Sports biographies are tricky things.

The history of professional sports in this country is built on a foundation of legacy. The lionization of athletic giants is an underlying tenet of pro sports, with the games in a constant conversation with their own history. Protecting that history – that legacy – is paramount to many if not most pro athletes.

At the same time, leaving that history unexamined does a disservice to the reader. A simple and glowing account of an athlete’s feats, all buffed glossiness, is nothing more than hagiography – overly simplistic, unchallenging … and incredibly dull.

And it only gets trickier when the subject isn’t directly involved.

That’s the juggling act Scott Howard-Cooper has undertaken with his new book “Steve Kerr: A Life.” It’s the story of the rich and fascinating life lived by Steve Kerr. From his globetrotting boyhood to an underdog basketball journey to the pinnacle of his profession, Kerr’s is a tale almost too interesting to be real, marked by triumph and tragedy.

Telling that story without a direct contribution from Kerr is a bold choice, one that Howard-Cooper hasn’t undertaken lightly. Thanks to his decades-long history and sterling reputation in the sportswriting sphere, he’s one of the few writers with the combination of juice and talent to make a project like this work.

The book delivers precisely what the title promises – this is the life of Steve Kerr. He was born the son of academics, people who traveled the world. He grew up bouncing between Europe, the Middle East and southern California. But all the while, his passion for basketball was growing – as was his talent.

He turned that talent into a scintillating high school career, but his perceived limitations – lack of speed and athleticism and defensive acumen – outweighed his obvious shooting skill for most college coaches. Lucky circumstances landed him a last-ditch end-of-the-bench spot at Arizona, playing for Lute Olson. He turned from a scrub to a starter, part of the program’s renaissance.

It was also during his time at UA that Steve Kerr came to the attention of the nation, but not for his actions on the court. It wasn’t about him at all in fact; Kerr’s father, serving as the president of the American University in Beirut, was killed by an assassin. Burying his grief, Kerr soon returned to the court and pressed onward – basketball was his only refuge from sad reality.

He was drafted by the NBA in the second round; Kerr hoped to squeeze out a season or two in the league before turning to broadcasting or coaching or front office work. He’d do all those things, but not until after he wrapped up a 15-year career with a reputation for three-point sharpshooting and intensely inquisitive basketball intelligence. Oh, and five rings.

From there, he spent time as the general manager of the Phoenix Suns and a few years as an exceptional member of NBA broadcast teams. His first (and still only) head coaching job was taking over the Golden State Warriors – he just wrapped up his seventh season on the bench. In five of those seasons, the Warriors won the Wester Conference. And in three, they were NBA champs.

In that span, we also saw Kerr become considerably more outspoken about the issues of the day, expressing his thoughts about gun violence and occasionally sniping at (and getting sniped at by) the President of the United States. He also dealt with significant back injuries, with a procedure to fix a herniated disc leading to years of agony, pain so great that he missed significant time, unable to do his job.

“Steve Kerr: A Life” would have been a different book with more buy-in from Kerr and the Warriors organization. That’s not in dispute. However, there’s no disputing the care and thoroughness with which Howard-Cooper has assembled this work. Diligently assembling over 100 in-person interviews to go with piles of annotated research, Howard-Cooper has put together a comprehensive look at one of the most interesting men in professional sports today.

The author’s admiration for his subject is clear, but while his appreciation of Kerr is effusive throughout, Howard-Cooper does manage to avoid falling into the trap of starry-eyed hagiography. Kerr’s imperfections might be relatively few, but they are there; Howard-Cooper shares them with us just as readily as the lauding pages of accolades.

“Steve Kerr: A Life” is a straightforward sports biography, a book that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but still gives the reader ample insight into its subject. If this is a book that interests you, you’ve likely read a number of very similar works already, if not in terms of subject, then at least in terms of style and tone. There are a lot of VERY bad sports bios out there, but rest assured that this is not one of them. A breezy, fast-moving read that – much like its titular namesake – makes the majority of its shots.

It is the age-old question in the world of books. What's more valuable: biography or autobiography?

That is to say, what's the best way of learning about a person? Does the reader gain an advantage by hearing from the subject directly, or is it better to have the perspective of many offer viewpoints on that same subject?

The usual answer is "it depends." Both can be valuable, particularly if the person in question is interesting enough.

There's no doubt that Steve Kerr is more than interesting enough. The coach of the NBA's Golden State Warriors is one of the most fascinating, thoughtful people anywhere - let alone in sports. His life has gone down avenues that are part dream, part nightmare. What's more, he has shown on occasion an ability to be a good writer. Therefore, a Kerr autobiography ought to be a major event if and when it comes.

He's not there yet, though. Kerr also turned down the chance to be interviewed at length for "Steve Kerr" by Scott Howard-Cooper, and didn't exactly go out of his way to help the author gain access to friends and associates. So this is definitely a book that features an outside-in look at Kerr, rather than an inside-out approach from the man itself.

And, after reading it, the biography works quite well - thanks to some good work by the author and a subject that inspires curiosity and interest.

Kerr already had lived quite a life even before he finished college. His father was from the academic community specializing in the Middle East, and the family spent a great deal of time in Beirut, Lebanon - before it had turned into the violent stew of people that we associated with it. Steve attended schools in Cairo, Beirut and Southern California while growing up. Malcolm Kerr eventually was named president of the American University of Beirut.

However, Malcolm was assassinated by a militia group in Beirut in 1984, throwing the entire family into a very difficult situation. To their credit, they have handled matters probably as well as they can be handles, even if there's no playbook for such actions. Steve was at the University of Arizona at the time, an unlikely pick to even receive a basketball scholarship - let alone see any significant playing time. Kerr also suffered a very significant knee injury that cost him all of the 1986-87 season. But he bounced back to help lead the Wildcats to the Final Four in 1987.

Kerr bounced around a bit at the start of his NBA career, but he clearly got every ounce of his athletic ability mostly due to smarts and work ethic. The guard eventually landed with the Chicago Bulls in 1993, just as Michael Jordan left to play baseball. Kerr hung on to a roster spot long enough to play with Jordan, and became a key role player on one of the greatest teams in NBA history. Kerr will always be associated with a long-range shot to win the clinching Game Six against Utah in 1998. Steve eventually earned three championship rings there. Then when the Bulls broke up, Kerr went to San Antonio for two more titles.

Add it up, and Kerr played 16 years in the NBA - about 15 more than even he might have expected. His understanding of the game, made him a natural for management, and eventually Kerr landed a head coaching job with Golden State. Yes, three more titles came out of that relationship ... and he isn't done yet.

It's difficult to guess how thoroughly an e-book is written beforehand, but it didn't take long to figure out that Howard-Cooper wasn't interesting in gathering enough material for a quick, superficial book. There are tons of footnotes and book references in the back, and he clearly talked to as many people as he could. Kerr, his family, friends, teammates and associates also have offered plenty of opinions and statements on Kerr, and that helps too. There's plenty to chew on here.

The author obviously has a great deal of respect for Kerr, which might be why he wrote it in the first place. Come to think of it, it's apparently difficult to find anyone who doesn't feel that way.

For those who are curious to find out why this basketball coach is such an interesting character "Steve Kerr" will answer those questions nicely. Come to think of it, it will make you await Kerr's own version of the story with even a greater sense of anticipation.

I grew up in Southern California and was a huge fan of professional basketball, attending games through the 1980s, when the sport’s popularity put ticket prices out of my reach. I had a secret dream to be a sportswriter, so might be a tiny bit envious of the career of Scott Howard-Cooper, the author of this new biography of Steve Kerr. Howard-Cooper also grew up in Southern California, and has been a sportswriter at the Los Angeles Times since 1981, covering the NBA since 1988.

Full disclosure: I LOVE Steve Kerr. He isn’t your typical NBA guy: the son of two academics, he was born in Beirut and grew up splitting time between Southern California and the Middle East. His path to the NBA was fascinating: even as a student, he was a terrific shooter, but was virtually ignored by all major college basketball recruiters, until he was fortunate to get a scholarship to Arizona, where he played under the first of several amazing mentors, Lute Olson. While at Arizona, his father, who was then the President of American University in Beirut, was the victim of a terrorist assassination. He had always thought “Bad things happened to other people. I was immune from anything like that …”

After playing alongside Michael Jordan et al in Chicago, where he was coached by another mentor, Phil Jackson. Over the years, his teammates included Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, and Steve Nash, and coaches included Greg Popovich during Kerr’s time in San Antonio. After his playing career, he became a coach at Golden State, where he “…would…continue to emphasize the four core values–competition, compassion, mindfulness, and joy…” Over the years, Kerr has won eight NBA titles (five as a player, three as a coach), and will surely be in the Hall of Fame one day. Despite serious health problems during the Warriors’ championship years that caused him to take leaves of absence, he kept working: “instead of wanting to get healthy to return to work, he returned to work to get healthy.”

Overall, this is one of the best sports biographies I’ve read, and Howard-Cooper has done a terrific job capturing the focus on communication and teamwork that Kerr is known for. In his acknowledgments, the author notes that he had a “…vision that the story be about a man who had an interesting career but a fascinating life.” I recently read Tall Men, Short Shorts, another NBA-focused book by Leigh Mountville, sportswriter for the Boston Celtics, that focuses on the 1969 Lakers-Celtics championship series but has a wealth of stories about basketball players and coaches. That one was done primarily from the author’s memory (he admitted that he wishes he’d kept a journal over the years), while this book is incredibly well researched and documented. So much so that my Kindle showed I was just 74% through when I got to the Notes. Steve Kerr–a Life is definitely a must-read for basketball fans, but will be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates a well-written story about an incredible person. I give it one star for each of Kerr’s rings earned as a player: Five big stars. Thanks to William Morrow / Custom House and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for this honest review. And I love Steve Kerr more than ever.