Betaball: How Silicon Valley and Science Built One of the Greatest Basketball Teams in History
Written by Erik Malinowski
Narrated by George Newbern
4/5
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About this audiobook
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).
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.
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Reviews for Betaball
23 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5What did my son and I learn after listening to this for 11 hours that we didn't already know as fan's of the game? Nothing. There was no detail behind the science and analytics just mere mention of it.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was okay. It kind of took too long to get to the point though