Betaball: How Silicon Valley and Science Built One of the Greatest Basketball Teams in History

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The definitive, inside account of how the Golden State Warriors built a basketball juggernaut from the inside out "A smart, breezy read." -- The Wall Street Journal Named one of 2017's best tech books by WIRED: "A deeply reported look at seven dramatic years of the Warriors' team history, zeroing in on vivid characters and suspense-filled moments to deliver a gripping narrative. ... A compelling and important case study of how startup-style thinking can be applied outside the tech industry." "Buckle up for the sports book of the year." -- Don Van Natta Jr., ESPN investigative reporter, New York Times bestselling author, and Pulitzer Prize winner "Instructive reading for every coach and every player in every sport -- and fun, too." -- Kirkus Reviews "An inful portrait of one of the all-time great NBA teams." -- Booklist "Malinowski describes the on-court action with humorous flair while also capturing the sophistication required to properly run a professional sports team." -- Publishers Weekly Moneyball meets The City Game in this compelling look at how the world champion Golden State Warriors embraced savvy business practices, next-generation science, and Silicon Valley's technocentric culture to not only produce the most talented basketball team ever assembled but revolutionize the modern NBA. Betaball is the definitive, inside account of how the Warriors -- under the leadership of venture capitalist Joe Lacob and Hollywood producer Peter Guber -- quickly became one of the most remarkable success stories ever witnessed in sports or business. In just five years, the duo turned a declining franchise with no immediate hope into the NBA's dominant force, facilitated the rise of All-Star point guard Stephen Curry, produced the best single-season record in league history, and won two championships over a three-year span. Lacob and Guber (along with their executives, coaches, and players) did so by urging employees to speak out; encouraging cross-collaboration; investing in bold, new technologies; and never resisting the urge to innovate, no matter how successful they became. In the tech industry, the term for this development stage -- when your product isn't quite fully baked, so you're always in flux and open to change yet focused on the end-goal -- is "beta." 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 allowed all of their employees to thrive, from the front office to the free-throw line. With in-depth access and meticulous reporting on and off the court, accled journalist Erik Malinowski recounts a gripping tale of worlds colliding, a team's reinvention, ordinary people being pushed to extraordinary heights, and the Golden State Warriors' unending quest to remain the best.