New Jack Jocks: Rebels, Race, And The American Athlete

by Larry Platt

Overview

Latrell Sprewell. Allen Iverson. John McEnroe. Even Mohammed Ali and Mike Schmidt and Michael Jordan. These are characters of our national imagination, athletes who stand as symbols of our complex relationship with professional sport.In this erudite and captivating book, bestselling author Larry Platt takes us on a tour through American sports. Offering profiles of the athletes we love (and love to hate), Platt shows that sport, more than any other nationwide pastime, is the way we come to understand—and alter—race relations, gender, and, most profoundly, how we communicate with each other in ways that are often given too little credit in the minds of intellectuals.Thought-provoking and richly written, New Jack Jocks offers a textured picture of how athletes live their lives and how we live out and define American culture by the way we come to understand their lives in and out of the halls of play.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439907306
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	10/29/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	841 KB

About the Author

Larry Platt is Editor-in-Chief of Philadelphia Magazine. His work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Playboy, and Salon. com, among other publications. The author, most recently, of Only the Strong Survive: The Odyssey of Allen Iverson. He lives in the Philadelphia area.

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I: The New Jack Jock1. Spree's World2. Soul Members3. Pat and Allen's Tough Love AdventurePart II: The Anti-Hero4. Portrait of an Artist on the Court5. No Requiem Necessary6. In the Name of the Father7. The Unloved8. The Round Mound Bids FarewellPart III: Entrepreneurs9. The Graying of Dr. J10. Magic Johnson Builds an Empire11. The Business of Rebellion12. Even the Ball Is White13. Jelly MakerAcknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

Larry Platt's view of the sports world reads like fiction—but it's fact! Writers of sitcoms and soap operas could use New Jack Jocks as a source of great content.

Pat Croce

Larry Platt's writing flies two places at once: inside America's sports heroes and high above them, gazing down on the strange dynamic between us and them. You won't be able to look at our athletes or our society the same after you've read Platt.

Gary Smith