Betaball

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

By: Erik Malinowski

Narrated by: George Newbern

Moneyball meets The City Game in this compelling look at how the NBA champion Golden State Warriors embraced savvy business practices, next-gen science, and the corporate culture of Silicon Valley to not only produce one of the greatest basketball teams in history but also revolutionize the NBA.

Discover 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, both in sports and in business. In just five years, they turned a declining franchise with no immediate hope into one of the greatest teams in basketball, a period that included the rise of All-Star point guard Stephen Curry and two NBA championships in the past three years. By operating in "beta" - always innovating, unafraid to embrace change, encouraging risk - the Warriors have become 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 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, acclaimed 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.

©2017 Erik Malinowski (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Excellent material, but ...

The narrator mispronounced so many of the basketball players’ names that it was very distracting. If he had ever watched a game, he would have known how to pronounce most of them.

Laughable Name Pronunciation, Wanted More Analytics

Name pronunciation was laughable.. you’d think if you were reciting a book on basketball you would research a little. I wish the story was more about the technology and analytics aspects but it was 90% a Warrior’s history book. Well written though.

Great story. Got to relive a lot of awesome moments.

Great insight into how new ownership under Joe Lacob turned this franchise from a routine playoff spectator, to a basketball powerhouse.

The narrator botches many names of popular players that can become distracting. That is the only flaw I see w/ this audiobook.

I still recommend this for any Warriors fan, old and a new alike.

Fire the narrator.

The content of the book is great! A must read for any modern NBA fan.

Unfortunately the narrator didn’t bother to learn how to pronounce any of the names.

Stephen Curry is mispronounced as STEVEN Curry!

Kyrie Irving is mispronounced KEAR-EE

Kawhi Leornard is mispronounced COW-EE

He can’t even get Kobe Bryant correct, calls him KO-BAY!

I feel sorry for the author...

This narrator messed up his book. The narrator obviously doesn’t know a thing about the NBA and showed how much of a “professional” he is by not doing any research.

I mean wasn’t someone directing the session?

Hearing STEVEN Curry a 1000 times throughout the book was like nails on a chalkboard.

Do yourself a favor and read the book. Don’t listen to this guy massacre your favorite players’ names!

If you watch...

If you watch basketball and keep up with the NBA, this can be a tough listen. There was an underwhelming amount of insight into the specifics of how analytics or the Silicon Valley mindset enacting change in the organization. What I was truly excited for though was more on how Steve Kerr created his offense or motivated his team; of which there was also very little.

By far the most maddening is the absolute butchering of well-known NBA player names. Stephen Curry, a huge part of this book, doesn't have his name said correctly once...

fun story, bad reading

Seems like it should be really important to know how to pronounce everyone's name. The narrator made an embarrassing number of mispronunciations.

Good read about a sports turnaround

Good content. The narration was generally good, but the pronunciation of players’ names was so bad. Not a huge deal, but probably pretty annoying for most basketball fans.

Fun read!

Would you consider the audio edition of Betaball to be better than the print version?

N/A

Who was your favorite character and why?

The author.

Have you listened to any of George Newbern’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Loved it.

Any additional comments?

A really fun book to read if you like basketball and/or the Warriors.

Great story, insights

Marred only by half the names being mispronounced. George Newbern mispronounces the same words differently at times. It’s distracting, but the story is too good to quit.

Nice story of the rise of the Warriors

Good book. Narration could have been better. Voice was fine but he mispronounced a significant number of player names. Badly. If you’re going to read a sports book you should at least do your homework to learn how names are pronounced.