<p><b>Profiles of the best NBA players provide a great history of the game.</b></p><p>Basketball is second of the top three elite professional sports, whose players command stratospheric salaries. The spectacular success of the NBA is based on its stars' performances, which excite fans game after game, championship after championship.</p><p><b><i>Basketball's Greatest Stars</i></b> features detailed profiles of the 50 greatest and most exciting players in basketball history. They're all here: the score-at-will centers, the quick-dishing guards and the take-it-to-the-hoop power forwards. The book also features the players whose star power has gone beyond the court into the culture of celebrity. Michael Grange includes action photographs that celebrate the play of every superstar past and present, and profiles of 30 franchises chart the league's rise to greatness.</p><p>Some of the stars of the hardwood in the book are:</p><ul><li> Michael Jordan<br></li><li>Magic Johnson<br></li><li>Larry Bird<br></li><li>Bill Russell<br></li><li>Bob Cousy<br></li><li>Jerry West<br></li><li>Wilt Chamberlain<br></li><li>Julius Erving<br></li><li>Kareem Abdul-Jabber<br></li><li>Rick Barry<br></li><li>Shaquille O'Neal<br></li><li>LeBron James<br></li><li>Dirk Nowitzki<br></li><li>Kobe Bryan<br></li><li>Tim Duncan<br></li><li>Karl Malone</ul><p>Grange also examines the sport in three insightful essays, covering the leading men and defining moments that have shaped the game, the international game and the changing nature and importance of statistical analysis. <b><i>Basketball's Greatest Stars</i></b> is a superb book for the fan and a compelling history of a great game.</p>