How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius: What Game Designers, Economists, Ballet Choreographers, and Theoretical Astrophysicists Reveal About the Greatest Game on Earth

How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius: What Game Designers, Economists, Ballet Choreographers, and Theoretical Astrophysicists Reveal About the Greatest Game on Earth

by Nick Greene
How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius: What Game Designers, Economists, Ballet Choreographers, and Theoretical Astrophysicists Reveal About the Greatest Game on Earth

How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius: What Game Designers, Economists, Ballet Choreographers, and Theoretical Astrophysicists Reveal About the Greatest Game on Earth

by Nick Greene

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Overview

A brilliant, entertaining deconstruction of basketball, drawing on the expertise of board-game creators, magicians, therapists, and more

“Really novel way to approach the game, and pretty unique to basketball.” —Sopan Deb, New York Times

Basketball is the second-most popular sport in the world—an insanely complicated game built on a combination of athleticism, craftiness, rules, intangibles, and superstardom. However, while it’s enjoyable to watch, the real reason it works is because it’s a game of culture, art, and all the things that make us human.

Nick Greene’s How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius deconstructs the sport from top to bottom and then puts it back together again, detailing its intricacies through reporting and dozens of interviews with experts. These experts, however, are a diverse group: wine critics weighing in on LeBron’s ability to delegate on the fly, magicians analyzing Chris Paul’s mystifying dribbling techniques, cartographers breaking down Steph Curry’s deadeye three-point shooting. Every chapter treats basketball to a multidisciplined study that adventures far beyond the lines of the court, examining key elements of the sport from some surprising and revealing angles. There’s a reason it has conquered the world, and every game is a chance to learn about pop culture, fashion, history, science, art, and anything else that bounces our way.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781419744815
Publisher: Abrams Press
Publication date: 04/12/2022
Pages: 272
Sales rank: 126,158
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Nick Greene is a contributing writer for Slate, prior to which he worked as editor at large at Mental Floss and as web editor at the Village Voice. His work has been published in Vice, Men’s Health, and Chicago Magazine. He lives in Oakland, California.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

It comes in peace

Section 1 The Shape of the Game

An Introductory Class 3

Naismith's original thirteen rules for basketball

Making a Bad Rule Disappear 27

Dribbling's outlaw illusionists

Counting Down the Seconds 41

Saving a sport in the nick of time

You've Got to Draw the Line Somewhere 63

The delayed insurgency of the three-pointer

Section 2 Putting the Ball in the Basket

The Cost of Free Throws 93

Loneliness at the line

Jumping Past Conclusions 121

Breaking the surly bonds of bad coaching

Dawn of Flight 143

Dreaming about dunking

Section 3 Making That Dream Work

Stout, Resolute, and Somewhat Invisible 173

Defense flies under the radar

A Passing Interest in Assists 193

The selflessness and selfishness of sharing

The Phenomenal Shape of Chemistry 215

When things work

Epilogue 237

Bouncing back

Sources 243

Acknowledgments 249

Index 251

About the Author 259

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