Full Description
During the late 1990s, eminent basketball journalist Alexander Wolff traveled the globe to determine how a game invented by a Canadian clergyman became an international phenomenon. Big Game, Small World presents Wolff's dispatches from sixteen countries spread across five continents and multiple US states. In them, he asks: What can the game tell us about the world? And what can the world tell us about the game? Whether traveling to Bhutan to challenge its king to a pickup game, exploring the women's game in Brazil, or covering the Afrobasket tournament in Luanda, Angola, during a civil war, Wolff shows how basketball has the power to define an individual, a culture, and even a country.
This updated twentieth anniversary edition features a new preface in which Wolff outlines the contemporary rise of athlete-activists while discussing the increasing dominance within the NBA of marquee international players like Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo. A loving celebration of basketball, Big Game, Small World is one of the most insightful books ever written about the game.
Contents
Preface to the Duke Edition xiii
Prologue 1
Called for Traveling 3
Fall: Founding Myths, Conflicting Cultures
1. Almonte, Ontario: Duck on a Rock 13
2. Lithuania: Forest Brothers in Short Pants 26
3. Poland: The Sultans of Złoty 39
4. Switzerland: Please Do Not Air You Dirty Laundry 55
5. Celebration Florida: Communities of Three 66
6. Italy: Strength vs. Virtue 76
7. Sarajevo Airport: Prisoners of War 88
8. Bosnia: The Woman Who Sells Men 103
Winter: The American Game and Its Far-Flung Offspring
9. Peoria, Illinois: Crossover Dreamers 117
10. Eastern Kansas: Driving Mister John 128
11. El Paso, Texas: The Bear in Winter 138
12. Whiteriver, Arizona: Shoots from the Sky 152
13. Boone, North Carolina: Mayberry Friends 161
14. Ireland: To Build a Gym 172
15. Israel: The Long Arm of the Law of Return 184
16. The Philippines: Madness and Mimicry 200
17. China: Qiao Dan, Celestial Citizen 213
Spring: The Game Within
18. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Quaker Meetinghouse 231
19. Brazil: Women of the Laughing Blood 243
20. Des Moines, Iowa: Unguarded Moments 255
21. Japan: A Journey of a Thousand Miles, Begun with a Single Shot 264
22. Bhutan: Gross National Hoopiness 280
Summer: Fast Break to the Future
23. Washington, D.C.: Going to the Next Level 303
24. France: The "I Love This Game" Theory of Conflict Prevention 315
25. Angola: Lasme's Plane Will Be Arriving Shortly 323
26. Kansas City, Missouri: To Rest, Rather Than to Mischief 344
27. Princeton, New Jersey: Through the Back Door 352
Acknowledgments 361
Index 369
