Other books that might interest you

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  Jail Blazers - How the Portland...

  Kerry Eggars

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  In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the Portland Trail Blazers were one of the hottest teams in the NBA. For almost a decade, they won 60 percent of their games while making it to the Western Conference Finals twice. However, what happened off-court was just as unforgettable as what they did on the court. 
   
  When someone asked Blazers general manager Bob Whitsitt about his team’s chemistry, he replied that he’d “never studied chemistry in college.” And with that, the “Jail Blazers” were born. Built in a similar fashion to a fantasy team, the team had skills, but their issues ended up being their undoing. In fact, many consider it the darkest period in franchise history. 
   
  While fans across the country were watching the skills of Damon Stoudamire, Rasheed Wallace, and Zach Randolph, those in Portland couldn’t have been more disappointed in the players’ off-court actions. This, many have mentioned, included a very racial element—which carried over to the players as well. As forward Rasheed Wallace said, “We’re not really going to worry about what the hell [the fans] think about us. They really don’t matter to us. They can boo us every day, but they’re still going to ask for our autographs if they see us on the street. That’s why they’re fans and we’re NBA players.” 
   
  While people think of the Detroit Pistons of the eighties as the elite “Bad Boys,” the “Jail Blazers” were actually bad. Author Kerry Eggers, who covered the Trail Blazers during this controversial era, goes back to share the stories from the players, coaches, management, and those in Portland when the players were in the headlines as much for their play as for their legal issues.

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  Bring Me the Sports Jacket of...

  Aidan Smith

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  A Scotland on Sunday Sports Book of the Year
  Take a hilarious romp through the best and worst of Scottish footballing history.
  The Scot who won England the World Cup. Macaroon bars and Bovril. When Dixie Deans met Bob Marley. When Davie Robb met Olivia Newton-John. When George McCluskey met the Stones. When Rick Wakeman filed match reports for Meadowbank Thistle. Triumphs and disasters, submarines and rowing boats, War and Peace (who's read it). The Cowdenbeath kettle. The Brechin hedge. Morton's great Danes. Icarus at East Fife. The dead pigeon sketch and the amazing technicolor booze-coat. The can girls. Those who flogged ice cream and licked Hitler. The world's oldest conjoined twins. Inside the half-time scoreboards. Our greatest goal, our greatest assist, our keepers. Scarlett Johansson! And of course Arthur Montford - commentator, curator, favourite uncle to the nation.
  In Bring Me the Sports Jacket of Arthur Montford, Aidan Smith mines Scottish football history for quirk, strangeness and charm. On a journey that takes him to Albania and also Albion Rovers, great players are celebrated and so are great characters. Rediscover old legends (not told this way before) and maybe learn about new ones. If there's a running theme it's that our game, its participants and those who watch in the rain are one and the same thing - indomitable.

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  150 Years of Swimming the...

  John Goodbody

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  People have been drawn to the challenge of swimming the English Channel since the first recorded attempt. In this book, venerated sports writer, author and Channel swimmer John Goodbody celebrates the 150th anniversary of Captain Matthew Webb's first successful crossing in 1875 by telling his story and those of many of the outstanding men and women who have achieved the feat since, as well as those intrepid individuals who failed – or even died trying. Compiled with research from publications, academic journals, newspaper archives and extensive interviews, these stories tell of the heroic feats, the triumphs, the failures, the deaths and the frequent controversies as men and women have battled across the Strait, defying rough seas, storms, jellyfish and treacherous currents.

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  The American Fisherman - How Our...

  Anonymous

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  From the Duck Dynasty star and #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a rollicking popular history of fishing in America. 
  American Fisherman traces the impact fishing has had in shaping America’s history, and reveals the influential role it has played in defining our lives. Willie Robertson persuasively argues that America became what it is today in no small part because of the anglers that call it home. From harvesting New England cod to fly fishing for Yellowstone trout to raising Pacific Northwest salmon, the fishing industry has long played an essential role in the establishment of many of the nation’s earliest ports, most notably along the East Coast. Robertson explores how fishing has informed our culture, in literature, movies, and television, from classics like The Old Man and the Sea, A River Runs Through It, and Moby-Dick to The Perfect Storm, In the Heart of the Sea, and The Deadliest Catch, to popular local television fishing programs from coast to coast. 
  Robertson also analyzes the economics of this $50 billion annual business which supports a host of industries, including tourism and manufacturing, as well as conservationism. Told in Robertson’s charming down-home voice, American Fisherman is a spirited and unique look at America and its people.

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  Pipeline to the Pros - How D3...

  Danny Parkins, Ben Kaplan

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  Jeff Van Gundy. Brad Stevens. Frank Vogel. Mike Budenholzer. Tom Thibodeau. Sam Presti. Leon Rose. Before you knew his name, before he guided your team to a championship, he had a playing career of his own at an NCAA Division III college. He didn't play for fortune—the NBA was out of reach, and his school didn't even give athletic scholarships. He didn't play for fame—his games weren't televised, and the stands were rarely full. Whatever the motivation, he simply couldn't give up the game of basketball. And that didn't change after graduation, when it was time to pick a career path. 
   
   
   
  For the first time in league history, NBA coaches and general managers are just as likely to have played Division III basketball as they are to have played in the NBA. While the number of former D3 players working in the NBA is higher than ever, small college alums have served in leadership positions since the league's founding. They shaped the NBA into what it is today, playing integral roles in the Lakers' initial success in LA, the inception of several expansion franchises, the creation of the popular All-Star Weekend dunk contest, and the globalization of the league. Their improbable and inspiring journeys tell a bigger story—the history of small college athletics, the evolution of coaching and management in the NBA, and the hiring practices in the most competitive fields.

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  Modern-Day Castaway - A...

  Michael Atkinson

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  Could you survive alone, for 2 months at sea in a dugout canoe? 
  In 1846, James Morrill survived a shipwreck on Australia’s north coast. Though the young sailor was then embraced by the local Indigenous community, in Modern-Day Castaway, Michael Atkinson asks, ‘Could James have built a vessel and made the perilous journey to a historic rescue haven in the Torres Strait?’ 
  With the cyclone season fast approaching, Alone Australia contestant and solo adventurer, Mike Atkinson, sets sail on an extraordinary 1500-kilometre journey to the northern tip of Australia. His aim: to live entirely off the land and sea. 
  As malnourishment drains his body, Mike navigates his failing dugout canoe through the treacherous waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and along the wild and unforgiving coastline of Cape York. From crocodile defence tactics, to calamitous canoe failure, to fishing with adapted Indigenous tools, Modern-Day Castaway journals Mike’s epic struggle for survival. 
  This is a truly unique book. A cross between Tom Hanks Castaway (although this story is real, not fiction!), a genuine shipwrecked sailor’s tale and Mike’s awe-inspiring journey of discovery.

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