The Ups and Downs of Basketball (in Books!)

I’ve been thinking a lot about college basketball lately. There's nothing too surprising about that at this time of year of course. Conference play is in full swing, the conference tournament is just around the corner, and then the NCAA tournament begins! But what I’ve been interested lately, aside from the records of my favorite Big XII teams, is the way basketball can impact the lives of young people. Sometimes in really positive ways and sometimes in pretty frustrating ways.

Here are some titles that go beyond the basics of how the game is played and who the stars are. Instead, these titles look into how the off-court lives of players affect the on-court lives of players and vice versa.

• Award-winning director Dee Mosbacher’s 2010 documentary Training Rules: No Drinking, No Drugs, No Lesbians, explores sexual discrimination in women’s basketball by following Penn State’s former basketball champ Jennifer Harris as she takes on the institutionalized homophobia of coach Rene Portland.
• Doug Merlino’s brand new book The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White tells the story of a Seattle AAU team comprised half of privileged white kids and half relatively poor African-American students. But unlike the inspirational and uplifting tales we’ve seen in the past (think Hoop Dreams or Remember the Titans), this real-life tale ends with some tragic realities as Merlino follows the lives of those original team members.
• Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America’s Youth by Dan Wetzel and Don Yaeger: Discusses the shadier side of recruiting players from AAU and youth basketball leagues and how the big shoe companies of the sport play a part.
• Wheelchair Warrior: Gangs, Disability, and Basketball by Melvin Juette and Ronald J. Berger: “A former gang member who is now wheelchair-bound after being shot and paralyzed in a gang dispute, offers an informative ethnography on both gang life and wheelchair basketball.” From School Library Journal

On the lighter side of basketball:

• James Naismith: The Man Who Invented Basketball by Rob Rains: A one-of-a-kind book written with the cooperation of Naismith’s family and the use of his private letters and documents. One of the most complete biographies of this
• FreeDarko Presents the Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History (worth it for the mustache index if nothing else)
• The First Tip-Off: The Incredible story of the birth of the NBA by Charley Rosen

Hopefully these can keep you busy on those quiet, gameless Friday nights.