Editing is not my strong suit. When I write, I just let the words pour from my brain to my fingers and sometimes things get lost in translation. Writing is fun, but editing is the hard work that I don’t always want to do to make sure that everything is correct. I have become better at self-editing over the years, but I need to get better. I have never edited a book, but my recent forays into books about basketball made me feel a need to do to some trimming. Both Boys Among Men by Jonathan Abrams and Back from the Dead by Bill Walton have their strong suits, but a strong editor would have made them better.
The subtitle of Abrams book is “how the prep-to-pro generation redefined the NBA and sparked a basketball revolution.” While there is no doubt that the prep-to-pro group that includes Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James has changed the NBA, I am not sure what the basketball revolution was. The strength of the book is Abrams’s research. He provides interesting details on many of the players who were able to skip college before the NBA put in its one-and-done rule 10 years ago. For example, the Nets were strongly considering drafting Bryant which would have messed up the Lakers’ deal before John Calipari got cold feet. He took Kerry Kittles instead. One can only wonder what would have happened to Kobe had he been coached by a younger Calipari and had teammates liked Kendall Gill and Jim Jackson as a rookie. Even Lloyd Daniels was on that team. The book also examines the first generation of prep-to-pro players, including Moses Malone, Darryl Dawkins, and Bill Willoughby (who played in the league for eight seasons and averaged 6.0 points).
The problem is that the book lacks any sense of overall narrative. After reading it, I learned that many of the profiles had appeared on Grantland, and it feels like there is little connection between the players. Garnett’s decision and subsequent success allowed later players to jump to the pros. Bryant’s shoe deal helped Tracy McGrady get a deal out of high school, but the book rarely delves into any larger issues. Considering the success of many of the prep-to-pro players (Korleone Young and Lenny Cooke being the biggest exceptions), the book could be seen as a repudiation of the NBA’s one-and-done rule, but Abrams never offers an opinion. There are extraneous details that should have been taken out. For example, why should I care what super-agent Arm Tellum ordered for breakfast? As a series of investigative essays on a website, the writing works. When transferred into book form without much connection, it gets tiresome.
Buy a copy here:
[protected-iframe id=”c9179a8073ff4e27295f1d8773333c0a-114320562-9927038″ info=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=thehooman01-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=0804139253&asins=0804139253&linkId=e4d4a0df06db1c112a7f4085f27f6a0d&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true” width=”300″ height=”150″ frameborder=”0″ style=”width: 120px; height: 240px;” scrolling=”no”]
One might expect Walton’s book to be tiresome. As announcer, he is an acquired taste. Walton’s playing days were slightly before my time, although I remember him as a reserve on the 85-86 Celtics. I kind of wish I had listened to the audio version just to hear Walton’s voice, but it rings true in the book. The big redhead has quite a tale to tell in that he has overcome great obstacles. He had terrible foot issues that kept him largely on the sidelines during his NBA career. I am going to read more about them soon in David Halberstram’s Breaks of the Game. He was also a stutterer who became an announcer. Walton opens the book by describing the pain of a broken back which caused him to become a shut-in for a time.
Walton clearly loves basketball, particularly team basketball. He was an excellent passer and helped his teams win three college championships and two NBA trophies (the aforementioned Celtics and the 1977-78 Portland Trail Blazers with Maurice Lucas). Walton is also a funny announcer with his hyperbole (“the best pass in the history of Western Civilization.”) My personal Walton impression includes the phrase, “Ostertag with the facial!” but I wasn’t able to find a clip, so maybe I just made that up. Generally, Walton finds a reason to praise almost everyone, but there are two contrary examples. The 1978 NBA MVP does not care for Bob Knight, who he thinks of as a bully who takes the joy out of the game. He also places blame for the end of the UCLA winning streak of 88 games on the ball-hogging ways of a guard named Tommy Curtis. Curtis’s Wikipedia page notes that he learned transcendental meditation from Walton, which may have helped with the withering criticism from the center.
Kudos should be given to Walton who clearly wrote the book without much help from a ghost writer. However, he tends to use five adjectives when one would suffice. This type of thing may help when he is announcing games, but it tends to be a bit much on the page. He also talks about the births of his children, but makes no mention of the woman who gave birth to them. Walton does not examine the contradictory nature of playing basketball with his notion of peace, but that maybe would have required more self-analysis than he is capable of. Both books were good enough, but could have been better with a bit more shaping.
Grab a copy here:
[protected-iframe id=”d1d19a1015508178697e92aa77e76d70-114320562-9927038″ info=”//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=thehooman01-20&marketplace=amazon®ion=US&placement=1476716862&asins=1476716862&linkId=782480ce92198f95467b7328d70f9898&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true” width=”300″ height=”150″ frameborder=”0″ style=”width: 120px; height: 240px;” scrolling=”no”]
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
