By Robert Gluck/JNS.org

Idan Ravin’s friends chipped in to buy him a humble but life-changing bar mitzvah gift – a basketball hoop his father attached to the roof of his garage. Little did his friends know that years later, he would be the personal trainer of National Basketball Association (NBA) stars Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, and Stephen Curry.

Ravin’s new book, The Hoops Whisperer: On the Court and Inside the Head of Basketball’s Best Players, details his rise from a Jewish upbringing to becoming a well-respected figure in NBA circles despite the fact that he never played college or professional basketball. Using unorthodox drills and improvisational techniques to improve their games, Ravin is sought after by many players and has reportedly turned down full-time positions with NBA teams to keep working one-on-one with the stars.

“He has influenced me tremendously, and I am very grateful for his loyalty, friendship, and guidance. He is passionate about everything he does; and while some consider his methods unorthodox, the end results for me have been remarkable,” Carmelo Anthony says on the back cover of the book, released in May 2014.

Born to an Israeli mother and Russian father, Ravin grew up in a Conservative Jewish home. His parents were raised in observant families and chose careers in Jewish education. Both taught Judaic studies at Jewish schools and synagogues, spoke mostly Hebrew, and lived modest lives.

“All of it made me who I am,” Ravin tells JNS.org. “When I was younger, religion and faith had one meaning, but as I grew up it took on a broader meaning. It became more of living a life of faith. The [NBA] players and I sort of live parallel lives because we both found something that we love very much, and only faith can push you through such a non-traditional journey.”

How does Ravin connect with high-profile NBA stars?

“There are several levels,” he says. “Obviously, when I walk into a room with them they are sophisticated guys and they are incredibly bright even though some people don’t think they are. If I don’t believe in my gospel, and my gospel doesn’t make sense, they won’t listen. … Something about what I’m saying and doing resonates substantively with them.”

While he attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md., basketball took hold of Ravin. He practiced shooting alone in a nearby park, ran sprints in the cold, shoveled snow for a patch of driveway to practice ball-handling skills at home, and came up with his own drills because he had no access to coaches, mentors, or trainers.

Although he played varsity basketball for most of his high school career, Ravin was never recruited to play college hoops and ended up majoring in finance and marketing at the University of Maryland. He went on to attend law school, and practice law – unhappily – in California. But his deep love for the game led him to his current line of work, starting when he helped Maryland acquaintance and future NBA player Steve Francis.

The Hoops Whisperer reveals Ravin’s gifts of intuition, a sensitivity to players’ rhythms, and the ability to motivate, inspire, and communicate with them. Readers get a behind-the-scenes look at stars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, and others who have benefitted from Ravin’s training. In the 21st chapter, the author details his trips to Israel as a young boy, including how his family stayed with his mother’s parents in a small two-bedroom apartment in the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa.

“Fast-forward 20 years. I returned to Israel dribbling a ball, this time with New York Knicks’ All-Star forward Amar’e Stoudemire,” Ravin writes. “Amar’e felt spiritually connected to Israel and Judaism, inspired by his mother’s affinity for the religion. To prepare for his [2010] trip, Amar’e studied Hebrew with my mom. She taught him some expressions he could toss at the Israeli media.”

Ravin took the Knicks’ star to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, where he saw Stoudemire’s emotional response to a tour guide’s stories of the brutality inflicted on Jewish children by the Nazis.

In the book, Kevin Durant says Ravin “is the first guy I’ve worked with who brought something different to the workouts, who pushed me past my limits, who made me think of the game on a different level.”

“Idan believed in me when others didn’t,” says Knicks’ guard J.R. Smith. “He challenged me when others couldn’t. He cheered for me when others stopped. He praised me when others wouldn’t. He stood by me when others ran.”

Ravin’s book was even the subject of a rabbinical sermon at Temple Sinai in Los Angeles. The book’s usage in a synagogue sanctuary, rather than on a basketball court, is illustrative of Ravin’s broader goals for the volume’s influence.

“It’s connecting with a lot of people in a lot of different ways,” Ravin says. “It’s not a basketball book, it’s not a training book. It’s a book about life.”