{"id":11199,"date":"2022-06-01T12:22:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T16:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=11199"},"modified":"2024-08-28T13:24:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T17:24:56","slug":"readers-notebook-6-1-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2022\/06\/01\/readers-notebook-6-1-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader’s Notebook, 6\/1\/22"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n:07 Seconds or Less<\/em> – Jack McCallum<\/a>
\nThe \u201cseason inside\u201d schtick is one of the most satisfying sports book tropes available to writers. A reporter embeds with an athlete, team, or even entire sport for a year and relates the inside dope on their experiences after-the-fact. Unless the subject is super boring, the result is usually a compelling read.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had this book on my list since it came out back in 2006. I think I didn\u2019t get to it because our old library didn\u2019t have a copy. I had kept it tucked deep into my Amazon wish list that whole time but was never in the mood to buy it. Then I read this piece<\/a> a few weeks back, which refreshed my memory of its existence. I looked and – behold! – the Indy library carries it.<\/p>\n

Jack McCallum was for years Sports Illustrated\u2019s primary NBA writer. During the 2005\u201306 season, he embedded with the Phoenix Suns, who were challenging the NBA orthodoxy of the moment by playing super fast and shooting tons of 3\u2019s. The style resulted in back-to-back conference finals appearances in \u201905 and \u201906.<\/p>\n

Although McCallum spent most of the season with the Suns, the book focuses on the 40-ish days they were alive in the Western Conference playoffs, ultimately losing the Dallas in six games. He does make little runs back into key moments of the regular season to provide background on players or developments that became important in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

McCallum earned near-complete access to the Suns, both within the locker room and the coaches\u2019 rooms, and was blessed by a coaching staff that were completely comfortable sharing with him. That makes for a pretty great book, as little of his words are speculation based on things he saw from, say, press row informed by later discussions. He was there when the coaches were struggling to decide how to defend Kobe Bryant or how to handle the moods of Shawn Marion or the minutes of a hobbled Steve Nash.<\/p>\n

These insider sports books can have a limited shelf life, as players cycle through their careers and styles change. But as the current NBA owes a great debt to the choices Mike D\u2019Antoni and his staff made over 15 years ago, this book feels like a super useful guide into how the 3-pointer happy league of today came to be.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"
\nOcean State<\/em> – Stewart O\u2019Nan<\/a>
\nOnce again O\u2019Nan has written a novel that is both beautiful and frightening. He has such a gift for creating characters that are both simply presented yet rich in detail and easy to relate to. Every time I read one of his books, I\u2019m left in awe at the ease with which he accomplishes this.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the beautiful part. The frightening part is this novel is, mostly, centered on teenage girls, the horrible things they can do to each other, and how those behaviors can have effects that linger into adulthood. Which is deeply unsettling to read as the father of three teenage girls. In this case it isn\u2019t just tormenting and bullying, but goes much, much further than that. Any parent who reads this should have some uncomfortable moments as they consider their kids getting into a situation like the ones O\u2019Nan puts his characters into.<\/p>\n

He also has a gift for getting to the point quickly and keeping his stories relatively short. If you really wanted to, you could finish this in a day, but it isn\u2019t some light, breezy read. It will leave a lasting impression on anyone who reads it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

:07 Seconds or Less – Jack McCallum The \u201cseason inside\u201d schtick is one of the most satisfying sports book tropes available to writers. A reporter embeds with an athlete, team, or even entire sport for a year and relates the inside dope on their experiences after-the-fact. Unless the subject is super boring, the result is usually a compelling read. I\u2019ve had this book on my list since it came out back in 2006. I think I didn\u2019t get to it because our old library didn\u2019t have a copy. I had kept it tucked deep into my Amazon wish list that whole time but was never in the mood to buy it. Then I read this piece a few weeks back, which refreshed my memory of its existence. I looked and – behold! – the Indy library carries it. Jack McCallum was for years Sports Illustrated\u2019s primary NBA writer. During the 2005\u201306 season, he embedded with the Phoenix Suns, who were challenging the NBA orthodoxy of the moment by playing super fast and shooting tons of 3\u2019s. The style resulted in back-to-back conference finals appearances in \u201905 and \u201906. Although McCallum spent most of the season with the Suns, the book focuses on the 40-ish days they were alive in the Western Conference playoffs, ultimately losing the Dallas in six games. He does make little runs back into key moments of the regular season to provide background on players or developments that became important in the playoffs. McCallum earned near-complete access to the Suns, both within the locker room and the coaches\u2019 rooms, and was blessed by a coaching staff that were completely comfortable sharing with him. That makes for a pretty great book, as little of his words are speculation based on things he saw from, say, press row informed by later discussions. He was there when the coaches were struggling to decide how to defend Kobe Bryant or how to handle the moods of Shawn Marion or the minutes of a hobbled Steve Nash. These insider sports books can have a limited shelf life, as players cycle through their careers and styles change. But as the current NBA owes a great debt to the choices Mike D\u2019Antoni and his staff made over 15 years ago, this book feels like a super useful guide into how the 3-pointer happy league of today came to be. Ocean State – Stewart O\u2019Nan Once again O\u2019Nan has written a novel that is both beautiful and frightening. He has such a gift for creating characters that are both simply presented yet rich in detail and easy to relate to. Every time I read one of his books, I\u2019m left in awe at the ease with which he accomplishes this. That\u2019s the beautiful part. The frightening part is this novel is, mostly, centered on teenage girls, the horrible things they can do to each other, and how those behaviors can have effects that linger into adulthood. Which is deeply unsettling to read as the father of three teenage girls. In this case it isn\u2019t just tormenting and bullying, but goes much, much further than that. Any parent who reads this should have some uncomfortable moments as they consider their kids getting into a situation like the ones O\u2019Nan puts his characters into. He also has a gift for getting to the point quickly and keeping his stories relatively short. If you really wanted to, you could finish this in a day, but it isn\u2019t some light, breezy read. It will leave a lasting impression on anyone who reads it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-11199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11199"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11207,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11199\/revisions\/11207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}