002 - Basketball (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano
Finished - May 2020
My Thoughts -
I owned this book for a solid 18 months before I finally read it. I actually let my 8 year old son read the first couple chapters of the book before he handed back to me saying, that he didn’t think he was ready for it. When I asked what he meant, he said, “Well there are a lot of names in there that I don’t really know so it’s hard to make sense of it…… and there are some words in there that I don’t think I’m supposed to read.” Whoops. After reading it myself, I came to understand exactly how colorful the language is. In fairness to Shea its well place and funny but that doesn’t matter much to an eight year old I suppose. Who knew?
This is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. Off the top I’m just somewhere below the title of “Basketball Junkie” or “Basketball Nerd”. I love the game but mostly I love the Mavericks. Shea is an unabashed San Antonio Spurs fan and despite my idea that The Mavs are more important than their showing in this book, I still love it. I actually live tweeted it from my handle @_bryanbarrera_ (follow me) on twitter.
Overview -
***No. 1 New York Times Bestseller***
***Best Nonfiction Books of 2017 selection by Barnes & Noble***
***Best Humor and Entertainment Books of 2017 selection by Amazon***
Michael Jordan is the acknowledged greatest basketball player of all-time, but what season was Michael Jordan the best version of Michael Jordan? Who's in The Disrespectful Dunk Hall of Fame? What's allowed and absolutely not allowed in a game of pickup basketball? BASKETBALL (AND OTHER THINGS) presents readers with a set of pivotal and ridiculous questions from basketball history, providing arguments and answers, explained with the wit and wisdom that is unique to Shea Serrano. Serrano breaks down debates that NBA fans didn't even know they needed, from the authoritative (Which NBA championship was the most important to the league?) to the fantastical (If you could assign different values to different shots throughout basketball history, what would they be and why?), with tangents and footnotes laser-ing out in all different directions, because that's how talking about basketball works, because that's how basketball works.
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With incredible art from Arturo Torres, this book is a must-have for anyone who has ever stayed up late into the night debating basketball's greatest moments, what-ifs, stories, and legends, or for those who are discovering the mythology of basketball for the first time.
