Duke Memorable Stories Devil Basketball Image

Duke Memorable Stories Devil Basketball Photo

Duke Memorable Stories Devil Basketball Pic

Duke Memorable Stories Devil Basketball Picture

Duke Memorable Stories Devil Basketball Picture

Duke Memorable Stories Devil Basketball Picture

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Solid
By D. Lee
A solid and quick DVD recap of the entire 2010 championship year. Personally, I prefer watching the full games, but am crazy about all things Duke basketball. If you’re a Duke fan, definitely worth your consideration.

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As a beginning coach, I ignored warm-ups and employed half-speed two-ball dribbling drills as a warm-up for more intense activenesses for the duration of practice. When I moved to Sweden to coach a professional women’s basketball team, the players were married to their warm-ups and could not function without an extended warm-up period. When I practiced with the club’s men’s team, I felt like more than half the exercise was a warm-up. I acquiesced, in a sense, with my team: we arrived before our exercise time and players jumped rope for 5-10 minutes above the bleachers as our warm-up and then we did one sub-maximal drill on the court before moving into our practice.

In our initial game, our contestant expended 25 of the allotted 30 minutes of pre-game warm-up using a basketball. Later in the season, I watched another player go through an broad plyometric pre-game warm-up. While Americans criticize European players for their defensive deficiencies, the Swedish players’ defensive footwork impressed me. We in general assume that a foreign-born player with adept footwork formulated her footwork by playing soccer, but as I reflected on my experience coaching abroad, it appeared as though their pre-game and exercise routines concentered on footwork and led to it is development.

The following season, as I prepared workouts and exercise routines, I enforced a series of warm-ups to begin practice: drills to focus on footwork and jumping ability. Coaching women, the pre-practice jumping and agility program is an undertake to increase performance and reduce injuries, as researchers believe women may reduce the peril of ACL injury through a little plyometric routine.

I use three usual warm-up routines: (1) jump rope’ (2) stations or (3) full court dynamic warm-up (carioca, running backwards, bounding, lateral bounding, high knees, butt kicks and high/power skips). Our warm-up now lasts 10-15 minutes.

Warm-up Stations

When we do our station warm-up, we jog, backpedal and carioca. Since we have 10 players, we work in pairs. Our focus is to instruct quick changes of direction and first-step quickness.

Station 1: Mirror Drill (15 seconds on, rest for 15 seconds, 15 seconds on)

We instruct most of our on-ball defensive stance and motion through this drill and later in 1v1 drills. The players face each other and one player starts as the offensive player and one as the defender. The offensive player leads, moving laterally, and the defensive player tries to stay face to face. The offensive player’s goal is to give rise to space amid the two of them, while the defender tries to stay within the width of the offensive player’s body.

Station 2: Mikan Drill

The original player goes for 30 seconds and then the second player goes. Drill exercises baby-hook shots. Start underneath the basket and step out with the left foot on the right side to shoot with the right hand; grab the ball from the net, keeping the ball above your shoulders and step to the left side of the rim with your right foot, shooting with the left hand. Continue.

Station 3: Jump Squats

Squat and jump as high as possible, swinging arms high into the air. Focus on a soft landing so they land in the right manner from a vertical jump and absorb the strength of the affect all around the muscles of their legs, not just in the quadriceps and knee joint. Squat to a half-squat, with the bottom of the thighs parallel to the ground before jumping.

Station 4: X-Lay-ups

Make as a great deal of lay-ups in 30 seconds and then switch. Start at one elbow, dribble and try a lay-up. Rebound and run to the other elbow; dribble and undertake a lay-up from the other side. Continue for 30 seconds.

Station 5: Partner Shooting

Player 1 passes to Player 2 and closes out. P2 catches, shoots and follows her shot. P1 contests the shot and relocates, moving without disturbance and calling for the ball. P2 passes to P1 and contests shot. Partners shoot for one minute.

Station 6: McHale Drill

Left hand tips ball without disturbance versus the backboard while the right hand grabs the net (rim). Do six and switch to the right hand side. Right hand tips ball versus backboard while left hand grabs the net (rim). Repeat on the left hand side for a total of 18 tips. Switch partners.

Station 7: T-Drill with 2 Ball Dribbling

Set up the T-Drill with cones 5-7 feet detached in the shape of a T. Start at the base of the T and sprint forward while dribbling two balls. Shuffle to the left cone, then to the right cone and at last back to the intersection. Back pedal to the base of the T. Go three times and rotate. The other player exercises stationary two-ball drills while resting.

These quick drills provide a fast-paced warm-up that needs little instruction and insures the players break a sweat. Our focus is getting through the drills quickly: players sprint from station to station and exercise with intensity in each drill. The warm-up focuses on ball control (6 and 7), quick changes of direction (1 and 7), jumping (3 and 6) and shooting (2, 4 and 5), training a potpourri of attainments in a short amount of time.

Sports For Her Dribbling Basketball Pic

Sports For Her Dribbling Basketball Picture

Sports For Her Dribbling Basketball Photo

Sports For Her Dribbling Basketball Pic

Sports For Her Dribbling Basketball Image

Sports For Her Dribbling Basketball Image

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Most players merely play too much basketball. The days of training 6 hours per day in an try to be like Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird are DEAD. Embrace short, high intensity basketball workouts or fall behind your competition.

Basketball players in queer are notorious for over training and need to make sure they recover in particular well. This allows you to work on your athletic capacity in the off season and genuinely make progression rather of spinning your wheels.

In the off season you must be making a point to train your athletic capacity harder and make more progress. You can’t train on the court more than an hour or so per day, 4 or 5 days per week if you want to make progression in the gym. It can’t be done.

Get off the court and start out recovering.

If you take a look at the pros and NBA players, the main divergence amongst those guys and lower level players is their body. There are a great deal of high school and college players who are close to an NBA skill level (seriously, you’d be surprised) but they just can’t play with the pros because they are too little and weak.

But anyway, I shouldn’t have to trade you on the idea of making yourself more inviolable and more athletic in the off season, that ought to be evident to you. What’s necessary to understand, however, is that recovery is key to making progression in your basketball training.

Here are 4 of my quick and dirty tips for supercharging your recovery:

First, sleep at least 9 hours per night, with as a great deal of of those hours as possible coming before midnight. In a perfective world, you would sleep from 10 until 7.

Second, foam roll each single day to break up all the scar tissue and adhesions in your muscle that get tied up when you train hard for basketball.

Third, eat whole, unprocessed foods 4-6 times per day. This will give your body the building blocks it needs to recover.

Last, take naps for the duration of the day for no longer than 15 minutes. You might not fall asleep but the simple act of lying down and turning off your brain will mainly accelerate your progress.

Those are 4 of my quick and dirty tips for accelerating your recovery from your basketball training. Add them to your training and you will be successful.

Bird Basketball Larry Photo

Bird Basketball Larry Picture

Bird Basketball Larry Photo

Bird Basketball Larry Image

Bird Basketball Larry Picture

Bird Basketball Larry Photo

The NBA has specified basketball sizes not just for official men’s, women’s, and junior league games, but likewise unofficial games for children and youth. These size specifications aid you choose the right ball for yourself or your children, and it is commended that they be followed strictly to stay clear from injury for the duration of play.

Basketball is a physically vigorous game, with moves that implicate running, jumping, blocking, and shooting. The injuries for the duration of the game are categorized into upper body and lower body injuries. While lower body injuries may be prevented by proper shoes, training, and padding, upper body injuries are best prevented by using basketballs of proper size and weight.

According to a survey published by the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), basketball ranks fourth amidst the major causes of injury in the US. A study cited on iqHealth.com says that basketball causes 20% of all injuries in children aged 10 to 14. iqHealth.com goes on to suggest that proper basketball weight and size go a long way in preventing such injuries. The NBA commended basketball size for children in this age group is 27.25″, with weight around 12 oz.

Injuries due to improper basketball size are also prevalent among children under the age of 7. NBA recommends that very young children be given foam or rubber basketballs with a 22″ circumference and weight of 8 oz.

The CDC found that girls are more often and acutely injured than boys for the duration of basketball games. For adolescents girls among the ages of 14- 16, NBA recommends “junior” basketballs of circumference 27.75″ (size 5), with a weight of around 18 oz. Also, the ball for women’s official games is 28.5″ in circumference (size 6) and weigh 20 oz. The men’s official basketball, by comparison, is more spectacular (29.5″ or size 7), weighing 22 oz.

Even training balls that are not used for official matches have sure size and weight criteria. For shot training, the men’s training basketball has 36″ circumference (size 9). The women’s basketball is 33.5″ or size 8. The men’s weighted ball used for muscle building exercises is 29.5″ in circumference and the women’s ball is 28.5″, with weight a little more than the official balls.

Choosing the right ball is essential for your health and safety, and these guidelines ought to be adhered to while purchasing basketballs for official or unofficial games.

Official Price Guide Basketball Cards Image

Official Price Guide Basketball Cards Photo

Official Price Guide Basketball Cards Image

Official Price Guide Basketball Cards Photo

Official Price Guide Basketball Cards Photo

Official Price Guide Basketball Cards Photo

One of the unforgettable visits we made when in the US in 2006 was to an necessary landmark in the face of downtown Louisville, the Humana Building, a skyscraper located at 500 West Main Street. This towering 27-story structure is headquarters of the Humana Corporation now one of the leading companies in the US providing lowpriced and flexible health-care plans to millions.

This large, prosperous corporation in seeking to build a headquarter structure that would stand as an eloquent statement versus the prevailing conventional, modernist corporate architecture, sponsored an architectural contest from which to determine the best design. Michael Graves the widely known and esteemed New Jersey architect, emerged as the chosen architect from a competitory pool of a great deal of of the most widely known and esteemed architects.. Scale models of those designs are shown on display in a vestibule located directly above the Main Street entrance of the building

The Humana Building is the greatest and most ambitious work so far of an architect whose career has taken off with astonishing speed. Amongst his works are: the Portland Building in Portland, Oregon., the San Juan Capistrano Library in southern California, the new museum for Emory University in Atlanta and the elaboration for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

The construction of the Humana Building which started out in October 1982 was finished in May 1985. Occupying an area of 588,400 square feet it has been built to accommodate 1,650 humans at an approximate cost of 60 Million dollars. It is one of Graves’ best known projects. For, in addition to receiving The American Institute of Architects National Honor Award in 1987 TIME Magazine listed it as one of the 10 best buildings of the 1980′s. It is also widely recognized as one of the most distinguishable skyscrapers in America, as well as a textbook example of Post-modernism. It is a richly colored composition made up of abstract, highly personal variations on classical forms, a kind of collage of modernist and classical elements, put together in a way that is like none of it is influences but establishing it is distinguishable post-modernist identity.

Graves in designing the building wanted it to fit within the context of downtown Louisville, taking cues from the Ohio River, it is bridges, and the 19th-century streetscape and skyline of Main Street. It is enjoyably amazing how neatly this building harmonizes with the streetscape and skyline of Louisville. ” This is a tower built to sit on a city street, not behind an empty plaza, and it relates effortlessly to it is neighbors.”.It is without doubt a great accomplishment fitting it so well to the other structures which are largely three- and four-story 19th-century mercantile structures, a lot of of cast iron, Louisville’s real architectural treasure. “A full block of these old buildings sits along Main Street just west of Humana, and the base of the new tower joins them as neatly and graciously as any tall building has ever met a group of littler ones.The little old buildings and the huge new one meet comfortably, the new one never in direct imitation of the old, but it is shapes, colors and details set in careful accommodation. The reciprocally supportive kinship these buildings have stands in stunning contrast to the way in which the immense, mute tower of black glass that sits on Main Street on the other side of Humana relates to it is neighbors. That cold box, perfectly aloof from all that is around it, is an anti-urban bequest of Louisville’s last architectural generation. Humana is a response to all that that building stands for, and it can not but be a civilizing presence in Louisville.” Materials applied on it are expensive–pink granite for most of the surface, with various other polished granites. .

Each side of the building is designed more or less differently, up to a sloping pyramid style for the upper few floors. Like a lot of post innovative skyscrapers, it uses the classically-based tripartite division with a strong sense of a base.–the 8 story loggia extending in front of the office structure, a shaft, and a top.at the same level as the height of the nearby structures. This eight-story base of flat pink granite has an open arcade, of square, deep red granite columns occupying the firstborn various floors. Above the base, but set back substantially from it, rises the main slab of the tower, sheathed in pink granite and punctuated by comparatively small, square windows, with a shaft of solid glass running up the center. Rising further up, the square windows give way to a big expanse of glass for assorted floors. A huge metal truss, projecting out of the building supports a huge, curving loggia, a kind of flying balcony at the top of the building. This large, curved percentage towards the top of the building is an open-air observation deck with. the outermost point of the circle providing space for a few humans at a time surrounded by glass, to have a spectacular view of the Ohio River and down Main Street. Grave’s inspiration for this curved balcony came from a Victorian engraving of a family admiring the Ohio River from an old water tower. Above the loggia, the top of the building slants inward as a kind of gabled crown.This ziggurat–or notched gable-is -topped by a curved roof. The main points of interest in the building include this loggia, the waterfall, the lobby, the Rotunda, the Mezzanine and the 25th floor.

The Loggia has a 50-foot waterfall as an architectural gesture to the Ohio River a reminder of the city of Louisville’s origins at the fall of the Ohio more than 200 years ago. The open-air front share of the loggia holds a big fountain. The loggia’s columns are clad in pink and green granite and are beautified with gold-leaf colour.

The entrance is set in a curved wall with waterfall fountains on both sides. This curved six-section water dam or water fall is an architectural gesture to the nearby Ohio River .Giant columns surround the entry area.50 feet down the granite pilasters on opposite sides of the main entrance. Eight vertical fountains in front of the pillars supplement the waterfall. The front of the building features an outdoor atrium with a skylight high above the main entrance

The lobby, built of granite of dissimilar colors from dissimilar constituents of the world is like the loggia a public space designed to welcome visitors. First there are white and grey granite from Italy and black marble from France. These are beautifully detailed, richly colored and combined deftly sufficient to provide visual assortment at no cost to overall coherence with a calm, and self-assured hand. The lobby is reached from Main Street through a 450 pound weight bronze entrance door which is itself another valued feature.

The Rotunda, a classical architectural structure, is another point of interest in the building. Also on the firstborn floor, access to it is gained through the lobby or through the Fifth street entrance. The rotunda features the building’s directory, an data desk and two striking and firstborn Roman marble statues sculpted approximately 1,970 years ago. The one nearest to the selective information desk is titled “Roman Statue of the Goddess Fortuna.” The second is called “Roman Statue of a Goddess” Marbles flank the vestibule at the Main Street entrance leading to the other point of interest in the building, the Mezzanine to the south of which you will discover a seated statue which is claimed to be an 1,800 year old marble from the Roman Empire.

The 25th floor features the sun room in the façade of the building. Each floor has it is own glass-enclosed, curved-fronted sun-room facing south serving as an employees’ lounge. The big pyramid-like shaped ending of the terrace represent the dam at the Fall of the Ohio. This could be effortlessly accessed from the reception hall. The terrace on the façade is supported by a steel gridwork truss as an architectural symbol of the a lot of metal truss bridges spanning the Ohio.just besides the building’s site. The bruised steel sculpture in the reception hall is entitled “Constructed Head 2″ and is said to have been done by a Russian-born artisan Naum Gabo in 1918

The building also has much deft use of space. The superb public space at the base and the great, columned arcade are most exciting. Its square columns are articulated in gold-leaf fluting, and the space has a tame curve to it to accommodate a waterfall and fountain on either side of the main entrance There are well measured sequences amongst all the spaces. The front door leads to a little vestibule, which in turn opens to a large, roughly square lobby; that leads on to a rotunda, and only after the rotunda come the elevator lobbies. But the sequence is clear, and the motion direct and simple. And the large, three-story-tall lobby, surrounded by a second-floor arcade of it is own, provides welcome breathing space and freedom.

On the whole as Paul Goldberger appreciates it in The New York Times:

It is a compelling form – exerting a powerful visual attraction. Humana is a warm and inviting building. It is both severe and visually alive. It is neither a deadly bore nor frivolous. It is neither boring nor foolish -it is at once a building of great dignity and a building of great energy and passion.

Not far from this building are other structures owned and occupied by Humana: the Waterside Building at 1st and Main, and the Riverview Square at 2nd and Main Streets. Humana which leases space in three downtown buildings-National City in the 400 block of Main Street, the 515 Building on Market Street, and the ISB Building on Magazine Street has plans to lease more space in the Waterfront Plaza East Tower in the 300 block of Main Street.

Humana not so long ago undertook the historic preservation of a city block of assorted 19th Century buildings located besides this headquarter building. It is working with preservation experts to assure that the historic integrity of the block is maintained. With more than 8,500 laborers in downtown Louisville Humana justifiably so acutely pursues it is dream of not only altering the face of downtown Louisville but likewise to reattract habitation and provide accommodation for it is growing staff nearby. It has remained committed to and involved in bettering the quality of life in respective cities, just as they’re devoted to bettering the health of their plan members. Excited with regards to bringing all of their Jacksonville workers together in a premier downtown location, giving them outstanding potential for continued growth,Humana purchased the largely vacant Jacksonville Center in April 1998 for $32 million with plans to renovate and relocate it is then-1,200 laborers scattered allround the city in seven buildings. The laborers integrate one of Humana’s four major territorial service centers, handling claims processing and client service functions for the company’s southeastern-U.S. members, as well as the company’s Jacksonville health plan administrative and sales staffs.So in effect the Humana building is just the hurb around which spins the multifarous interests and involvements of Humana in health care, insurance, art collection, performing arts, charity, the creation of a immense expanse of parks and the endowment of sterling attempts among Americans especially.

Sources:

A guided tour of the Humana building in June 2006

AN APPRAISAL;THE HUMANA BUILDING in LOUISVILLE: COMPELLING WORK by MICHAEL GRAVES By Paul Goldberger, Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/kentucky/louisville/humana/humana.html

University Of Louisville Basketball Tickets Photo

University Of Louisville Basketball Tickets Picture

University Of Louisville Basketball Tickets Picture

University Of Louisville Basketball Tickets Photo

University Of Louisville Basketball Tickets Pic

University Of Louisville Basketball Tickets Photo

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Superb example of what a state atlas should be like.
By Hamilton
Chock full of information. Very colorful, lots of photos, maps, and graphs. This should be used as a standard for every state atlas.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Atlas of Kentucky
By Murray J. Akers
This is a geo-political publication, NOT an atlas in the normal sense of the word. In fact, calling it an atlas without further clarification of its true nature is extremely misleading.

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Have you been wanting to Watch College Basketball Online? I am going to tell you how you may do this. It actually is easy, and not much to the process. I am going to show you step by step how you may watch college basketball online easily. There are only three steps, so any person must be capable to do this quick.

The basi step is to grasp how you are going to watch TV online. There have been major advancements with the online industry that will concede you to watch basketball and other sporting events online. Most major TV stations are streaming their programs on the Internet as an further and added service to the public. This is here for you to take vantage of.

There are tons of services that assert that they offer TV on the Internet. Some of them are fake, while a heap of are real. The one that I use is very good and I am capable to watch all of the sporting events online. I watch college basketball, football, soccer, polo, and nascar just to name a few. It actually is a great service that offers thousands of channels in addition to sports.

The way it works is that the software acts like a huge guide for all of the channels. After you find what you want to watch the software goes out and starts playing that channel for you. It is actually easy to work and works in truth good. There was a little fee to join, but it was only a one-time-fee.

So, looking at college basketball online is genuinely easy to do. Launch the software and it does the rest for you. It works with Windows Media Player so you will have the best service available that will work on any computer.

You will be competent to watch college basketball online from anyplace there is an Internet connection. I do commend that you use a broadband connection so that you may get the best service available. When I am journeying I plug into the Hotels connection and watch the games while I am away. I also have wireless Internet so I may watch the games in all of the hotspots around the world.

1984 Ncaa Division Basketball Round Photo

1984 Ncaa Division Basketball Round Pic

1984 Ncaa Division Basketball Round Image

1984 Ncaa Division Basketball Round Pic

1984 Ncaa Division Basketball Round Photo

1984 Ncaa Division Basketball Round Image

Sports collectables are one of the most arousing and attention holding hobbies ever. Collecting baseball cards, signed jerseys, jackets, helmets, hats, throwback jerseys, hero posters and signed pictures are one of the most mutual collectables imaginable. A Baseball memorabilia may be maintained by gathering a wide range of these sport collectible articles with the help of the sports collectables values. This is one of the finest ways to aid a queer team or a player in a peculiar sport. Baseball, basketball, NASCAR, football and golf are numerous of the mutual sports where people gather their articles.

Die cast models, hero posters, bobble heads are the most interesting items to collect, when it comes to gathering things in a sport. The most recent item is the Fat heads item. These are the real-sized replicas of the sports person which may be plastered on the wall. As there are big ranges of sports items to be collected, people are confused in regards to where and how to begin their collection of sports collectibles. Collecting sports goods is more of a personal hobby, and it depends highly upon the personal interests and passion of the aggregator toward the sport and the sports persons.

It is even possible to gift your loved ones these sports collectibles. If you find them to be mesmerized in sports, or if they already own a collection, you may gift them a unforgettable sports collectible that you recognise they will cherish. If their interest revolves around gathering baseball goodies, then you may gift them a St. Louis Cardinal collectible. The team has not only won the World Series 2006, but they also have a lot of of the most popular players such as the Alber Pujols, Yadier Molina and Scott Rolen. If NASCAR is your sport of choice, then you may present them with the collectables affiliated with Dale Earnhardt Jr., the reigning king Jimmy Johnson and Tony Stewart. You may likewise gift a collectible of Danica Patrick who took the Indy Racing League by fire. Several baseball goodies are designed in particular for the Christmas season and other holiday occasions. These may be hung over the Christmas tree or over the roof of your home and so on.

Chalktalk Sports Basketball Sport Clock Photo

Chalktalk Sports Basketball Sport Clock Picture

Chalktalk Sports Basketball Sport Clock Photo

Chalktalk Sports Basketball Sport Clock Pic

Chalktalk Sports Basketball Sport Clock Picture

Chalktalk Sports Basketball Sport Clock Image

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107 of 123 people found the following review helpful.
Fantastic read, absurd amount of information
By Charbel Eid
I need to preface this by saying that I’ve been reading Bill Simmons for over 8 years now, before the fame, before the podcasts and almost frightening fan following.I’ve seen him mature from the old Boston Sports Guy to this all-media presence now, and in the process, his writing has greatly improved. The culmination of such an improvement is this wonderful book, “The Book of Basketball”.

I managed to get an early copy of this book, and spent the next 48 hours plowing through it as fast as I could. It’s very clear that Simmons put everything he had into the book. There aren’t a lot of loose words around. Even the genitalia jokes are well-constructed. Yes, it’s pretty good.

The basis of this book is determining who mattered in the NBA. Which teams, players, coaches, etc. played the biggest role in getting us to where we are today, in shaping our perception of what it takes to win in the NBA, and how we remember different players and events. It’s very interesting to see him go back into the 60s and 70s and try to write about Walton, Russell, and Chamberlain and how they were perceived then, and try to get to see what forces created and changed that perception. This is ultimately what the book is all about. It reads almost like a history of the NBA, in a very easy-to-read style.

My personal favorites are his ABA pieces. Not nearly enough has been written about this crazy league, and Simmons did a very good job looking at just how things broke down, at what could have been, and how the ABA led to many fundamental changes in the NBA itself.

Finally, this is definitely a book for the NBA junkie. It’s comic style and easy-to-read writing style does make it accessible to those with only mild-to-intermediate interest in the NBA, but at its core, it’s for the junkies who want to fill up with as much NBA knowledge as possible. It’s a great book, and for its price (as of October 27, 2009), a great deal.

72 of 84 people found the following review helpful.
buy the dead tree edition instead of the Kindle edition
By Christopher J. Pellerito
(10/28) Still working my way through it, but here are my impressions so far:

(1) Buy the dead tree version even if you have a Kindle. Simmons buries an absurd amount of information in the footnotes, a lot more than just citations. They’re set up as endnotes at the end of each chapter, which is awkward for Kindle users. The footnotes are almost like one of those extra audio tracks in a DVD where the director provides running commentary on a film; for better or worse, you’re missing out on a lot if you skip the footnotes. Why he thought this was a good way to write a book is beyond me. But you’re going to want to read the footnotes.

(2) if you bet “under 1.5″ as the first chapter in which an NBA moment is compared to a scene in Shawshank Redemption, you covered.

(3) if this book had an MPAA rating, it would be rated R. He says things that he could never get away with in his ESPN columns. For example, he refers to going off birth control as “pulling the goalie” and calls the Hawks’ selection of Marvin Williams in the 2005 draft (instead of Chris Paul or Deron Williams) “an Aretha Franklin sized mistake.”

(4) I’ve probably read half a dozen different “Wilt or Russell?” articles over the years, and Simmons’ handling of the debate is probably the best one.

Will update in coming days.

Update (11/3): Man Reads Entire Book of Basketball — And Lives!

If the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is the ’86 Celtics of sports history books — a timeless classic that could succeed in any era — then TBOB is the ’79 Sonics: a championship team but not one that will be remembered forever, and one that could probably only have won a championship in its own time. Why does TBOB fall short of the absolute pinnacle? Is it because of the salty language? (No; recall that James’ entry on Don Mattingly in the Abstract is “100% ballplayer, 0% bulls&%$.”) Is it because Simmons can barely contain his disdain for players like Kareem and Laimbeer? (Again, no; James can barely contain his disdain for Rogers Hornsby, Dick Allen, Maury Wills, etc.) Is it the fact that the book contains some post-consumer content (e.g. the entry on Pete Maravich is basically lifted directly from an [...] column he wrote about Pistol a few years back?) Again, James recycled old material for the Abstract, so that’s not it. Ultimately it’s the endless barrage of throwaway pop culture references that is going to make this book feel dated quickly (people might still remember Teen Wolf or Rocky IV in ten years, but is anybody going to care about Keeping Up With the Kardashians in 2019?)

All told, this book has freakish athleticism, jumpability, length, and tremendous upside.

59 of 70 people found the following review helpful.
3.5 stars. Would have been twice as good at half the length.
By Hubcap
If you know who the Sports Guy is, then you know what this book is like. I enjoyed it well enough, but by the end it got a bit tiresome. I’ve got no problem with 700-page books, but I can do without a 700-page book that recycles the same gags over and over and over (and over) again.

The positive side is that it’s a fun ride and an easy read; there’s a ton of info about the NBA and players who should be remembered; and Simmons’ love of the game leaps off of the page.

The negative side is that there’s a lot of padding, a lot of opinion presented as fact, and a whole lot of pseudo-statistics that are less convincing the more you think about them.* Editors are your friends, Simmons. You don’t use the verb “sauntered” twice in three pages. The game is Bid Whist, not Bid Wist. You can’t use your own “Trade Value” columns as independent evidence to support your own opinions. And “infinitely better” does not mean the same thing as “a lot better.”

If Simmons had taken his best 400 pages this would have been a really great book. But he didn’t. But if you like Simmons you’ll like this. Buy it and read it like he recommends: dip into it for 50 pages, then walk away for a while. Because it’s kind of like eating Halloween candy – enjoyable at the moment, but if you do it for too long you get sick of it.

*(My favorite is the table comparing performances for two guards from ages 22 through 24. Except for Allen Iverson he makes the “executive decision” to show ages 23-25 because AI “spent five months in jail and missed his senior year in high school.” Yeah…that’s not really how stats work. You can’t just toss the numbers you don’t like and pick the ones that support your argument. Well, obviously you CAN, but that’s cherry-picking, not statistics.)

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