Chris Ballard

In The Art of a Beautiful Game, Chris Ballard, the award-winning Sports Illustrated writer who has covered the NBA for the past decade, goes behind the scenes to examine basketball in ways that will surprise even die-hard fans. An inveterate hoops junkie who played some college ball, Ballard sits down with the NBA's most passionate, cerebral players to find out their tricks of the trade and to learn what drives them, taking readers away from the usual sports talk radio fodder and deep into the heart of the game. Ballard talks to Dwight Howard, a prolific shot-blocker, about the enervating feeling of meeting another man at the height of his leap; challenges Steve Kerr to a game of H-O-R-S-E to understand the mentality of a pure shooter; reveals the roots of Kobe Bryant's unmatched killer instinct; and spends time with LeBron James to better understand both his mental game and his seemingly unlimited physical skills. He tracks down renowned dunkers from Dominique to Shaq to explore the impact of the dunk on the modern game, shadows Shane Battier during his preparations to defend LeBron, takes lessons from a freethrow shooting guru who once hit 2,750 in a row, and attends an elite NBA training camp to feel the pain that turns a prospect into a pro. Packed with lively characters and basketball history, and grounded in superb writing and the reportage that is the hallmark of Sports Illustrated, The Art of a Beautiful Game is an often witty, always insightful look at the men like Steve Nash, Yao Ming, and Alonzo Mourning who devote themselves to this elegant and complicated sport. It ultimately provides basketball fans what they all want: an inside read on the game they love.

The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA

The Art of a Beautiful Game

The Inspirational Story of a Coach, a Baseball Team, and the Season They’ll Never Forget In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to represent the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair and warming up to Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ironmen would play a dramatic game against a Chicago powerhouse that would change their lives forever. In this gripping, cinematic narrative, Sports Illustrated writer Chris Ballard tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet, a hippie, dreamer, and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966, bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era. Beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly took over the ragtag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life as baseball. Inspired by Sweet’s unconventional methods, the undersized, undermanned Macon Ironmen embarked on an improbable postseason run that infuriated rival coaches and buoyed a town suffering from a damaging drought and the shadow of the Vietnam War—one in desperate need of something to celebrate. In a final grace note, Ballard returns to the present day, revisiting the 1971 Ironmen to explore the effect the game had on their lives’ trajectories—and the men they’ve become because of it. Engaging and poignant, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the power of high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, and it reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among a coach, a team, and a town. Praise for One Shot at Forever "One Shot at Forever is tender, fun, bittersweet, with a great narrative that just motors. It also features the funkiest coach not just in the history of baseball but the history of sport—an unforgettable character in a beautiful and unforgettable book." ––Buzz Bissinger, author of Father's Day and Friday Night Lights "There's a reason Chris Ballard has emerged as one of America's top sports writers. One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational and—in an era where sports are too often marred by scandal—as pure and true as a warm spring breeze. This isn't merely a book about baseball. It's a book about heart." ––Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won "This book is so well told by Chris Ballard that it gives sportswriting a good name." ––Frank Deford, author of Over Time: My Life As A Sportswriter "Chris Ballard brings a big heart and a winning style to tell a memorable story of small-town Illinois. The boys of Macon renew our understanding of why baseball matters—and sometimes, why it matters too much." ––Cait Murphy, author of Crazy ‘08 "Chris Ballard finds the heart in the heartland, in this inspirational tale of a small-school ball club that reaches for glory." ––Edward Achorn, author of Fifty-nine in ’84 "[A] nonfiction gem about an underdog team that made good. This is the kind of baseball book that has long arms: YA readers, avid baseball fans, sports readers, and narrative nonfiction readers who like to be firmly set in a particular time and place should all find it joyful." ––Library Journal "This story has obvious parallels to the classic basketball film Hoosiers and in Ballard’s capable hands evokes similar themes of inspiration, camaraderie and the pressure of the once-in-a-lifetime moments associated with prep athletics." ––Publishers Weekly

A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season

One Shot at Forever

Looking for a game? Here's your guided tour of the country's best pickup basketball courts, from the blacktops of Brooklyn to the asphalt of Anchorage to the gyms of Jackson, Mississippi. It's all inside: where the pros play, the most scenic runs in the land, and a ranking of the top five courts. ø Chris Ballard and three other former college players piled into a used Chevy van and traveled thirty-one thousand miles in seven months, playing at over a thousand courts in 166 cities in forty-eight states. This is the story of their roundball road trip and a guide to the places, people, and communities they encountered. ø More than a travel guide, Hoops Nation is "a celebration of the game of basketball as it is played in America." It includes guides to streetball fashion, the lingo of the courts, the etiquette of the pickup world, the tricks of old-guy basketball, and tips for the dunking impaired. Also included are profiles of playground legends and dispatches from the legions of basketball lifers who populate the country's courts. ø This book can tell you where they?re running today, all over America. Who?s got next?

A Guide to America's Best Pickup Basketball

Hoops Nation

Bronwen Douglas

From the 18th century, Oceania became the principal laboratory of raciology for scholars, voyagers, and colonizers alike. By juxtaposing encounters and theory, this magisterial book explores the semantics of human difference in all its emotional, intellectual, religious, and practical dimensions. The argument developed is subtle, engrossing, and gives the paradigm of 'race' its full use value. Foreign Bodies is a model of analysis and erudition from which historians of science and everyone interested in intercultural relations will greatly profit.

Oceania and the Science of Race 1750-1940

Foreign Bodies

The author of Hoops Nation journeys to the far reaches of the career world with a collection of profiles of individuals who have found their life's work in unusual professions, including Spiderman Mulholland, who rappels down sheer building faces to assess damages and make repairs; competitive lumberjill Penny Halvorson; and butterfly hunter Phil DeVries. 30,000 first printing.

Adventures of People who Found Their True Calling Way Off the Beaten Path

The Butterfly Hunter

Paula Brown

R. Michael Bourke

Tracy Harwood

"The goals, stated or implicit, included: a review of the status of knowledge about sweet potato in Oceania, covering advances in agronomic, botanical, archaelogical and ethnographic understanding; a regional overview, integrating advances in both Polynesia and Melanesia; an assessment of the significance of sweet potato in the region, relative to other crops, other introductions or innovations; and the identification of areas for future research. This volume is not intended as a comprehensive statement on the topic - one obvious deficiency in our coverage is the limited discussion of recent genetic work - but it should provide a useful statement of developments since 1974 in our understanding of sweet potato's history in Oceania and serve as a spur to further, more focused research."--P. v.

Chris Ballard

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