Betaball, Erik Malinowski
Betaball, Erik Malinowski
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

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

Author: Erik Malinowski

Narrator: George Newbern

Unabridged: 10 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/03/2017


Synopsis

“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 Valley’s technocentric culture not only to produce one of the greatest basketball teams in history but also to revolutionize the NBA—perfect 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 NBA’s dominant force—and 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 world’s most successful corporations, and instilling a top-down organizational ethos that allows employees—from the front office to the free-throw line—to thrive.

With in-depth access and meticulous reporting on and off the court, acclaimed journalist Eric Malinowski recounts a gripping tale of a team’s 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).

About Erik Malinowski

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 NPR’s “Only a Game” and his work has appeared in Best American Sports Writing three years running.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jake

(3.5) Reading this reminded me of a scene from the movie Catch Me If You Can... Tom Hanks: How did you get away? Leonardo DiCaprio: Same reason the New York Yankees always win...the other team's looking at the pinstripes. Tom Hanks: The Yankees win because they have Mickey Mantle. The premise of this bo......more

Goodreads review by Julian

Like a lot of other reviews, the problem with the book is not the writing or the way Mr. Malinowski tells the story, but in the premise of the book. I was very intrigued to read about this and see how sabermetrics can work in a sport like Basketball, where talent seems to overtake stats and other me......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Good book. It's a solid overview of the Golden State Warriors and how they assembled their dominant run. The main focus is from the start of the 2014 season to the signing of Kevin Durant. There's a brief epilogue on their championship with Durant. One problem: while the title pitches that this was......more