A short reading list.
Today in New York, you can’t go to lower Manhattan because the streets are filled with Knicks fans. My city is still on fire from their historic championship win last weekend. People who couldn’t name a single NBA player a month ago (ahem, that’s me) have developed expertise and regional patriotism overnight. Thanks to Jalen, OG, Josh and Carl, the atmosphere on the road hasn’t been better since Obama’s win in 2008.
Still, I suspect the serious sports fan will complain. Where will all this goodwill go after the parade is over? One lesson from this historic season is can I love basketball year-round, not just when games are being projected on the sides of bodegas. But suppose your nature is dull and your hand-eye coordination is poor.
Literary sportswriting is a long American tradition. But in view of grantlandAfter his passing it has become difficult to find diamonds in this style. There are some great basketball books out there. And fanatics always have ESPN. But if you’re a casual reader on the bench, you can check out some of these features first.
Here’s what to read if you are About Ready to commit to basketball.
from still Love and basketball. Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan.
1. Hanif Abdurraqib’s “Notes on Hoops” paris review
Abdurraqib’s 2021 column for Review “The Golden Age of Basketball Movies Revisited”. People close to them read the classics love and basketball And white men can’t jump Focus on the grandeur of the game, and ground b-ball in rich American history.
Comments ranged from the abstract (“In most sports movies, no one can actually play the game”) to the personal (“(like Mike) is at least partly about loneliness, about placelessness, about wanting to pull back the curtain from a world where a child feels worthy of being wanted”). A great place to start, given that he’s one of our best bards, full stop.
2. Katie Heindel’s “basketball feelings”Substack
The newsletter, launched on TinyLetter in 2018, attempts to “reconcile life with basketball” while highlighting “the cultural, political, historical and ideological contradictions of the game.” Heindel is a devoted but philosophical fan. she wants to meditate Miracle As for the offseason turmoil.
He has also written about women’s basketball the believerAnd recently published a breathless nix play by Play For SB Nation. Their coverage is detailed, enthusiastic and will soon be compiled into a book transit. I especially like her more tender ideas, like This one.
3. John McPhee’s “A sense of where you are” the new Yorker
This long profile from 1965 New Yorker Bill Bradley, an Ivy League hooper once considered the best of the best and the brightest, on the field. Later turned into a book, this essay was one of the first to put a human face to the world of college sports.
Although powerful geographically, McPhee’s ability to break down a player’s gifts makes a poetic case for the game.
4. Giri Nathan, turncoat
An employee and co-founder at one of our previous good sports writing centers (turncoatFTW!), Nathan regularly writes about tennis And basketball—often in a witty register that makes the players feel like friends. I loved their enthusiastic coverage of this year’s finals. (and glorious Result.)
Nathan’s reputation is also well established. He Profile Abdurraqib For vulture Around the publication of the latter memoir, This year it always happens: on basketball and Ascension.
And, in general? turncoat This is the place to go for all good hoops writing, au current. Maitreyi Anantharaman is writing stylish report About the WNBA And a huge bench of freelancers is making this all-American game dramatic, accessible and exciting – even for scrappy casuals.
5. John Edgar Widmann, circle roots
I leave you to read for a long time. Wideman, one of our more prolific and fascinating novelists, wrote a detailed memoir of his own time in court in 2003. Combining reflections from love letters with poetry, this strange blend reconstructs the author’s college days as a champion.
Another great lay-up for the abstract fan.
