by William Gildea ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 8, 1997
In Indiana, Gildea shows, the yearly high-school basketball tournament is nothing less than an affirmation of the Hoosier way of life, one made of ``industrious, hospitable, down-home folk who enjoy popcorn, race cars and BASKETBALL.'' Every year since 1911, all high schools—from small towns to big cities—have gone head-to-head in the state championship tournament. Starting with this season, however, the Davids and the Goliaths must go their own ways in four tourneys bracketed by school enrollment. During the 199697 season, Washington Post sportswriter Gildea (When the Colts Belonged to Baltimore, 1994) criscrossed Indiana to follow the fortunes of players and schools in the final version of ``Hoosier Hysteria.'' Along the way, he immersed himself in tournament lore, gauged Hoosiers' sentiments about the new tournament's format, and assessed how it would alter Indiana's essential character. Gildea's story is steeped in nostalgia, and as he tells it, one can't help but imagine clean-cut boys in black canvas hightops lobbing set shots, just as they did in 1954 when fabled Milan High toppled all comers on the way to their improbable state crown. However, as Gildea points out, modern-day realities take a significantly different form: Schools occasionally ``recruit'' students from other communities or, in the case of Bloomington North High, students of other nations. And many standout players are already looking to take their game to the next level. Attendant inequities aside, some things never change. The '96'97 tourney, like so many before it, saw the Cinderella team of Delta High (student body 916) capture the state's imagination by playing its way into the finals (where it was crushed by a bigger, deeper, more talented team). Regardless of the outcome, this game only served to underscore what Indiana basketball stands to lose in the future: the chance each year to witness a potential legend in the making. As a veteran of the Milan championship squad said: ``David doesn't beat Goliath very often, that's why it's still a good story.''
Pub Date: Dec. 8, 1997
ISBN: 0-316-51967-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1997
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by Larry Bird & Earvin “Magic” Johnson Jr. with Jackie MacMullan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 2009
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
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by Bill Walton ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2016
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
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by Bill Walton with Gene Wojciechowski
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