A Book Recommended for the Avid Hoops Fan

A few days ago, I went to Target while I was on my lunch break from my supermarket duty to buy the eagerly awaited book Basketball: A Love Story, written by veteran sportswriter Jackie MacMullan and Pinoy basketball author Rafe Bartholomew, best remembered for his book on Pinoy hoops Pacific Rims which came out in 2010.

The book contains interviews with well-known basketball personalities related to the NBA, Olympics, women's basketball, US college basketball and even how NBA players back then reacted to being victims of racism.

The third author of the book, Dan Klores, turned the book into a documentary series that was shown on ESPN2 in the US a few days after the book was released. All the episodes can be viewed here in the US via the ESPN+ streaming service available on the ESPN App.

As I write this, I finished reading the first 118 pages of the book and I was able to discover some things that I never knew, such as how women's college basketball took off with the Immaculata University team of Chicago that ruled the US NCAA women's division in the 70s.

There's also a series of interviews about how US college basketball in the 60s and 70s was tainted by scandals involving game-fixing and point-shaving and how the top players back then like Connie Hawkins and Spencer Haywood were initially not allowed to play in the NBA because of their involvement in the scandal.

Another chapter in this book reveals how there was tension between the players and coach Hank Iba who played for the US team in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Germany. That American team lost in controversial fashion to the Soviet Union in the finals and to this day, the American players haven't received their silver medals.

Incidentally, the 1972 Olympics was the last time the Philippines sent a basketball team to the Games. That Philippine team was led by Bogs Adornado, Freddie Webb and Jimmy Mariano.

Once I finish reading this book, then I will share some of its chapters in future posts here in this blog.

Back in my former country Philippines, my sportswriting colleague and friend Rick Olivares has written a lot of books related to Philippine basketball. I would like to see him do a book similar to Basketball: A Love Story featuring all his interviews with collegiate and PBA players based on his Bleachers Brew blog (www.bleachersbrew.blogspot.com).

The book should be available in Philippine bookstores pretty soon. And I strongly recommend you to read this book because it will serve as an inspiration to the hardcore basketball fan.