Confessions of a Basket Wife: I am a Sucker for Books About Basketball

Although I wasn’t a huge basketball fan before meeting Joe, I have come to appreciate the game and probably enjoy it more than most sports now. And that enjoyment of the game has even extended into me reading a bit more about the people who play the sport. So I realized the other day as I finished a book that I have now read a few books that I would put in the “basketball” category and have a few more on my “to-read” list. Of course, with Joe in the house I have plenty to choose from. So here is a quick run down of a few of the books I have read.

1. Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond by Paul Shirley

This was the first “basketball” book I read simply because Joe played with Paul for a short time in the NBA and then for a season in the minor leagues. I knew enough of Paul and his dry humor and often “different” perspectives to know that it would at least be entertaining. I also figured he might bust on Joe in the book too, so I had to enjoy that part. He did indeed make fun of Joe and his friend Ryan (my dear friend Angie’s husband) who played with Paul in Kansas City for being “Jesus freaks”. I had to chuckle at the section and later e-mailed Paul to tell him that next time if he was going to call Joe a Jesus freak he at least needed to give him credit and call him by name! Paul said it was a deal, next time he names names.

Although Paul has a totally different world view and chooses to live in a different way than we do, I could identify with so many of the situations he has faced in his career and enjoyed feeling that connection of nodding my head and saying” Yeah, been there.”

2. Homecourt Advantage by Rita Ewing and Crystal McCrary Anthony

I am almost ashamed to admit that I read this book. This is the ONLY book about basketball wives that I have found out there (more reason for me to write one some day, right?) It is a fiction book and almost now seems as sort of a predecessor to the Basketball Wives shows that are out there. It is all about men who are basically screwed up with issues that involve money, drugs and women. It was a quick read, but not one I would recommend for literary prowess.

3. Drive: The Story of My Life by Larry Bird

I read this book a few years ago when I was in a reading rut and saw it in a pile of Joe’s books. It was quite interesting to see that Larry Bird did indeed have quite a “drive”, but instead of leaving me feel inspired as he may have been hoping, I felt very sad for him. We see it a lot in professional athletics (although it exists for all people in different walks of life) where a person is so consumed with reaching a certain goal and “being somebody” that it is all their life entails. From that “drive” relationships fail, people are treated as means to an end and you become completely self-consumed to the detriment of others around you. I know Joe has read a few other basketball biographies and it often seems to follow the same course.

4. IL Basket D’Italia: Season in Italy W/great Food Good Friends & Very Tall Americans by Jim Patton

I just finished this book after our friend Tyler gave it to Joe to borrow. I decided to pick it up and give it a quick read before Joe left for Italy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I found that Jim Patton contradicted himself often about how important basketball was in Italy (at times he painted the picture of people acting crazy over it and other times he said they didn’t even care enough to put it on television, so some distinction there would have helped). It was written about a prior decade of basketball before Joe started playing, so of course things have changed since then. But I could still relate to plenty. Here are a few quotes that I was laughing out loud at:

“We may it out, but then things get even worse. Tiny Italian cars dart in from of us. People make three lanes out of two in both directions, six lanes where there ought to be four. People on the left try to cut across two lanes to turn right (and persist until they can); people on the right insist on turning left. Death-defying teenagers and geriatrics alike swerve in and out of traffic on motorinas, little motorized scooters. Horns blare and fists with middle fingers extended fly out of windows everywhere.”

“I’m fuming. Robbie Dawkins and many others have told me that you can’t count on anything in Italy- shops and offices may or may not open, trains may or may not run, no rhyme or reason to anything- and suddenly I feel like throwing a rock through someone’s window. Is this how these people run a business? The loose-ends, live-in-the-moment, do-what-feels-right Italian way that’s usually so charming seems like anarchy now when it means, ‘Take Saturday off if you want, to hell with customers.”

“This is the wildest atmosphere I’ve ever been in,” Corchiani says. “High school, college…I played in the ACC, and this puts Duke fans [the notorious "Cameron Crazies"] to shame. You don’t see anything like this int he NBA, for sure. I like the idea of playing in this atmosphere.”

“The fans flood the court and engulf the players; the players are hugging and celebrating and trying to get to the tunnel, but there’s no way, they’re mobbed. A few pull off their jerseys and fling them into the crowd, others are getting theirs torn off. I catch a glimpse of Roberto: they’ve got him on their shoulders forcibly and they’ve got his shorts down; he’s thrashing around, then disappears. Huge Italian flags are waving above the throng. Music plays. Carla Brunamonti and Anne Wennington and Danilovic’s girlfriend and the other women stand, applauding in their front-row places at the end opposite the tunnel the players are trying to get to.”

The last quote especially made me laugh since I remember Joe calling me after Brindisi won the championship and telling me how the fans were trying to strip him of his uniform and he had to physically defend himself just to get to the locker room!

One thing is for sure, it is a different world and many books could be written on the professional basketball lifestyle,