Stumped for what to buy that special basketball fan in your life for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/(enter obscure holiday here)? Fret not – The Hoops Manifesto has some suggestions that will help make your holiday shopping a slam dunk (that sentence is so corny it is awesome).
Books:
The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan’s Tour of the NBA (Sports Illustrated)
We’ll go on the assumption that the person you are buying for can read. The best new basketball book on the market right now has to be Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard’s The Art of a Beautiful Game. If you didn’t read my recent review on it (shame on you if you didn’t), the book is an insider’s view of the NBA, and more importantly, an insider’s view into the mind of an NBA player.
Other suggestions: Two of the greatest basketball books of all-time got re-released this past year and are a must-have for any respectable hoops fan: Heaven Is a Playground, Third Edition and 
The Breaks of the Game
.
DVD:
Kobe Doin’ Work: A Spike Lee Joint
The last thing I would ever be labelled as would be a Kobe Bryant fan, so the fact that I enjoyed a movie that was about Kobe and Kobe only is quite an endorsement. Kobe Doin’ Work: A Spike Lee Joint is just that – a documentary of Kobe going about his work. Multiple cameras follow Kobe and Kobe only over a course of a game and the man himself narrates it, telling the viewer what is going on on the court and inside his head. Fascinating stuff.
Video Games:
The undisputed king of basketball video games got even better this year, as NBA 2K10 is the best basketball video game ever created. Whether you are looking for realistic play, the ability to create your own player and guide him to the League or if you enjoy challenging people online, this is the game for ballers.
Other suggestions: If your special someone is more of a college hoops fan, then NCAA Basketball 10 is the one to get. Motion offenses, crazed crowds that affect the game action and CBS Sports announcers Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery aim to make the game as realistic as you can get.
Tickets:
What hoops fan wouldn’t want to get tickets to a NBA or NCAA game for the holidays? If you want to avoid Ticketmaster or are looking for tickets to a sold-out event, check out Ticketnetwork: Tickets to All Sporting Events.
And if none of these ideas work for you, then BAH, HUMBUG!
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