The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life

The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life PDF Author: Thomas Pletzinger
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324003065
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
A journey into the mindset of a historic basketball superstar, and the importance of his landmark career. The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest players in basketball history. The Dallas Maverick’s legend revolutionized the sport, redefining the role of the big man in the modern game. Dirk moved differently: flexible and fast, confident and in control. He thought differently, too. On the court, his shots were masterful—none more venerated than his signature one-legged flamingo fadeaway, a move that lives on in the repertoire of today’s most skilled NBA players. How did this lanky kid from the German suburbs become an all-time top ten scorer and NBA champion? How can a superstar stay so humble? Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger spent over seven years traveling with Nowitzki. He witnessed Dirk’s summer workouts, involving fingertip pushups and the study of the physics, and spent days discussing literature and philosophy with Holger Geschwindner, Dirk’s enigmatic mentor and coach. Watching Nowitzki in empty gyms and in packed arenas with 30,000 fans, Pletzinger began to understand how Dirk and Holger’s philosophical insights on performance, creativity, and freedom enabled his success and longevity. The Great Nowitzki tells Dirk’s dramatic story like never before. Pletzinger describes Dirk’s youth in small-town Germany, follows the steep learning curve of Dirk’s early seasons, the devastating Finals loss to the Miami Heat, and the triumphant championship five years later. Traveling with Dirk in his final seasons, Pletzinger immerses himself in the community of people impacted by Nowitzki’s game, interviewing everyone from average fans in Dallas and security guards at the arena to front office executives and Hall of Fame teammates, who reflect on what Dirk’s career means to the next generation of ballplayers. And to the game itself. A masterpiece of sports writing that reads like a novel, The Great Nowitzki brims with a fan’s passion. Pletzinger shows how strongly basketball influences our imagination and the extraordinary journey an icon like Dirk Nowitzki must take to reach the pinnacle of the game.

The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life

The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life PDF Author: Thomas Pletzinger
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324003065
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 423

Get Book Here

Book Description
A journey into the mindset of a historic basketball superstar, and the importance of his landmark career. The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest players in basketball history. The Dallas Maverick’s legend revolutionized the sport, redefining the role of the big man in the modern game. Dirk moved differently: flexible and fast, confident and in control. He thought differently, too. On the court, his shots were masterful—none more venerated than his signature one-legged flamingo fadeaway, a move that lives on in the repertoire of today’s most skilled NBA players. How did this lanky kid from the German suburbs become an all-time top ten scorer and NBA champion? How can a superstar stay so humble? Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger spent over seven years traveling with Nowitzki. He witnessed Dirk’s summer workouts, involving fingertip pushups and the study of the physics, and spent days discussing literature and philosophy with Holger Geschwindner, Dirk’s enigmatic mentor and coach. Watching Nowitzki in empty gyms and in packed arenas with 30,000 fans, Pletzinger began to understand how Dirk and Holger’s philosophical insights on performance, creativity, and freedom enabled his success and longevity. The Great Nowitzki tells Dirk’s dramatic story like never before. Pletzinger describes Dirk’s youth in small-town Germany, follows the steep learning curve of Dirk’s early seasons, the devastating Finals loss to the Miami Heat, and the triumphant championship five years later. Traveling with Dirk in his final seasons, Pletzinger immerses himself in the community of people impacted by Nowitzki’s game, interviewing everyone from average fans in Dallas and security guards at the arena to front office executives and Hall of Fame teammates, who reflect on what Dirk’s career means to the next generation of ballplayers. And to the game itself. A masterpiece of sports writing that reads like a novel, The Great Nowitzki brims with a fan’s passion. Pletzinger shows how strongly basketball influences our imagination and the extraordinary journey an icon like Dirk Nowitzki must take to reach the pinnacle of the game.

I See You Big German

I See You Big German PDF Author: Zac Crain
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
ISBN: 1646050363
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
In the 1990's, Dallas was a basketball wasteland. Luckily for the city, along came Dirk Nowitzki, a towering Würzburg, Germany native with a cool efficiency and the ability to basket shots from seemingly impossible angles. Nowitzki spent his entire 21-season NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, the longest tenure of any one player with one team in the league's history, and led them to their first and only NBA championship, while being named a 14-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, and the first European player to receive the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award. Zac Crain, award-winning journalist for D Magazine who moved to Dallas the same year that Nowitzki began his career in the city, memorializes Nowitzki’s career through a lyric essay reminiscent of Hanif Abdurraqib's Go Ahead in the Rain that mixes with author's story with the basketball legend's, charting the highs and lows (and mostly highs) of the Mavs' all-time statistical leader’s career and what they mean to the city of Dallas and its now basketball-obsessed citizens.

The Book of Basketball

The Book of Basketball PDF Author: Bill Simmons
Publisher: ESPN
ISBN: 0345520106
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 754

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The NBA according to The Sports Guy—now updated with fresh takes on LeBron, the Celtics, and more! Foreword by Malcom Gladwell • “The work of a true fan . . . it might just represent the next phase of sports commentary.”—The Atlantic Bill Simmons, the wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining basketball addict known to millions as ESPN’s The Sports Guy, has written the definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA. From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for all—every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball. Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.

Dirk Nowitzki, 2nd Edition

Dirk Nowitzki, 2nd Edition PDF Author: Jeffrey Zuehlke
Publisher: Lerner Publications
ISBN: 0761390065
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki didn't grow up with a basketball in his hands. Dirk was born in Wurzburg, Germany, where soccer is the most popular sport. But as a teenager, Dirk discovered that he was a natural basketball player. After being selected in the 1998 NBA draft, the powerful 7'0" forward quickly proved that he is more than just a tall player. In 2011 Dirk was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the NBA Finals as Dallas beat the Miami Heat to become world champions. Learn more about Dirk's unusual journey to the top of the basketball world.

Tales from the Dallas Mavericks Locker Room

Tales from the Dallas Mavericks Locker Room PDF Author: Jaime Aron
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1613210566
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
An instant book celebrating the greatest stories from the Dallas Mavericks -- newly updated to include the 2011 NBA Championship!

KD

KD PDF Author: Marcus Thompson
Publisher: Atria Books
ISBN: 1501197819
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Golden State Warriors insider and bestselling author Marcus Thompson delivers the definitive biography of one of the most extraordinary basketball players in NBA history—Kevin Durant. The NBA has never seen a player quite like Kevin Durant. Larry Bird wasn’t as quick, Magic Johnson didn’t have such a range, and Michael Jordan wasn’t seven feet tall. Durant handles the ball like Allen Iverson, shoots like Dirk Nowitzki, and has the scoring instincts of Kobe Bryant. He does it in a body that’s about as big as Hakeem Olajuwon. But ultimately, Kevin Durant is like no one but himself. After an incredible first season with Golden State, Kevin Durant earned the coveted NBA Finals MVP award: he was the Warriors’ top scorer in every game of the 2017 Finals, helping the team snatch the title from LeBron James and the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers. As a sports columnist for The Athletic Bay Area, and longtime beat reporter covering the Golden State Warriors, Marcus Thompson is perfectly positioned to trace Durant’s inspirational journey. KD follows Durant’s underdog story from his childhood spent in poverty outside DC; to his rise playing on AAU teams with future NBA players; to becoming a star and hometown hero for the Oklahoma Thunder; to his controversial decision to play for the NBA rival Golden State Warriors; to his growth from prodigy into a man, in the first true inside account of this superstar player. KD is a powerful, moving biography of a modern-day legend and an essential read for all sports fans—or anyone who wants to know: what’s it like to shoot for greatness?

Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki PDF Author: Bill Redban
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781508426660
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Discover The Inspirational Story of Basketball Superstar Dirk Nowitzki!Read on your PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device!You're about to discover the incredibly inspirational story of basketball superstar Dirk Nowitzki. If you're reading this then you must be a Dirk Nowitzki fan, like so many others. As a fan, you must wonder how this man is so talented and want to know more about him. Dirk Nowitzki is considered as one of the greatest basketball players in the world and it's been an honor to be able to watch him play throughout his career. This book will reveal to you much about Dirk Nowitzki's story and the many accomplishments throughout his career.Here Is A Preview Of What You'll Learn... Youth and Family Life Professional Career Legacy, Charitable Acts and much more! If you want to learn more about Dirk Nowitzki, then this book is for you. It will reveal to you many things that you did not know about this incredible basketball star!About the Author:Inspirational Stories is a series aimed at highlighting the great athletes of our society. Our mission is to present the stories of athletes who are not only impactful in their sport, but also great people outside of it. The athletes we write about have gone above and beyond to become impactful in their community and great role models for the youth, all while showing excellence in their profession. We publish concise, easily consumable books that portray the turning points in the lives of these great athletes, while also giving the context in which they occurred. Our books are especially great for children who look up to sports figures. Hopefully these athletes can serve as a source of inspiration and their stories can provide life lessons that are practical for fans of any demographic.

The World's Greatest Basketball Players

The World's Greatest Basketball Players PDF Author: Matt Doeden
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1429639237
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
Describes the achievements and career statistics of basketball's greatest stars.

Dirk Nowitzki

Dirk Nowitzki PDF Author: Dino Reisner
Publisher: teNeues
ISBN: 9783961710027
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
What do Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Wilt Chamberlain have in common? They are all basketball legends, and the only five NBA players ranked higher on the all-time points list than Dirk Nowitzki. The giant man from Unterfranken is the only non-American in this elite group. And then came March 7th, 2017: in the second period of a game against the LA Lakers, Nowitzki fires off his patented one-legged fadeaway shot and scores. This basket allows him to break the 30,000-point mark! On his way to becoming a cult figure in the sport, Nowitzki has long since reached the highest level. This photo volume shows how it all happened. The boy from Wurzburg became a Bundesliga and national team player, then made the leap to the NBA, made a name for himself there, won a championship, broke records, and proved himself to be a top-level player, game after game, for nearly 20 years. Dino Reisner describes not only the big picture behind this stellar career, but also the little anecdotes and important people who have crossed Nowitzki's path over the years. An attractive and dynamic layout with 125 spectacular and emotional photographs makes this book a true pleasure and treasure for basketball fans. AUTHOR: Dino Reisner works as a freelance journalist for Bild, Kicker and Sky; his previous publications include two books about Dirk Nowitzki (German Wunderkind, 2004, and The Dirk Nowitzki Story, 2010) as well as a biography of Pep Guardiola. SELLING POINTS: * From the DJK Wurzburg to becoming bronze medal winner at the 2002 World Championships in the USA, from German Wunderkind to NBA champion and sixth on the NBA's all-time scorers list * A dynamic, high-quality photo volume with impressive large-scale photos; a celebration of a sports superstar and a human story well beyond statistics and results 125 colour and b/w photographs

Shake and Bake

Shake and Bake PDF Author: Bob Kuska
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496224833
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Shake and Bake is the story of Archie Clark, one of the top playmaking guards in the 1970s pre-merger NBA. While not one of the game’s most recognized superstars, Clark was a seminal player in NBA history who staggered defenders with the game’s greatest crossover dribble (“shake and bake”) and is credited by his peers as the originator of today’s popular step-back move. Signed as the Lakers third-round draft pick in 1966, Clark worked his way into the starting lineup in his rookie year. But Clark was more than a guaranteed double-double whenever he stepped on the floor. He was a deep-thinking trailblazer for players’ rights. Clark often challenged coaches and owners on principle, much to the detriment of his career and NBA legacy, signing on as a named litigant in the seminal Robertson v. NBA antitrust case that smashed the player reserve system and jump-started the modern NBA. So lace up your high-top Chuck Taylors, squeeze into a pair of short shorts, and shake and bake back in time to the days of Wilt, Russell, Oscar, Jerry, Elgin, Hondo—and Archie.