The Joy of Basketball

The Joy of Basketball PDF Author: Ben Detrick
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647003008
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 753

Get Book Here

Book Description
A vibrant, unconventional, highly opinionated guide to the triumphs, joys, struggles, and heartbreaks of the modern era of the game, for every obsessive basketball fan who loves to hate hot takes The Joy of Basketball celebrates the meteoric rise of basketball over the last quarter century by ignoring the bland, traditionalist binary of wins or losses. Instead, the book's focus is on everything else. Using text, charts, and illustrations that upend conventional jock wisdom, the book details the most incredible players in history, draft flops, long-limbed oddballs, superteams, the international talent wave, brawls, scandals, the rapid evolution of contemporary gameplay, coaching, fashion, crime, positional erosion, tragic tales, memes, and the sacred Kardashian Blessing. Bouncing between witty graphics and keen sociopolitical observations, The Joy of Basketball is a subversive sports manifesto camouflaged as a colorful reference book for your coffee table.

The Joy of Basketball

The Joy of Basketball PDF Author: Ben Detrick
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647003008
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 753

Get Book Here

Book Description
A vibrant, unconventional, highly opinionated guide to the triumphs, joys, struggles, and heartbreaks of the modern era of the game, for every obsessive basketball fan who loves to hate hot takes The Joy of Basketball celebrates the meteoric rise of basketball over the last quarter century by ignoring the bland, traditionalist binary of wins or losses. Instead, the book's focus is on everything else. Using text, charts, and illustrations that upend conventional jock wisdom, the book details the most incredible players in history, draft flops, long-limbed oddballs, superteams, the international talent wave, brawls, scandals, the rapid evolution of contemporary gameplay, coaching, fashion, crime, positional erosion, tragic tales, memes, and the sacred Kardashian Blessing. Bouncing between witty graphics and keen sociopolitical observations, The Joy of Basketball is a subversive sports manifesto camouflaged as a colorful reference book for your coffee table.

The Book of Basketball

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

Get Book Here

Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The wildly opinionated, thoroughly entertaining, and arguably definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA—from the founder of The Ringer and host of The Bill Simmons Podcast “Enough provocative arguments to fuel barstool arguments far into the future.”—The Wall Street Journal In The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for all—every major NBA debate, 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. 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.

Basketball and Philosophy

Basketball and Philosophy PDF Author: Jerry Walls
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813172217
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
What can the film Hoosiers teach us about the meaning of life? How can ancient Eastern wisdom traditions, such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism, improve our jump-shots? What can the “Zen Master” (Phil Jackson) and the “Big Aristotle” (Shaquille O’Neal) teach us about sustained excellence and success? Is women’s basketball “better” basketball? How, ethically, should one deal with a strategic cheater in pickup basketball? With NBA and NCAA team rosters constantly changing, what does it mean to play for the “same team”? What can coaching legends Dean Smith, Rick Pitino, Pat Summitt, and Mike Krzyzewski teach us about character, achievement, and competition? What makes basketball such a beautiful game to watch and play? Basketball is now the most popular team sport in the United States; each year, more than 50 million Americans attend college and pro basketball games. When Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, first nailed two peach baskets at the opposite ends of a Springfield, Massachusetts, gym in 1891, he had little idea of how thoroughly the game would shape American—and international—culture. Hoops superstars such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Yao Ming are now instantly recognized celebrities all across the planet. So what can a group of philosophers add to the understanding of basketball? It is a relatively simple game, but as Kant and Dennis Rodman liked to say, appearances can be deceiving. Coach Phil Jackson actively uses philosophy to improve player performance and to motivate and inspire his team and his fellow coaches, both on and off the court. Jackson has integrated philosophy into his coaching and his personal life so thoroughly that it is often difficult to distinguish his role as a basketball coach from his role as a philosophical guide and mentor to his players. In Basketball and Philosophy, a Dream Team of twenty-six basketball fans, most of whom also happen to be philosophers, proves that basketball is the thinking person’s sport. They look at what happens when the Tao meets the hardwood as they explore the teamwork, patience, selflessness, and balanced and harmonious action that make up the art of playing basketball.

Coach Wooden and Me

Coach Wooden and Me PDF Author: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
ISBN: 1455542253
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
Former NBA star and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explores his 50-year friendship with Coach John Wooden, one of the most enduring and meaningful relationships in sports history. When future NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still an 18-year-old high school basketball prospect from New York City named Lew Alcindor, he accepted a scholarship from UCLA largely on the strength of Coach John Wooden's reputation as a winner. It turned out to be the right choice, as Alcindor and his teammates won an unprecedented three NCAA championship titles. But it also marked the beginning of one of the most extraordinary and enduring friendships in the history of sports. In Coach Wooden and Me, Abdul-Jabbar reveals the inspirational story of how his bond with John Wooden evolved from a history-making coach-player mentorship into a deep and genuine friendship that transcended sports, shaped the course of both men's lives, and lasted for half a century. Coach Wooden and Me is a stirring tribute to the subtle but profound influence that Wooden had on Kareem as a player, and then as a person, as they began to share their cultural, religious, and family values while facing some of life's biggest obstacles. From his first day of practice, when the players were taught the importance of putting on their athletic socks properly; to gradually absorbing the sublime wisdom of Coach Wooden's now famous "Pyramid of Success"; to learning to cope with the ugly racism that confronted black athletes during the turbulent Civil Rights era as well as losing loved ones, Abdul-Jabbar fondly recalls how Coach Wooden's fatherly guidance not only paved the way for his unmatched professional success but also made possible a lifetime of personal fulfillment. Full of intimate, never-before-published details and delivered with the warmth and erudition of a grateful student who has learned his lessons well, Coach Wooden and Me is at once a celebration of the unique philosophical outlook of college basketball's most storied coach and a moving testament to the all-conquering power of friendship. Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller President Barack Obama's Favorite Book of 2017 A Boston Globe and Huffington Post Best Book of 2017 Pick

Basketball

Basketball PDF Author: James Naismith
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803283701
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
James Naismith was teaching physical education at the Young Men's Christian Association Training College in Springfield, Massachusetts, and felt discouraged because calisthenics and gymnastics didn't engage his students. What was needed was an indoor wintertime game that combined recreation and competition. One evening he worked out the fundamentals of a game that would quickly catch on. Two peach half-bushel baskets gave the name to the brand new sport in late 1891. Basketball: Its Origin and Development was written by the inventor himself, who was inspired purely by the joy of play. Naismith, born in northern Ontario in 1861, gave up the ministry to preach clean living through sport. He describes Duck on the Rock, a game from his Canadian childhood, the creative reasoning behind his basket game, the eventual refinement of rules and development of equipment, the spread of amateur and professional teams throughout the world, and the growth of women's basketball (at first banned to male spectators because the players wore bloomers). Naismith lived long enough to see basketball included in the Olympics in 1936. Three years later he died, after nearly forty years as head of the physical education department at the University of Kansas. This book, originally published in 1941, carries a new introduction by William J. Baker, a professor of history at the University of Maine, Orono. He is the author of Jesse Owens: An American Life and Sports in the Western World.

Basketball

Basketball PDF Author: Jackie MacMullan
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1524761796
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book Here

Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Inspired by a major ESPN film series, this is an extraordinary oral history of basketball—its eye-opening untold history, its profound deeper meaning, its transformative influence on the world—as told through an unprecedented series of candid conversations with the game’s ultimate icons. This is the greatest love story never told. It has passion and heartbreak, triumph and betrayal. It is deeply intimate yet crosses oceans, upends lives and changes nations. This is the true story of basketball. It is the story of a Canadian invention that took over America, and the world. Of a supposed “white man’s sport” that became a way for people of color, women, and immigrants to claim a new place in society. Of a game that demands everything of those who love it, yet gives so much back in return. To tell this story, acclaimed journalists Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew and Dan Klores embarked on a groundbreaking mission to interview a staggering lineup of basketball trailblazers. For the first time hundreds of legends, from Kobe, Lebron and Steph Curry to Magic Johnson, Dr. J and Jerry West, spoke movingly about their greatest passion. Former NBA commissioner David Stern and iconic coaches like Phil Jackson and Coach K opened up like never before. Those who shattered glass ceilings, from Bill Russell and Yao Ming to Cheryl Miller and Lisa Leslie, explained what it really took to lay claim to their place in the game. At once a definitive oral history and something far more revelatory and life affirming, Basketball: A Love Story is the defining untold oral history of how basketball came to be, and what it means to those who love it.

The Joy of Sports

The Joy of Sports PDF Author: Michael Novak
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 156833009X
Category : Sports
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Get Book Here

Book Description
"...an exhilarating exercise full of uncanny insights..." - Publishers Weekly

Black Gods of the Asphalt

Black Gods of the Asphalt PDF Author: Onaje X. O. Woodbine
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231541120
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
J-Rod moves like a small tank on the court, his face mean, staring down his opponents. "I play just like my father," he says. "Before my father died, he was a problem on the court. I'm a problem." Playing basketball for him fuses past and present, conjuring his father's memory into a force that opponents can feel in each bone-snapping drive to the basket. On the street, every ballplayer has a story. Onaje X. O. Woodbine, a former streetball player who became an all-star Ivy Leaguer, brings the sights and sounds, hopes and dreams of street basketball to life. He shows that big games have a trickster figure and a master of black talk whose commentary interprets the game for audiences. The beats of hip-hop and reggae make up the soundtrack, and the ballplayers are half-men, half-heroes, defying the ghetto's limitations with their flights to the basket. Basketball is popular among young black American men but not because, as many claim, they are "pushed by poverty" or "pulled" by white institutions to play it. Black men choose to participate in basketball because of the transcendent experience of the game. Through interviews with and observations of urban basketball players, Onaje X. O. Woodbine composes a rare portrait of a passionate, committed, and resilient group of athletes who use the court to mine what urban life cannot corrupt. If people turn to religion to reimagine their place in the world, then black streetball players are indeed the hierophants of the asphalt.

In My Skin

In My Skin PDF Author: Brittney Griner
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006230934X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Get Book Here

Book Description
The WMBA All-Star shares the inspiring story of her singular life as an athlete and activist in this “searing and ultimately liberating memoir” (New York Times Book Review). Brittney Griner is a once-in-a-generation basketball player. A two-time Olympic gold medalist and a six-time WNBA All-Star, she has been hailed by Sports Illustrated as “the sport’s most transformative figure.” But she is equally famous for speaking out on a range of social issues, as well as for surviving a wrongful detention in Russia that became a geopolitical flashpoint. Now Griner shares her coming-of-age story, revealing how she found her strength to overcome bullies and embrace her authentic self. At 6’8”, with an 88-inch wingspan and a size 17 shoe (men’s), the Phoenix Mercury star has heard every vicious insult in the book, enduring years of taunting that began in middle school and continues to this day. Through the highs and lows, Griner has learned to remain true to herself, rising above the haters trying to take her down. In her heartfelt memoir, she reflects on painful episodes in her life and describes how she came to celebrate what makes her unique—inspiring lessons she now shares. Filled with all the humor and personality Griner has become known for, In My Skin is more than a glimpse into one of the most original personalities in sports; it’s also a powerful call to readers to be true to themselves, to love who they are on the inside and out. With eight pages of photos.

Basketball Is Jazz

Basketball Is Jazz PDF Author: David Thorpe
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781540856074
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
Harvey Penick wrote "The Little Red Book" to teach golf enthusiasts the world over, fans and players, the nuances of the game. He succeeded brilliantly, and in the process he inspired David Thorpe to do the same thing for the sport he has spent a lifetime coaching. Coach Thorpe, an ESPN NBA Analyst for the past ten years, has spent a lifetime coaching thousands of players the game of basketball, while mentoring hundreds of coaches, NBA executives, and even a few owners. He is credited with being the first "basketball skills trainer," doing for players what golf and tennis pro's have been doing for years. "BASKETBALL IS JAZZ: Stories and Lessons From a Basketball Lifer" is a glimpse inside how the game is best taught, played, coached, and enjoyed. Thorpe's stories, about his NBA clients or his high school players from earlier in his career, will help the reader see the game better and appreciate it more. Parents looking for guidance will gain valuable insights into how they can better serve their children, just as coaches and players will learn better methods to improve their performances. And NBA fans will catch a long glimpse behind the curtain separating them from the players they love, seeing firsthand what these men do each day to make this incredibly difficult game look so easy to play.