Seven masterful basketball books capture current cultural moment

Seven new books on basketball include: FLY by Mitchell S. Jackson; Magic: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson by Roland Lazenby; Jumpman: The Making and Meaning of Michael Jordan by Johnny Smith; A History of Basketball in Fifteen Sneakers by Russ Bengtson; Aim High, Little Giant, Aim High! by Bobbito Garcia with Estefania Rivera Cortés; Lucky Me by Rich Paul with Jesse Washington; and ICE: Why I Was Born To Score by George Gervin with Scoop Jackson.

One of the first things you see when you walk onto ESPN’s campus in Bristol, Connecticut, is the famous quote of Nelson Mandela about the power of sports.

“Sport has the power to change the world,” it reads. “It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”