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10 new sports books for fans

Here are some fascinating sports titles for you or your favorite sports fan.

8. ‘Return of the King,’ by Brian Windhorst and Dave McMenamin

  • By Ross Atkin

Even for NBA teams with a surfeit of top players, as the Cleveland Cavaliers had last season, there are no guarantees of success. Winning a championship requires negotiating a minefield of challenges. Just how difficult it can be is well documented in “Return of the King,” sort of a season-long diary of the ups and downs prodigal son LeBron James and his Cavs teammates faced in reaching the NBA’s promised land.The tumultuous nature of the season saw the Cavs fire Coach David Blatt at midseason even though the team was in first place. The trials persisted on into the playoffs, where trailing the Golden State Warriors 1-3 in the NBA Finals, LeBron led an amazing comeback that gave Cleveland its first pro title in 52 years.

Here’s an excerpt from Return of the King:

“James was ultracompetitive. At times he’d have a meltdown over losing a scrimmage or drill. In frustration in losing, he was known to take the ball and heave it 80-plus feet to the other end of the building. When he didn’t agree with a foul call, be it in the final minute of a playoff game or in a routine end-of-practice run, he would protest. When he would slow practice down ranting and raving about some call [Coach David] Blatt would become a wallflower. Sometimes it took assistant Ty Lue to step up and tell James to shut up, it was a foul and go run the next play.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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