Magazine and ESPN.com and lives in Geneva, Illinois.

Bob Bellotti, who developed the Points Created™ rating system in 1987, has been a statistical analyst for NBA teams since 1988. He manages Bellotti Basketball, which publishes custom statistical player reports and written analyses, including video breakdown, for professional and college teams, has written six books about basketball statistics and resides in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.

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PLEASE NOTE: Inventory is limited, and books DO NOT INCLUDE a dust jacket.

Also by Leonard Koppett:

• The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball: Revised Edition
  
• The Rise and Fall of the Press Box
  
• 24 Seconds to Shoot: The Birth and Improbable Rise of the NBA
  

Also by Bob Ryan:

• The Best of SPORT: Classic Writing From the Golden Era of Sports