By Ian Thomsen

My new book, The Soul of Basketball, revolves around the 2010-11 NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

The hero of that season was Dirk Nowitzki, the immigrant who had to talk himself into becoming a champion of the American game. He achieved stardom in the hardest way, first by learning how to shoot as if being taught dance moves step-by-step by mentor Holger Geschwindner; and then by learning how to win, by way of his most painful losses.

The city of Dallas provided Dirk with enduring support in the hard times. He was touched by the messages of love he received from Mavericks fans on the eve of his contract negotiation with team proprietor Mark Cuban before the 2010-11 season, which only strengthened his desire to win the championship for these fans and this city that had taken him in when he was a young man, intimidated and overwhelmed and wondering what he had got himself into.

The Soul of Basketball is about Cuban, who reinvented how pro sports franchises are run, who fought for better refereeing, and who knew when to step back during the 2011 playoffs in order to let Dirk and Jason Kidd run the show.

It’s about Kidd and coach Rick Carlisle, whose contentious relationship gave way to a mature championship partnership.

It’s about Jason Terry, whose late-season blowup with J.J. Barea liberated both to be difference-makers in the 2011 NBA Finals.

The full title of my book is The Soul of Basketball: The Epic Showdown Between LeBron, Kobe, Doc, and Dirk That Saved the NBA. It tells a story that extends beyond the 2010-11 season and its championship team – and yet the story would be nothing without the resilient, underdog Mavericks. That season was a turning point for the game’s most promising star, 25-year-old LeBron James, who found himself entangled in the money and fame of “The Decision,” the ill-fated TV broadcast that preceded his move to the Miami Heat.

LeBron has said that losing to the Mavericks in 2011 was the best thing that ever happened to him. It forced him to reconsider everything in his life, and the changes he made in his approach to basketball have led to years of prosperity and predictions that the NBA will someday become the biggest league in America. None of this would have happened if not for the 2010-11 Mavericks.

The Soul of Basketball is about a young league that discovers its destiny by way of an entrepreneurial proprietor and his cutting-edge team, led by a humble immigrant, backed by elderly stars and coached by an analytical genius. The story of the 2010-11 Mavericks is of lasting importance. I hope you enjoy it.

You can purchase The Soul of Basketball on Amazon here, or anywhere else books are sold!

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