NET WORK

From the NBA's most sought-after trainer and skills coach and with a foreword by Steph Curry, NET WORK is a behind-the-scenes look at how superstars like Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love work to excel at the game

When Rob McClanaghan failed to make the Syracuse basketball team during walk-on tryouts as a freshman, he asked the coaches what he needed to do to make the team. They all agreed: get much stronger. So that's what he did. For months, he avoided fraternity parties and drinking with high school buddies; instead, he spent hours in the gym lifting weights and, also, shooting on a half-forgotten court on the edge of the forest near his Rhode Island home. He was single-minded; the only thing that mattered was making the team. He returned to Syracuse for his sophomore year thirty pounds heavier, and caught the coach's eye.

McClanaghan - who's often referred to as "RobMac" - brings to each of his training sessions the same grit and spirit that got him into the college game. He calls it "the grind," and he knows that without it, even the most talented players will come up short; he knows, too, that the truly great players find joy in the grind. McClanaghan pushes his clients hard; he knows too well that in basketball, as in life, you have to be at your best in the moments when you feel the worst. He does whatever he can to drive his players to the edge and to simulate fourth quarter, at-the-buzzer adrenaline and fatigue. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the NBA's best eagerly sign up for the pain, including stars like Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, John Wall, Al Horford, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry.

Net Work combines McClanaghan's hard-earned wisdom - both on and off the court - with rare glimpses into the dues-paying life of professional athletes determined to stay at the top. Many of these superstars have thanked McClanaghan in their MVP acceptance speeches; others make McClanaghan their first call during a low moment - for example, when battling an unforeseen injury or the embarrassment of a poor performance.

This book is life inside the NBA as you've never seen it, where players differentiate themselves by their willingness to put in relentless "net work."

Rob McClanaghan is the premiere basketball trainer to the stars of the NBA. He attended Syracuse University, where he walked on to their NCAA Division I basketball team. The NBA woke up to his training talents when in 2008 he trained 7 of the top 15 prospects in the league's draft. A Rhode Island native, he lives in East Greenwich, RI with his wife and three children. Net Work is his first book.