Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Alexander Wolff is an award-winning senior writer for Sports Illustrated(r). He has been on staff for more than 20 years and is considered the dean of basketball writers within the magazine industry. He lives in New York and Connecticut.

Rezensionen

Basketball's popularity worldwide often goes beyond the bounds of recreation, business, and entertainment. In some countries, its impact is political and even cultural, as Sports Illustrated writer Wolff makes clear in this enlightening sports travelog. The author explored the game's international reach by interviewing some of the best and brightest players, coaches, and observers in 16 countries. He starts his research in Ontario, Canada, birthplace of James Naismith, who is credited with inventing the game in Springfield, MA, in 1891. Europe was Wolff's next destination, and he presents many colorful anecdotes from stops spanning Poland, Italy, and Bosnia. Back in the United States, Wolff traveled widely and asked players of numerous ethnic backgrounds about basketball's influence on their lives and aspirations. More trips to Brazil, Japan, and Bhutan demonstrate the myriad differences in how various countries approach the sport, but it's quite evident by the end of the book that there are more unifying elements than divisive ones. Wolff's knack for finding fascinating people to interview goes far in humanizing basketball in a global context. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In his newest, Wolff (coauthor of Raw Recruits) sets off on his international tour of "the country of basketball" 16 different nations and eight states with his thesis: "Basketball is quick-cutting, digital, and perfectly adapted to... manifestations of American cultural power." And fortunately for fans, he's also a stylish reporter (for Sports Illustrated). Basketball is now stepping on the heels of soccer as the world's game (Wolff claims that 71% of middle-class teenagers worldwide play or watch, including "two of every three girls on the planet." In the middle of a 1998 Princeton game, Wolff had an epiphany: he would become a roundball anthropologist. His first expedition was to explore professional basketball culture in Europe and to record indigenous versions in Japan, the Philippines, Bhutan and Brazil. He proves that the game's essence transcends national boundaries, and he turns up dozens of dedicated, delightful even tragic basketball stories and characters in what will seem unlikely places to an average Kansas State fan, for instance. He doesn't neglect U.S. homegrown teams, however, and includes familiar interviews in Chapel Hill, Kansas and Texas but it is the new comparative basketball culture that excites his best writing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* Wolff first burst on the scene two decades ago as the coauthor of The In-Your-Face-Basketball Book (1980), a hoop junkie's nationwide guide to the best pickup and playground basketball in the country. He's now a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, and he's still moving without the ball. This journey takes him to 16 countries and 10 states as he examines the effect basketball is having on the world. A trip to Lithuania reveals a country in which patriotism and basketball became synonymous during decades of Soviet rule. Wolff investigates the origins of the crossover dribble and finds himself in Peoria, Illinois. There are also stops in Ireland, Italy, the Philippines, and an Ontario village that houses a small museum devoted to James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. Along with the more travel-oriented pieces, there are also several outstanding profiles of such disparate figures as a cloistered nun who was a talented basketball player, Michael Jordan's best pal in college, and former Princeton basketball coach Pete Carril, an iconoclast whose teams consistently competed successfully with larger, more athletic opponents by employing intelligence, patience, and fundamentals. Wolff's passion for the game burns as feverishly as it did 20 years ago, when he was looking for pickup games. This is a wonderful book, certainly the best on basketball this season. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved