Former Clemson coach Charley Pell once said that the outcome of the Carolina-Clemson rivalry "decides who walks down the street as state champion and who hides in a closet for a year." That's the way it goes in the Palmetto State when these two football teams get together. Playing for the first time in 1896 on a soggy day at the state fair in Columbia, the Gamecocks and the Tigers began a tradition that has lasted over a century. Join award-winning sportswriters Travis Haney and Larry Will...

The Gamecocks baseball team's surprising, heart-pounding run to the 2010 College World Series title seemed to many as if it could not be paralleled, in its excitement or its overall meaning to the school and the state of South Carolina. In 2011, though, they topped what they had already done, returning home champions and parading in style to the State House steps. In 2010, they honored the life of 7-year-old Bayler Teal, a cancer victim who died during the College World Series. In 2011, th...

After more than one hundred years of craving a champion, the University of South Carolina finally has one. The 2010 Gamecock baseball team won six consecutive games over eight summer nights to take the College World Series and lay claim to the school's first major national championship. From dancing around in a dark locker room to singing "Silent Night"? on the team bus after every victory in Omaha, these Gamecocks were as fun-loving as they were talented. And they did it all in the name o...

The #1 sports series for kids takes readers on the court and behind the scenes with beloved NBA icon Kobe Bryant in this inspiring biography.The son of Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, a former NBA player and star of various European teams, Kobe spent his childhood watching professional basketball. From the moment he could pick up a ball, he was learning to dribble and shoot. His basketball education was unique--a combination of lessons on basic fundamentals, one-on-one game...

The definitive, never-before-told story of the prep-to-pro generation, those basketball prodigies who from 1995 to 2005 made the jump directly from high school to the NBA.When Kevin Garnett shocked the world by announcing that he would not be attending college—as young basketball prodigies were expected to do—but instead enter the 1995 NBA draft directly from high school, he blazed a trail for a generation of teenage basketball players to head straight for the pros...

Get on the court with basketball superstar LeBron James in this in-depth, updated biography!LeBron James was a sensation in his early days playing ball in Akron, Ohio, and he continued to amaze as a high school phenomenon. Now an international icon and the heart of his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, he is widely known as one of the greatest basketball players ever to step onto the court.Discover LeBron James's incredible story in this in-depth biography of o...

After 20 unforgettable years in the NBA, Kobe Bryant is calling it a career. All he's done in those two decades is establish himself as one of the best to ever play the game, arguably the greatest Laker ever and the most popular athlete in the history of Los Angeles sports. The Black Mamba's path to iconic status started quietly as the 13th pick of the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets but with a draft day trade to the legendary Lakers, the rest is resounding history. Kobe's credenti...

A New York Times Notable Book; Spitball Award for Best Baseball Book of 1994; Basis for a major Hollywood motion picture. Now in paperback, the biography that baseball fans all across the country have been talking about. Al Stump redefined America's perception of one of its most famous sports heroes with this gripping look at a man who walked the line between greatness and psychosis. Based on Stump's interviews with Ty Cobb while ghostwriting the Hall-of-Famer's 1961 autobiography, this aw...

Exploring what it means to be a school, a coach, and a player in college basketball's Final Four, Feinstein exposes the driving forces behind one of the most revered events in American sports. Readers will also find dramatic stories from the officials and referees to the scouts and ticket-scalpers.

Legendary University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith tells the full story of his fabled career, and shares the life lessons taught and learned over forty years of unparalleled success as a coach and mentor.For almost forty years, Dean Smith coached the University of North Carolina men's basketball program with unsurpassed success- on the court and in shaping young men's lives. In his long-awaited memoir, he reflects on the great games, teams, players, strategies, and ...

The New York Times–bestselling account of how Magic Johnson and Larry Bird burst on the scene in an NCAA championship that gave birth to modern basketball.Thirty years ago, college basketball was not the sport we know today. Few games were televised nationally and the NCAA tournament had just expanded from thirty-two to forty teams. Into this world came two exceptional players: Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird. Though they played each other only once, ...

Describes the life and career of the basketball superstar and center for the Los Angeles Lakers.