Betaball: How Silicon Valley and Science Built One of the Greatest Basketball Teams in History

(Paperback)

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As lively, thorough, and engaging as the team it chronicles (Nathaniel Friedman), Betaball is a compelling look at how the Golden State Warriors embraced savvy business practices, next generation science, and Silicon Valleys technocentric culture not only to produce one of the greatest basketball teams in history but also to revolutionize the NBAperfect for fans of Moneyball and The Book of Basketball.

Betaball is the definitive, inside account of how the Golden State Warriors, under the ownership of venture capitalist Joe Lacob and Hollywood producer Peter Guber, quickly became one of the greatest success stories in both sports and business.

In just five years, they turned a declining franchise with no immediate hope into the NBAs dominant forceand facilitated the rise of All-Star point guard Stephen Curry. By operating in beta, the Warriors morphed into a model organization for American professional sports, instituting the best workplace principles found inside the worlds most successful corporations, and instilling a top-down organizational ethos that allows employeesfrom the front office to the free-throw lineto thrive.

With in-depth access and meticulous reporting on and off the court, acclaimed journalist Eric Malinowski recounts a gripping tale of a teams reinvention, of worlds colliding, of ordinary people being pushed to extraordinary heights, and the Golden State Warriors chase for a second straight NBA championship during the 2015-16 season. Betaball is a book for fans of all sports and science, business and analytics, Silicon Valley and Wall Street, front offices and locker rooms, money and winning (Don Van Natta Jr., ESPN reporter and New York Times bestselling author).

Reviews

A book for fans of all sports and science, business and analytics, Silicon Valley and Wall Street, front offices and locker rooms, money and winning. And its a helluva lot of fun. Buckle up for the sports book of the year.
-- Don Van Natta Jr., ESPN investigative reporter, New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner
Betaball chronicles the best NBA story of the last 20 years thoroughly, but with humor, grace and detail. The Warriors deserved a great book written about them. Now they have one." -- Will Leitch, author of Are We Winning and God Save The Fan, senior writer Sports On Earth and founder of Deadspin
Betaball delivers rich detail on every transaction, every jumper, every seminal moment that made the Warriors into champions. -- Jonah Keri, New York Times bestselling author of The Extra 2%
InBetaball, Erik Malinowski displays a keen eye for the important moments where sport and technology have merged in Silicon Valley to create basketball nirvana. . . . A must-read narrative for any serious basketball fan.

-- Jonathan Abrams, columnist at Bleacher Report and New York Times bestselling author of Boys Among Men
"Impressively researched and skillfully crafted,Betaballwill open your eyes to all that it takes to build a winning culture." -- George Dohrmann, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Play Their Hearts Out
"As lively, thorough, and engaging as the team it chronicles." -- Nathaniel Friedman, co-author of the The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History and The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac
"Malinowski has laid out the construction, piece by piece, of the powerhouse Golden State Warriors...An insightful portrait of one of the all-time great NBA teams." * Booklist *
Brilliant * YAHOO Sports *
Insightful * Booklist *
Instructiveand fun, too." * Kirkus *
"A smart, breezy read." * Wall Street Journal *

Author Bio

Erik Malinowski is a nationally recognized freelance journalist based in the Bay Area who has been published in Wired, Rolling Stone, Slate, Atlas Obscura, Sports on Earth, Uproxx, Esquire, Vocativ, Sporting News, The New Republic, and Baseball Prospectus. He is a frequent guest on NPRs Only a Game and his work has appeared in Best American Sports Writing three years running.