RonSenBasketball: Summer Reading

Read. Notorious basketball readers include the late Coach George Raveling, Gregg Popovich, Mike Neighbors, Steve Kerr, and Brad Stevens. 

I asked ChatGPT for the favorite book (if known) about these five or about books ‘associated’ with them. For what it’s worth, I’ve read all except “The True Believer” which I am reading now. 

Coach George Raveling – “The True Believer” by Eric Hoffer

Gregg Popovich – “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin (note this is a tome that will consume a whole summer). Perhaps her “Leadership in Turbulent Times” which includes her thoughts on Lincoln would be better.

Steve Kerr – “Wooden on Leadership” by Wooden and Steve Jamison

Brad Stevens – “Good to Great” by Jim Collins

Mike Neighbors – “Legacy” by James Kerr 

As summer and summer break arrive for many, what’s on your bookshelf for summer reading? Here are my top three recommendations:

1. Legacy by James Kerr

Legacy informs the culture and leadership principles of the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby organization. It’s an international bestseller, highly readable and actionable.

• “Sweep the sheds.” Leave the facility in better shape than we found it. 
• “Old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit.” This Greek maxim explains what coaches do. 
• “Leave the jersey in a better place than you found it.” This summarizes team culture and the individual’s responsibility to it. 

2. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

BITB weaves a tapestry from three stories, culminating in the 1936 Olympics. The first inhabits the struggle, survival, and rise of Joe Rantz, a “big kid” whose family literally exiles him from the home during the Great Depression. As a 15 year-old he has to find work and make his way in the world. Along the way, he finds rowing or rowing finds him at the University of Washington. 

The second narrative arc is life in the Great Depression. Unemployment reached 25 percent and the author describes the despair and suffering of the era.

The third part discusses the politics and conditions in the early to mid 1930s in Germany, the national pride and prejudice, and the media construction leading up to the 1936 Olympics. 

Is it the greatest sports story ever written? I’ll leave that to you, although it is brilliantly written. “What mattered more than how hard a man rowed was how well everything he did in the boat harmonized with what the other fellows were doing. And a man couldn’t harmonize with his crewmates unless he opened his heart to them. He had to care about his crew.”

3. Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath

Man is the Storytelling Animal. People remember more from a great story than from a lecture. Facts usually matter less than the personal impact the story has on us. I heard an interview with Doug Collins. He said that the last song he heard, leaving the US dressing room before the Olympic final in 1972 was “What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?” He hates that song. 

The Heath Brothers present the acronym SUCCESS –