"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, February 12, 2007

:07 Seconds or Less (Jack McCallum, 2006)

This book was a Christmas gift from Christopher (he being aware of my enjoyment of our local NBA team). The premise was that a SI writer would stick around the team for the entire season - not a particularly original idea, but it is unusual for a professional sports team to allow this sort of thing these days. The author has done a bunch of NBA writing over the years. And I liked it because the subject matter is highly interesting to me (last year's Phoenix Suns team was surprisingly successful playing an unorthodox style through a bunch of injuries).

McCallum finds guys like Eddie House (now exiled to New Jersey) pretty entertaining, and I did too. The author mostly hung around with the coaching staff so it was interesting to have that perspective. The head coach (Mike D'Antoni) is at the Tatum & Shea Starbucks like clockwork; last year he hired his brother (Dan) as an assistant. And Dan likes me, because he gave me a sweet autograph (via CPG intervention).

Part deux of the gift was two tickets to the Mavericks game on April 1. Should be v. good.

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