Big game, small world : a basketball adventure / Alexander Wolff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wolff, Alexander, 1957- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wolff, Alexander, 1957---Travel.

Wolff, Alexander.

Basketball.

Wolff, Alexander, 1957-.

Travel.

Physical Description:

pages cm

Edition:

[Revised and expanded twentieth anniversary edition.].

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2022.

Summary:

"During the late 1990s, eminent basketball journalist Alexander Wolff traveled the globe to determine how a game invented by a Canadian clergyman became an international phenomenon. Big Game, Small World presents Wolff's dispatches from sixteen countries spread across five continents and multiple US states, in which he asks: What can the game tell us about the world? And what can the world tell us about the game? Whether traveling to Bhutan to challenge the King to a pickup game, exploring the women's game in Brazil, or covering the Afrobasket tournament in Luanda, Angola, during a civil war, Wolff shows how basketball has the power to define an individual, a culture, and even a country.This updated twentieth anniversary edition features a new preface in which Wolff outlines the contemporary rise of athlete-activists while discussing the increasing NBA dominance of marquee international players like Luka DoncÌ⁺ic̹ and Giannis Antetokounmpo. A loving celebration of basketball, Big Game, Small World is one of the most insightful books ever written about the game"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Fall : founding myths, conflicting cultures

Almonte, Ontario : duck on a rock

Lithuania : Forest brothers in short pants

Poland : the sultans of Zloty

Switzerland : please do not air your dirty laundry

Celebration, Florida : communities of three

Italy : strength vs. virtue

Sarajevo Airport : prisoners of war

Bosnia : the woman who sells men

Winter : the American game and her far-flung offspring

Peoria, Illinois : crossover dreamers

Eastern Kansas : driving Mister John

El Paso : the bear in winter

Whiteriver, Arizona : shoots from the sky

Boone, North Carolinia : Mayberry friends

Ireland : to build a gym

Israel : the long arm of the law of return

The Philippines : madness and mimicry

China : Qiao Dan, celestial citizen

Spring : the game within

Philadelphia : Quaker meeting house

Brazil : women of the laughing blood

Des Moines : unguarded moments

Japan : a journey of a thousand miles, begun with a single shot

Bhutan : gross national hoopiness

Summer : fast break to the future

Washington, D.C. : going to the next level

France : the "I Love This Game" theory of conflict prevention

Angola : Lasme's plane will be arriving shortly

Kansas City : to rest, rather than to mischief

Princeton, New Jersey : through the back door.

Other Format:

Online version: Wolff, Alexander, 1957- Big game, small world.

ISBN:

9781478016151

1478016159

9781478018803

1478018801

OCLC:

1315578050