In Reply to: Re: Been reading a lot of basketball books lately. I want to read a posted by NORML on September 16, 2025 at 17:13:45
… read all of his books. I started reading “A season on the reservation,” which was his time as an assistant coach for Coach Raul Mendoza in a White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona back in 1998-99. Coach Mendoza was on the Netflix doc series “Nothing but Basketball,” when he was coaching a Navajo HS basketball team in Chinle, AZ. Great doc by the way.
Anyway, I started reading KAJ’s book, but then picked up “Canyon Dreams,” by Michael Powell, which was the basis for the Netflix doc. So i ended up starting to read that because i wanted to learn more about the players, especially Cooper Burbank, their smooth gunner, reminded me of Johnny Juzang.
I also liked KAJ’s unique life story, and he does a great job describing it. His father was a Julliard-trained musician, meeting Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, etc. He was so outerworldly that he became a spokesperson for the American black movement at such a young age, his move to UCLA, his lovely relationship with Coach John R Wooden, until the very end of Coach’s blessed life, etc, etc.
Some of his books, I borrowed from the public library. So my reading starts and stops. Wish i can buy them all!
I’ve also subscribed to his Substack to read more of his writings.
Completely agree that KAJ’s books are great reading! Thanks!