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.


Location: El Sobrante, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The NFL on Philippine TV

Image
THE National Football League will finally have a Philippine TV carrier this season. A day ago, TV5 announced in its social media sites that it will air one NFL game every Monday, Tuesday and Friday live at 8 am with replays over its sister cable channel Hyper for Cignal subscribers. NFL games have been irregularly televised in the Philippines because obviously, many Pinoys don't understand the rules of American football. Previously, ABS-CBN tried airing the NFL on its defunct Studio 23 but the games didn't catch on with many viewers. And now, TV5 is gambling on the NFL as it tries to keep pace with ABS-CBN's Sports+Action 23 which airs the NBA, UAAP and NCAA games. Under TV5's schedule, the following NFL games will be televised: Monday mornings (Sunday Night Football on NBC) Tuesday mornings (Monday Night Football on ESPN) Friday mornings (Thursday Night Football on NFL Network) The Sunday morning, US time, games will not be televised on TV5 since the...
Read more

More Troubles at RX

Image
Photo of Gino Quillamor's tweet to Chico Garcia that led to Gino leaving RX. ANOTHER major blow has struck Monster RX 93.1 with the departure of Gino Quillamor from the morning show The Morning Rush. Quillamor left the show last week after being with Chico Garcia and Delamar Arias for close to a decade. Since then, he has not intimated of any plans to join another FM radio station. Earlier, Arias retired from RX in January this year to focus on marriage and motherhood. She resurfaced on Magic 89.9 to host the weekly show The Mother Show on Friday Madness mornings with Andi Manzano and Riki Flores. Quillamor and Arias's departures from RX have further weakened the station's lineup of DJs. In a previous post, other RX jocks have also left due to various reasons, such as recently married couple Andre Co and Cerah Hernandez, Jay Abastillas, Jinri Park, Sel Guevara, Carla Lizardo, Chris Schneider and Karen Bordador, who still remains in jail due to drug charges. As ...
Read more

The Slow Death of Magazines in the Philippines

Image
IN a sudden move that caught many people by surprise, Summit Media announced that it was shutting down its magazine division. Affected by the closure were the popular magazines FHM, Cosmopolitan and Yes, all of whom were leading in terms of circulation. In a statement, the Gokongwei-owned company announced that it would shift to digital media which explained why it had to close down its magazine division. As a result, FHM and Cosmo both ended up online through their respective websites, plus their respective social media accounts. Summit also owns other websites such as Philippine Entertainment Portal, which provides showbiz updates; and Spin.ph, which is a standalone sports website. Actually, a similar sports website, philsports.net, came out in the early 2000s and yours truly was one of the writers but it failed to catch on because at that time, internet wasn't easily accessible. Both FHM and Cosmo were at the height of their popularity when they both closed do...
Read more