On Wisconsin
I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and graduated from the University there in 1987 and so many of my friends on Facebook have strong ties to the place and the school. Understandably, then, my feed over...
View ArticleHow to Write the Sporting Body: A Report from the Classroom
How do you write what is taking place in the picture above? Or, what sorts of challenges does athletic performance present to those who would try to capture or convey it in writing? This was the...
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The Fascination of Iverson Crossing Jordan: An Exercise in Praising Athletic...
In my last post, I referred to Hans Umbrecht’s In Praise of Athletic Beauty in relation to my University of Michigan Comparative Literature course on Writing the Sporting Body. I mentioned that...
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Phil Jackson and the Essence of Basketball
Yesterday, Howard Beck published a fine profile of New York Knicks President Phil Jackson. Jackson, a former player (on the championship teams of the Knicks in 1970 and 1973) and coach (of 11...
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The Triangle Myth
In thinking about basketball culture, I’ve found it useful to think about certain recurrent themes, images, metaphors and topics of discussion as myths. I don’t mean “myths” in the sense of...
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Bad Prof’s Top Basketball Books – Second Team
Yesterday, I began presenting the list of my favorite basketball books with my First Team All-Bad Prof selections. Today I move on to the second team (presented alphabetically by title), using the...
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Bad Prof’s Top Basketball Books – Third Team
Having selected my First Team and Second Team All-Bad Prof Books, I’m moving out of the top ten today. However, it’s important to say that these books are classics, that I personally love them, and...
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Bad Prof’s Top Basketball Books – Honorable Mention
Perhaps by now you’ve seen my First Team, Second Team, and Third Team All-Bad Prof Basketball Book List selections. They were the fifteen books, grouped into three tiers of five, that I’ve returned to...
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The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent (Basketball) Knowledge
All my life, I have loved ordering my things. My new Matchbox cars go in one line, and the ones I inherited from my older brothers go in another one, and the ones I found or stole from my friends go...
View ArticleNothing, Everything, and Something: On Watching Association Football
In my Global Sports Cultures course this fall, we’ll devote two weeks to association football. The first, early on, will focus on the issues at stake in the 2006 Men’s World Cup Final between Italy...
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Free Running: How to Fix the Sports Machine
Today I wrapped up my second go around with Global Sports Cultures (a/k/a Comparative Literature 100) with a final lecture on free running, specifically on the youth group known as PK Gaza. Throughout...
View ArticleReading In Praise of Athletic Beauty
Once again I’m teaching Writing the Sporting Body and once again the core text for the course is Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht’s In Praise of Athletic Beauty. I’ve made reference to this work in some other...
View Article“Everyfan” (Reading in Praise of Athletic Beauty)
As promised, I’m sharing my reading notes, thoughts, and questions on Hans Gumbrecht’s In Praise of Athletic Beauty. Today, I want to look at the opening section of the book, entitled “Everyfan,” which...
View Article“Praise” (Reading In Praise of Athletic Beauty)
“Why,” Hans Gumbrecht begins by asking, “should sportslovers learn how to praise athletes and their achievements?” His meditation upon and response to this question occupies the first of the three...
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“Beauty” (Reading In Praise of Athletic Beauty, Post 3)
What are we saying when we say that an athletic play is “beautiful”? This is the question to which Hans Gumbrecht turns in the second subsection of the “Definitions” chapter of In Praise of Athletic...
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“Athletics” (Reading In Praise of Athletic Beauty, Post 4)
Having arrived at definitions of “beauty” and “praise,” Hans Gumbrecht moves in the final section of the “Definitions” chapter of In Praise of Athletic Beauty to the question to the task of defining...
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“Demigods” (Reading In Praise of Athletic Beauty, Post 5)
Having defined the key terms of his investigation, “praise,” “beauty,” and “athletics,” Hans Gumbrecht proceeds, in the “Discontinuities” section of his In Praise of Athletic Beauty, to provide an...
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Why I Hate “the Warriors”
I’m annoyed. Here’s the thing: I thought I was gonna write a quick explanation of why I hate the Warriors, hot take click bait for contrarians. Because: I do, I hate them! See, it’s easy for me to...
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“Gladiators” (Reading In Praise of Athletic Beauty, Post 6)
Hans Gumbrecht continues his brief history of sports in the West by turning from the ancient Greek games at Olympia to the very different events held hundreds of years later at the Colosseum in Rome....
View ArticleInventing Basketball Autonomy
Allen Iverson was recently elected into the basketball Hall of Fame. To honor his inspiring career, I offer this excerpt from my new book Ball Don’t Lie! Myth, Genealogy, and Invention in the Cultures...
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