Billy McGill: Over the Hill, In the Valley, and Rising Up Again, 1977

McGill was back on the street. He called Walter Kennedy, then the NBA commissioner, asking whether he had any pension funds due him. He did not; he had not played long enough. “I called collect,” he said, “and I had to look around for a dime.

The Resurrection of Bernard King, 1982

In his place is an introspective 24-year-old man capable of this amazing restitution. And the common thread through it all has been King’s explosive talents as a basketball player.

Bubbles Hawkins: How to Burst a Bubble, 1977

BUH-bbles! . . . BUH-bbles! . . .BUH-bbles! . . .” The name has become the fans’ refrain, a sort of new tribal chant to ward off losing and to summon, as if magically, points upon the board.

Rick Barry: Tales of a Happy Warrior, 1974

“I had commitments to Franklin Mieuli and the Warriors,” recalls Barry, “and also to Roy Boe and the Nets. It was a difficult situation to be in.”