Next book

STEALING THE WAVE

THE EPIC STRUGGLE BETWEEN KEN BRADSHAW AND MARK FOO

A passionately written, engaging sports narrative.

The strange love triangle of two young men and the sea.

British journalist Martin presents the longstanding rivalry between big wave surfers Ken Bradshaw and Mark Foo as a world-shaking clash of titans, a dialectical struggle of mythic scope and profundity. His protagonists are two legendary pioneering Hawaii-based surfers who, forced together by dint of their prominence in the scene, struck all manner of sparks off of each other, developing a complex relationship that progressed from hatred to grudging respect to eventual partnership and, ultimately, tragedy. The two men could hardly be more different: Bradshaw, a native Texan, hirsute, aggressive and monastically devoted to the ideal of “pure” surfing, took the sport so seriously that he literally bit chunks out of the boards of dilettantes who failed to recognize and respect the protocols of “his” turf, Waimea Bay. By contrast, Mark Foo, a diffident, charming Chinese American with movie star looks and charisma, devoted himself to exploiting his freakish natural talent for riding massive waves to reap media attention, financial rewards and women. As the two men came to dominate Hawaii’s unforgiving North Shore, conflict between the two was inevitable, and Foo in due course found himself with a Bradshaw-chewed board. Martin persuasively and vividly conveys the psychology and personalities of these outsized figures, and the gradual rapprochement of the bitter rivals becomes fascinating and oddly touching. The tragic death that claims one of the men at the end of the book has surprising emotional power, its ironies and grimly inevitable quality fulfilling the “epic” claim made in the book’s title. There is also much interesting information about the history of surfing and the Hawaiian culture that nurtures it, and Martin, an avid surfer himself, deftly evokes the excitement and terror of riding a 30-foot wall of water.

A passionately written, engaging sports narrative.

Pub Date: June 1, 2007

ISBN: 1-59691-380-0

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2007

Next book

WHEN THE GAME WAS OURS

Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.

NBA legends Bird and Johnson, fierce rivals during their playing days, team up on a mutual career retrospective.

With megastars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and international superstars like China’s Yao Ming pushing it to ever-greater heights of popularity today, it’s difficult to imagine the NBA in 1979, when financial problems, drug scandals and racial issues threatened to destroy the fledgling league. Fortunately, that year marked the coming of two young saviors—one a flashy, charismatic African-American and the other a cocky, blond, self-described “hick.” Arriving fresh off a showdown in the NCAA championship game in which Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores—still the highest-rated college basketball game ever—the duo changed the course of history not just for the league, but the sport itself. While the pair’s on-court accomplishments have been exhaustively chronicled, the narrative hook here is unprecedented insight and commentary from the stars themselves on their unique relationship, a compelling mixture of bitter rivalry and mutual admiration. This snapshot of their respective careers delves with varying degrees of depth into the lives of each man and their on- and off-court achievements, including the historic championship games between Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics, their trailblazing endorsement deals and Johnson’s stunning announcement in 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV. Ironically, this nostalgic chronicle about the two men who, along with Michael Jordan, turned more fans onto NBA basketball than any other players, will likely appeal primarily to a narrow cross-section of readers: Bird/Magic fans and hardcore hoop-heads.

Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-547-22547-0

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009

Next book

BACK FROM THE DEAD

One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.

A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”

Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.

One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.

Pub Date: March 8, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016

Close Quickview