Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated by Shea Serrano

Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated Reviews

• 
  Thekelburrows

  "Shout out to pasteurization."
• 
  Benoit Lelièvre

  Warning: this book will make you feel lonely.
  
  If you like basketball as much as I (or Shea Serrano) do, it will make your confront the depth of your loneliness. You will find out there are other people in the world wondering which Michael Jordan is the best Michael Jordan (no, it's not the 37 ppg one), which disrespectful dunk is the most disrespectful of all-time, what can and can't you do in pick-up basketball (an official chart), etc. And it is not until one us writes a goddamn book about it that this loneliness will be broken, but in the most sublime possible way.
  
  I loved BASKETBALL (AND OTHER THINGS). There were a couple extra chapters I would've shaved off (the Karl Malone/bear swap, the James Harden movie thing), but otherwise it is a celebration of everything that's beautiful about the sport of basketball that is more or less related to the sport itself. We can't be more than a 100 people in the world that care about these things, but I'm happy one of us could reach out to the others.
  
  I loved this book and I may or may not love Shea Serrano despite him not knowing me. This is the kind of trouble you're stirring up by writing a book like this one.
• 
  Sebastien

  A friend of mine got me this because she knows I love basketball. It's a super fun book and I really enjoy Serrano's writing style. The writing is clever, funny, irreverent, a bit wacky but truly well-crafted. I make a point of catching all his articles now (he writes for The Ringer, a sports/culture site I generally enjoy). He's also incredibly knowledgable and well-versed on the sport, so his analysis is interesting and insightful.
  
  My favorite chapters had to with actual real-world basketball analysis. Usually that stuff can be boring and dry as hell, but Serrano has a peppy cleverness that brings all that stuff to life. The chapters I liked less were the theoretical whackjob scenarios. It's not that those chapters were bad, I mean who doesn't like imaging how hard it would be to dunk on Theodore Roosevelt? So while goofy and rather clever, those chapters were just less interesting based on my particular interests.
  
  I also appreciated the chapter on how many years Kobe Bryant was the best player in the league. The answer according to Serrano is probably zero which pleased me in a petty way. I'm not completely anti-Kobe Bryant because he was a great player but I'm generally not a huge fan of relatively inefficient volume scorers (who also happen to have gotten away with seriously messed up stuff off the court, but that's a story for another day). Of course Kobe was also a very good defensive player but he always seemed like a lesser Michael Jordan imitation (there are worse players to imitate of course).
  
  Anyways, great book. Highly recommend for anyone who likes basketball and clever writing with fun scenarios.
  
  I also loved that Reggie Miller wrote the foreword. He was my absolute favorite player as a kid, loved seeing him torch those obnoxious hard-knock Knicks' squads, some beautiful memories right there ;)
• 
  Maggie

  Shea is bae. Side-eyeing the hell out of the Reggie Miller foreword though. Was No One not available?
• 
  Barnabas Piper

  Serrano is hilarious. I love his writing style and humor and voice. The chapters on what you can/can’t do in pickup ball are so perfect.
• 
  Chris Duncan

  Quick fun fact about this book, I bought it at the Strand in NYC (I’m very cultured now).
  
  If you are an NBA fan then you will love this book. It is such a fun and unique read. Some of the chapters were pretty random and weird, ex. “If Karl Malone and a Bear swapped places for a season, who would be more successful?” but some of them are very interesting to think about, ex. “What’s the most important NBA championship?” It was also very fun to read about certain plays or moments in NBA history that I have seen lots of times and could picture in my head as the author was describing them. Overall, this book helped remind me how much I love the game of basketball, which guarantees it a 5 star.
• 
  Isaac Thomas

  It was an out of body experience to read a book by someone else who experienced basketball in the 1990's as a child. This book is incredibly funny (I could read the script for James Harden's action movie every day for the rest of my life).
  
  Only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because, like most comedy books, it is hard to read cover to cover. It's a perfect coffee table book.
• 
  Kawai

  Brilliant. It’s like having a long conversation with a best friend that’s hella funny and sorta street and a total sports (and movie and hip-hop) geek, the type of conversation that takes hours and never really stops anyways, but you leave your friend’s house at 3am completely satisfied with the whole world.
• 
  Jim

  I enjoyed it. I ran hot and cold on the topics, but I really liked the structure (and footnotes). And it was fun to read this and then watch game moments on YouTube.
• 
  Jason

  Easygoing and cleverly written, this book hits all of the marks it strives for. Not to mention the illustration is often hilarious. This book is the definition of fun for any basketball fan
  
  Now back to thinkin about Dominique Wilkins dunking on Jesus...
• 
  Michael Mulraney

  Funny, insightful, and tall. Shea Serrano’s BAOT, is a testament to hoops.
• 
  Ray

  Very much in the vain of Bill Simmons' "Book of Basketball", Serrano's version is focused on a smaller variety of whimsical questions about basketball's past and present, but questions that are very much in line with my interests.
  
  Which vintage of Michael Jordan was the best vintage, or a year-by-year analysis of whether Kobe Bryant was ever actually the best player in the NBA were smartly done. Serrano easily shows his passion for the sport in his writing, and this makes a nice companion to Simmons' more complete "Book of BBall".
• 
  Jackson

  Author gets too cute too often.
• 
  Tim O'Hearn

  While I feel I can go blow-for-blow with Shea on rap music, I know nothing about basketball. Not to say I'm not a basketball fan, but rather that I'm more of a fan of Shea Serrano than of the sport of basketball. Aside from a few quips which went entirely over my head, the book is accessible to all audiences (though family friendliness depends on the particular family). The few rap references had me salivating, but everything else that was thrown in, which might literally include the kitchen sink, makes for a spectacular book. The illustrations are lush, the writing is hilarious, and the use of the gerund "Voltroning" will hopefully lead to its wider adoption and inclusion in Merriam Webster. Shea shows depth with a few sections that are written non-traditionally, and though the abundance of footnotes can throw off the pacing, I'd find it hard to deny that Shea has reached all-star status with this one.
• 
  Dennis Barnes

  There are a few interesting basketball questions the author attempts to answer and does so by establishing elaborate rules with which to evaluate his proposal. The problem is that many of the questions are just silly and the author's writing style is tedious. It reminds me of Bill Simmons on speed. There are constant references to pop culture and totally irrelevant comparisons.
  
  That style is fine for a short piece on a web site or a magazine, but for a 200+ page book, well, I was glad to finish it.
  
• 
  Leif Quinlan

  This book is for any literate person with a sense of humor - my eyes well with tears for the me that has already read this book and thus cannot read it for the first time. He is a sad man with nothing left to long for in life. He has reached the peak of human satisfaction and has only down to look forward to
  If you haven't bought this book yet, please, please rethink your entire life
  
  Shea Serrano is a G
• 
  Nate

  If you are part of the FOH ARMY, then you know
  Shea Serrano's unique voice. This book feels exactly like so many conversations I've had with friends and family about sports debating ridiculous lists, diving into mid-90's Sonics memories, and talking sports hypotheticals. Shea can seamlessly bring those conversations to the pages of this beautiful book.
  
  The book is a collection of essays answering fun questions about all things NBA supported by fun charts and truly beautiful illustrations by
  Arturo Torres. I particularly liked the chapters, "Which Dunks are on the Disrespectful Dunk Hall of Fame?" and "Which Was the Most Perfect Duo in NBA History?" Don't skip over the footnotes! Shea uses them in hilarious and informative ways that only amplify the voice fans of his have come to know.
  
  I can't stress enough how beautiful the paperback version of this book is. The quality is extremely high I think that this version is the best way to truly appreciate the art.
  
  Read this book straight through or read a chapter when you feel like settling in for a laugh. You'll enjoy it either way.
• 
  Luca Trovati

  Uno spasso.
  Non mi divertivo così tanto a leggere un libro da parecchio tempo. Serrano è un treno che non può e non deve essere fermato.
  In questi capitoli si ride come dei matti e contemporaneamente si imparano un sacco di cose sul basket e su tutti i suoi protagonisti.
  Shea Serrano non sbaglia un colpo da quando scriveva su Grantland: le sue analisi, oltre a essere completamente folli, sono di una rara lucidità, prova di una conoscenza profonda, maniacale del mondo NBA e della cultura pop moderna.
  
  La sua spalla fissa, l’illustratore Arturo Torres mette su carta veri e propri capolavori, riconoscibili dal tratto ormai inconfondibile, disegnati rigorosamente a mano e solamente alla fine digitalizzati e pubblicati. Insieme sono semplicemente perfetti, come perfetto è questo libro.
  Must Read assoluto.
  
  
• 
  Seamus Ronan

  "Do you think it would be harder to dunk on Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X? I bet there's no way you get that dunk off on Malcolm X. Malcolm X seems like the type who would for sure hit you with a flagrant foul before he let you dunk on him. "By any means necessary," he'd shout, as he undercut you on your way up like they did Shep in the championship game in Above the Rim. If you get a dunk off on Malcolm X, you really earned that shit."
  
  The NBA was really low on my list of sports leagues (NCAA football, NCAA basketball, NFL, MLB, NCAA lacrosse, Premier League, probably high school FCIAC lacrosse, then the NBA) because the Knicks suck and I like good defense. But Shea does an amazing job of cataloging the history of the league, with all of it's characters, to the point where I like the NBA more than I used to. It's also hilarious and essentially The Ringer but with pictures. Shout out to the Seans for this rec.
• 
  Andrew Nguyen

  As someone who loves the NBA but didn't come online until the late 90's, this book was wildly entertaining and informative. Hilarious character dynamics make the NBA the most entertaining league in the world, and Shea does a great job of weaving these hilarious stories into his 25 questions about the NBA. For example, there is a brief, hilarious retelling of how Celtics GM, Danny Ainge, "rocketed the ball 100 miles an hour" into Mario Elie's face during the 1994 WCF. This is then followed by a Zach Lowe story where Ainge admits to eating Chipotle seven days a week.
  
  Some of the 3-part chapters are an admitted slog, especially if you didn't grow up in the eras he is talking about, but the format allows you to skip it if you REALLY can't bear to read the 10 pages they span.
• 
  John

  I've heard this described as a poor man's The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons (s/o APP), and I would not disagree. Probably the most succinct, accurate description. Occasionally inane, but never unenjoyable, this book (and celebration, really) of basketball talk is humorous (occasionally vocally, spasm-incudingly so[the personal anecdote on page 186, for example]) and contains some really interesting points. His discussion of Kobe's legacy and position in the league's hierarchy was especially thought-provoking (Serrano contends that Kobe, for as great as he was, was arguably never the best player in the league in any one season). All in all, a helpful reminder of why I fell in love with pro ball to begin with.
• 
  Scott

  I actually read the original, soft-cover edition of this last year, and loved it. I loved it so much, in fact, that when this new hardcover edition with a couple of extra chapters and an added bonus feature was published, I went ahead and got it, too.
  
  I just love Shea Serrano and his writing. I may not know all of his references or completely agree with his feelings for certain players and moments, but the guy is passionate and hilarious. He writes with such an infectious enthusiasm for basketball (and movies and rap music in other books) that you can't help but love being along for the ride with him. His writing style is very much his own, being very conversational much of the time, but making hilarious use of footnotes and lists.
  
  If you've been any kind of basketball fan in the past 30-odd years, then this is a must-have book.
• 
  Neel Amin

  I knew this was going to be a fun read as soon as I read the first paragraph establishing Michael Jordan as the GOAT. Highly recommend for any fan of basketball. The topics discussed range from what year was MJ the best version of himself to if you could dunk on anyone in the world who would it be.