A knowledgeable, entertaining account of a sport’s seemingly unstoppable growth.
The league that’s too big to fail.
Football diehards and casual fans alike will find plenty of interest in this dexterous blend of analysis, character study, and behind-the-scenes color. The New York Times’ Belson opens with a stunning fact: “Seven players from the 2001 New England Patriots”—Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl season—“died before they passed fifty years old.” The long-term impact of the game’s violence causes public relations nightmares for the NFL, but as Belson shows, Patriots’ owner Kraft, Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jones, and league commissioner Goodell have become adept at weathering scandal while generating ever-greater revenue. “Social chameleon” Kraft and Jones, who employed his “haphazard speaking style” when likening negotiations with the players’ union to an owl and a chicken having sex, shared a goal. “The league’s two most powerful owners” were “desperate” to settle big debts incurred when buying their teams, Belson writes. Jones built a showcase stadium and aggressively sold marketing rights, urging other owners to follow. Kraft, “the closer” in a pivotal labor deal with players, also cleaned up messes. After the league botched its reaction to player protests about police violence against Black people, Kraft burnished the NFL’s image by forging a high-profile partnership with Jay-Z. “Once again,” Belson writes, the league fixed “a crisis by throwing its money and marketing muscle around.” The NFL’s cash grabs can be brazen. One stadium has been renamed eight times by a parade of companies that bought the rights. By 2027, the league could meet Goodell’s annual revenue goal of $25 billion. Run by self-styled free marketeers, the NFL resembles “a socialist collective,” with TV deals guaranteeing each owner $400 million a year. Alongside user-friendly financial reporting, Belson shares funny anecdotes about owner pettiness, vanity, and arrogance.
A knowledgeable, entertaining account of a sport’s seemingly unstoppable growth.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781538772553
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
Infectiously enthusiastic appraisals of NBA and WNBA stars.
Revering roundball royalty.
Fervor fuels this impressionistic celebration of basketball’s greatest performers. Serrano, the author of bestsellers about sports and pop culture, sticks with what’s made him successful, peppering this collection of essays about LeBron James, A’ja Wilson, and others with go-for-broke adjectives and references to rappers and action movies. You might not agree that Kobe Bryant’s final game was “monumental” or that the Golden State Warriors’ record 73 wins was a “godly” achievement, but Serrano is irresistibly passionate, a fan-writer who greets each game as a chance to be awed. Its title notwithstanding, this effervescent book isn’t about player contracts or billion-dollar revenue streams. To the author, “expensive” is synonymous with virtuosity. Ray Allen’s textbook jump shot was expensive. Though Serrano quotes William Carlos Williams in a chapter about WNBA all-timer Sue Bird, he’s more apt to cite blockbuster films, prestige TV, and hip-hop. Often, this works nicely. His inspired paean to Giannis Antetokounmpo is probably the first time that a streaky free-throw shooter has been likened to “cool-as-fuck” Helen Mirren’s unlikely appearance in The Fate of the Furious. Conversely, Serrano’s long list of memorable rap lyrics adds little to his Stephen Curry chapter. The author is appealingly self-effacing—a footnote calls attention to his “dorkiest” sentence—and watchful for manifestations of unbridled athletic joy, like the gleeful “little jump-skip thing” Dwyane Wade did after tossing an alley-oop pass. His support of the WNBA is just as strong as his love of the men’s game. DeWanna Bonner, Brittney Griner, and Diana Taurasi “are sledgehammers covered in scorpions.” Wilson “is a goddamn basketball obliteration monster.” Serrano is great at exploring how fans’ memories of their favorite players intermingle with important events from their lives. That’s the subject of his affable chapter about former San Antonio Spur Tim Duncan.
Infectiously enthusiastic appraisals of NBA and WNBA stars.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781538755228
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
“Protect your passion,” writes an NBA star in this winning exploration of how we can succeed in life.
A future basketball Hall of Famer’s rosy outlook.
Curry is that rare athlete who looks like he gets joy from what he does. There’s no doubt that the Golden State Warriors point guard is a competitor—he’s led his team to four championships—but he plays the game with nonchalance and exuberance. That ease, he says, “only comes from discipline.” He practices hard enough—he’s altered the sport by mastering the three-point shot—so that he achieves a “kind of freedom.” In that “flow state,” he says, “I can let joy and creativity take over. I block out all distractions, even the person guarding me. He can wave his arms and call me every name in the book, but I just smile and wait as the solution to the problem—how to get the ball into the basket—presents itself.” Curry shares this approach to his craft in a stylish collection that mixes life lessons with sharp photographs and archival images. His dad, Dell, played in the NBA for 16 years, and Curry learned much from his father and mother: “My parents were extremely strict about me and my little brother Seth not going to my pops’s games on school nights.” Curry’s mother, Sonya, who founded the Montessori elementary school that Curry attended in North Carolina, emphasized the importance not just of learning but of playing. Her influence helped Curry and his wife, Ayesha, create a nonprofit foundation: Eat. Learn. Play. He writes that “making reading fun is the key to unlocking a kid’s ability to be successful in their academic journeys.” The book also has valuable pointers for ballers—and those hoping to hit the court. “Plant those arches—knees bent behind those 10 toes pointing at the hoop, hips squared with your shoulders—and draw your power up so you explode off the ground and rise into your shot.” Sounds easy, right?
“Protect your passion,” writes an NBA star in this winning exploration of how we can succeed in life.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780593597293
Page Count: 432
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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