Jackie MacMullan

Jackie MacMullan is an American sports journalist and author whose reporting has focused extensively on basketball. She played college basketball at the University of New Hampshire before working in sports journalism. Her career included reporting and column writing for The Boston Globe, work for Sports Illustrated, and appearances on ESPN, where she contributed to basketball coverage and discussion programs.

Her books have frequently been collaborations with players and coaches. She worked with Larry Bird, Geno Auriemma, Magic Johnson, and Shaquille O’Neal on accounts of their lives, careers, and approaches to basketball. The subjects include the NBA, women’s college basketball, coaching, and the personal relationships behind major rivalries.

For Basketball: A Love Story, MacMullan worked with Rafe Bartholomew and filmmaker Dan Klores to assemble an oral history of the game. That project brought together testimony from players, coaches, and executives across different generations, rather than following the experience of a single collaborator.

In 2010, MacMullan became the first woman to receive the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s Curt Gowdy Media Award. She joined ESPN as a senior writer that year and retired from the network in August 2021, after nearly nine hundred appearances on Around the Horn.

Basketball Books

Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love: Written with Larry Bird, this account examines basketball from the perspective of a former Boston Celtics player beginning a coaching career with the Indiana Pacers. Bird describes offensive and defensive decisions, player evaluation, and the ideas underlying his coaching methods. His first season with Indiana provides a framework for discussing the transition from playing to directing a team and the practical problems encountered in that role.

Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection: MacMullan collaborates with Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma on this account of his life and work. Auriemma describes his demanding approach to coaching, relationships with players, and rivalries with other programs, including Tennessee. Recollections of Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Rebecca Lobo, and other Connecticut players accompany the personal narrative. Later editions include additional material about the program’s subsequent championship seasons.

When the Game Was Ours: Larry Bird and Magic Johnson recount the rivalry that connected their college and NBA careers and eventually developed into a friendship. Written with MacMullan, the book follows championship contests, contrasting personalities, and their roles with the Celtics and Lakers. It also describes Bird’s chronic injuries and Johnson’s HIV diagnosis, placing their public competition alongside private difficulties and the changing circumstances of their professional lives.

Shaq Uncut: My Story: Shaquille O’Neal recounts his upbringing, college basketball at Louisiana State University, and a nineteen-year NBA career. His account includes championships, changing teams, and relationships with figures such as Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Phil Jackson, and Pat Riley. Written with MacMullan, the memoir also covers activities beyond basketball, including music, television, education, and police work, alongside O’Neal’s description of his public personality.

Basketball: A Love Story: MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, and Dan Klores assemble an oral history based on conversations with players, coaches, executives, and other basketball figures. The accounts trace the game’s development and international growth while discussing race, gender, opportunity, and competition. Contributors include NBA stars, women’s basketball pioneers, and people responsible for major changes in the sport. The book is associated with Klores’s ESPN documentary series of the same name.