Slaven Bilic has revealed a book on how to manage the egos of NBA stars assisted him for his first season as West Ham United boss.

The Croatian is a massive basketball fan and admits he used former Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson's book, 'Sacred Hoop', to prepare himself for the challenge of handling his Hammers squad in his first foray to management in the Premier League.

Bilic told NBA UK: "When I was preparing myself for this job, one of the best books I ever read was Phil Jackson's book Sacred Hoop. It's unbelievable.

"Everything is in there about tactics, management, how to cope with Michael Jordan and the other guys, and the two ways basketball was played in the United States, college style with a one-man team and then professional style.

"He talked about how he changed that and went from one style to the other without Jordan losing his importance and used other big stars like Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman."

He added: "Without tactical knowledge you can't apply for the job, but knowing that is not everything because you are dealing with people.

"As important as tactics is man-management because basically you are coping with up to 25 young athletes who have big egos because they wouldn't be there if they weren't strong characters.

"Ten or 12 of them might be unhappy to start with, but during the course of the season you will have to call on them so you have to learn how to cope with them and keep those who don't play less unhappy and motivated."