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354 pages

English

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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 takesThe 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.

Sujets

Baloncesto

Reference work

Basketball

Basket-ball

Informations

Publié par	ABRAMS BOOKS
Date de parution	09 novembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781647003005
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	8 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0900€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

CONTENTS
A
Africa
Amaechi, John
Analytics
Antetokounmpo, Giannis
Anthony, Carmelo
Art
B
Bad Boys 2: More Bad Boys
Ball Family
Ball-handling
Barkley, Charles
Battier, Shane
Big 4
Bigen
Billups, Chauncey
Black Lives Matter
Booker, Devin
Bosh, Chris
Boston Media Mafia
Brand, Elton
Brandon, Terrell
Braxton, Toni
Brothers
Bryant, Kobe
Burnergate
Busts
Butler, Jimmy
C
Carb on Carb
Carter, Vince
Cassell, Sam
Casuals
Centrists
Chandler, Tyson
Chaos Era
China
Chuds
Clowns
Clutch Gene
Collins, Jason
Continuity
Cousins, Demarcus
COVID Bubble
Crouch Bias
Crustpunks
Curry, Stephen
D
Dancing Bears
Davis, Anthony
Dead Ball Era
Deflections
Devil s Interval
Diaw, Boris
Disruptors
Don i , Luka
Drugs
Duke Scourge
Duncan, Tim
Dunks
Durant, Kevin
E
Eddie
Effective Field-Goal Percentage
Embiid, Joel
Emotional Support Vets
European Kings
Ewing, Patrick
Eye Test
F
Fans
Feral Bigs
Fournier, Evan
Fox, De Aaron
G
Garnett, Kevin
Gentleman s Sweep
George, Paul
Geralds
Gin bili, Manu
Gobert, Rudy
Goons
Green, Draymond
Griffin, Blake
Grit n Grind
Guns
H
Hammon, Becky
Hamptons 5
Hardaway Jr., Tim
Hardaway, Penny
Harden, James
Heat Check
Heat Culture
Hoodie Melo
Hostile Architecture
Howard, Dwight
I
Iguodala, Andre
Injury Guys
Irving, Kyrie
Italians
Iverson, Allen
J
Jail Blazers
James, LeBron
Joki , Nikola
Jordan, Michael
K
Kemp, Shawn
Kidd, Jason
Kirilenko, Andrei
Knicks 4 Life
L
League Pass
Leonard, Kawhi
Lillard, Damian
Limited-Edition Collabs
Lin, Jeremy
Load Management
Lob City
Lost Arts
Lost Boys
Love, Kevin
Lowry, Kyle
M
Malice at the Palace
Marbury, Stephon
Marion, Shawn
McGrady, Tracy
Mental Health
Midrange Jumpers
Mitchell, Donovan
Morant, Ja
Motor
Motormouths
N
Nash, Steve
Net Zeros
New Whites
New York Eccentrics
Ninja Headbands
Nowitzki, Dirk
O
O Neal, Shaquille
Odom, Lamar
P
Pace-and-Space Era
Paul, Chris
Player Empowerment Era
Porzi is, Kristaps
Positionless Basketball
Pre-NBA
Prisoners of the Mind
The Process
Prom Kings
Q
QNBA
R
Randle, Julius
Relegation
Rice, Glen
Rim Protection
Robins
Rodman, Dennis
S
Sabonis, Arvydas
Second-Round Picks
Shape-Shifters
Shooting Bias
Showtime
Simmons, Ben
Snitching
Social Media
Social Security
Space Jam
Sprewell, Latrell
Stiviano, V.
Strip Clubs
T
Taco Tuesday
Tatum, Jayson
Thompson, Klay
Threes
Time Bandits
Travel Truthers
True Shooting Percentage
Tunnel Walk
Tweeners
U
Unicorns
Unitaskers
V
Van Horn, Keith
VanVleet, Fred
Vertical Spacers
W
Wade, Dwyane
Walking Buckets
Wall, John
Wallace, Ben
Wallace, Rasheed
Webber, Chris
Westbrook, Russell
Wet Noodles
Winning Bias
Woodson, Mike
X
Xs and Os
Y
Yokels
Young, Trae
Z
Zen Master
Zion
Zoomers
A HISTORY OF TIME
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
THANK-YOUS
FOREWORD
DESUS NICE
Growing up in the Bronx, we had no basketball hoops. If you had one, someone would steal it. It wasn t always safe going to the park in the hood because of stray shots and shit. On my block, there was a sign on one of the buildings that said Absolutely No Ball Playing. So, we decided that it would be the hoop-if the basketball hit that sign, it counted. We played 21 against it with full basketball rules and had a little tournament. That s the beauty of basketball. It doesn t take much to play. It s almost the perfect sport.
My house has always been a Knicks house. I ve been going to games all my life with my sisters and my mom. You didn t really care if they won or lost. We ve always gone for the atmosphere. There might be a fight in the stands, or you got a chance to boo Isiah Thomas. It was a great way to get your New York frustrations out. Being a Knicks fan has given me a greater appreciation for basketball: you learn about the fundamentals, you learn about playmaking, you learn about the things that your team should be doing.
The most impressive thing I ve seen was when Melo set the arena s scoring record. It was just a random night against the Charlotte Bobcats, but it was such a group experience. I stood up for every shot and you re high-fiving people you ve never seen in your life (now that we ve been through COVID, I figure that s how things spread). And then there were the bad days, like when J. R. Reid had the heavy foul on the virgin A. C. Green and knocked his front teeth out.
I ve been in the same section since before Desus Mero , before the podcast, before any of this. There are security guards that just know me as a very aggressive Knicks fan that loves to drink and eat steak sandwiches. But they re the ones who will say, low-key, I saw what you did with Obama and I m proud of you. You made my day. Going to Madison Square Garden is just a love affair. All the fans rock with us, the celebrities rock with us. I m one of the few people who can get teary-eyed when I see Steve Schirripa. The fans have the same energy whether it s Red Panda kicking a ball off her head at halftime or a Game 7.
The last Knicks game I went to was the day Kobe died. It was one of the saddest games I ve ever been to, but everyone at Madison Square Garden carried themselves with a sense of respect and reverence. We lost someone who did something here on the biggest stage. No other arena really feels like that. No shots fired, but you don t really have people dying to go to an arena in Memphis. We go so hard as Knicks fans because we love that place.
My favorite Knicks player of all-time is Latrell Sprewell. He played with such reckless abandon. And every time he came down the court, he looked like he was going to murder someone. He could jump so high and he had those braids. At the time, he looked like what people were telling us to be terrified of in the Central Park wilding and things like that. He was just the personification of anger in the NBA. And from a non-basketball perspective, the idea that he choked out his boss-we could all relate to that. He also had sneakers that had spinning rims and went on to be one of the biggest tax scofflaws. Just because he stopped playing, it doesn t mean he stopped being great.
That generation brought a new energy and new blood to the game. This sounds like the worst cliche from a Rolling Stone writer from 1991, but it felt like the Hip-Hop-ification of basketball. The underlying aspects of the culture changed and it just became cooler. When Allen Iverson came into the league, it was one of the first times you looked on the court and saw yourself. He looked like one of your homies that literally came off the corner and was lighting people up. He didn t change or anything, got the same outfit on. We carry ourselves the same.
Your heroes became human. They became accessible. They re not deities like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. But then you saw them on the court and they could play . Like the first time when A.I. crossed up Jordan-that was scientifically not supposed to happen. It changed how you rooted for teams and what it meant to be an NBA fan. It s similar to when you went from Nintendo to Xbox: same video games, but it was completely different.
I miss the physicality of the old games, but they were just straight-up having fistfights without fouls being called. It s wild to watch now. We remember it as majestic and poetic. We remember Magic Johnson doing this skyhook. But are these our actual memories or have they been carefully edited by the NBA and put over a beautiful score by John Tesh? If you look back, the games were ugly. The players were ugly. The outfits were ugly. It was a rougher sport for a rougher world-take an elbow to the face and keep it moving.
I don t want to say today s game is polished, but it s more fine-tuned. There s more precision. It s like someone playing the violin, lightly plucking the strings and just floating. I love the pacing and spacing. Anyone could hit a 3. Now you get the chance to see Damian Lillard shoot the ball from the opposite locker room and it s one that he regularly hits. But no player is completely unstoppable. The game kind of balances itself, like a physical game of chess. If you watch it enough, it turns into The Queen s Gambit -you see Xs and Os on the court. If an old, stodgy curmudgeon like myself can come around to it, anyone can.
In the past, players didn t have the power they have today. You never had Kyrie Irving saying, Yo, I m taking a personal day. If that had happened in the eighties, Ronald Reagan would have had his house bombed. You weren t allowed to be an individual. You were just a player with a number on your back and you did what the coach and the organization said. And now you see players actually picking their destiny, deciding where they re going, and who they re playing with. It s not a bad thing.
I was at a dinner with a player-I m not going to use his name-and he said one of the reasons he didn t want to go somewhere was because of the travel time to the arena. You can get a Nike deal, unlimited groupies, fifty cars, and Drake as a sidekick, but no one wants to go to a job that they re miserable at. Trust me. The old heads say this new generation is soft. But in the back of their heads, they re thinking they should have been more aggressive about their happiness.
You would think NBA players are super-sensitive. But they love when we mention them on the show or the podcast, even if it s in a negative way. Me and Mero don t do that thing where we pretend to be sports analysts. We re going to joke about your goofy haircut, the clothes you wore when you were walking into the arena, or the person you re dating. It s nothing hurtful and we re funny. And that helps a lot, because these players are really tall and they re really sca