In the wake of his retirement from professional basketball, Kobe "The Black Mamba" Bryant shares his vast knowledge and understanding of the game. Citing an obligation to teach young players, hardcore fans, and devoted students of the game how to play it "the right way," The Mamba Mentality takes us inside the mind of one of the most analytical and creative basketball players ever. Bryant reveals his famously detailed approach and the steps he took to prepare mentally and physically to not just succeed at the game, but to excel. Readers learn how Bryant studied an opponent, how he channeled his passion for the game, how he played through injuries. They also get granular detail as he breaks down specific plays and match-ups from throughout his career.

An account of the 1954 Illinois High School State Championship basketball game between the DuSable Panthers, the first all-black team to make the finals, and a team from Mount Vernon High School.

Gaining access to personal letters, albums and scrapbooks, plus spending hours with family members among some 300 interviews, has allowed the authors to craft the definitive biography of one of the most remarkable basketball stories in history. They reveal new facts and provide startling insight into Pistol Pete Maravich, who lived a life of triumph and tragedy before finding happiness in religion in the years before his death at age 40.

Scott Raab is a last vestige of gonzo journalism in an era when sanitary decorum reigns. Crude but warmhearted, poetic but raving, Raab has chronicled many stories at GQ and Esquire, but the book you hold in your hands is neither a story nor a job: The Whore of Akron is the product of lifelong suffering. Raab sat in Cleveland Stadium on December 27, 1964, when the Browns won the NFL World Championship--the last sports title the declining city has held. Each generation born in Cleveland is another generation removed from that victory. LeBron James was supposed to change that. A native of Akron, he seemed like a miracle sent to transform Cleveland's losing ways. But after seven years--and still no parade--he left. And in a way that seemed designed to twist the knife. Now Raab bears witness to LeBron's every move, and in doing so acts as the eyes and ears of Cleveland itself.--From publisher description.

"Scott Raab's big-hearted companion to his darkly comic "sports-jeremiad-slash-memoir" The Whore of Akron follows the first two years of LeBron James's return to Cleveland, where everybody just loves a good story of forgiveness--especially when you fulfill your promise and bring home an NBA Championship, the first major title for a Cleveland team since 1964. "If I had a chance to return to Cleveland, and those fans welcomed me back, that'd be a great story." --LeBron James in 2010, days after "The Decision" In 2010, when LeBron James announced to the world that he was leaving for Miami, he broke the collective heart of his native city and destroyed the hopes of an entire tortured generation. As LeBron headed south, unofficial spokesman Scott Raab sent him off with a middle-finger salute of his own--a deliciously obscene aria of sports fandom, Jewishness, and weight gain that became infamous as The Whore of Akron. Four years--and two NBA championships later--LeBron came home to the Rust Belt faithful who had vilified him mercilessly, none more so than Raab. You're Welcome, Cleveland is the story of both LeBron's and Scott's redemption as they pursue the one thing they crave more than anything in life--an NBA title for the city that made them men. LeBron is back. So is Scott Raab. It's a great story. You're Welcome, Cleveland"--