Court Vision: Unexpected Views on the Lure of Basketball

by Ira Berkow

Book Overview

Best-selling New York Times writer Ira Berkow presents a unique look at America's premier sport--and its fans--through interviews with a remarkable cross section of widely known and extraordinarily accomplished individuals in a variety of fields, who explain what the lure of basketball is for them. Berkow talked with Chris Rock, Woody Allen, Tom Brokaw, Saul Bellow, Johnnie Cochran Jr., Walter Matthau, Nikki Giovanni, Donald Trump, Julia Child,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803262299
• ISBN13: 9780803262294
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 266 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Great Implementation of a Brilliant Book Concept

This book clearly deserves more than five stars.Seldom do I find a new type of nonfiction book that is an improvement over its predecessors. Court Vision is such a book.The concept is simple. Take famous people from all walks of life who are among our most talented individuals. Find the ones who know about NBA basketball either from a fan's or a player's perspective. Interview them about how they get insights into what they do from basketball, what their field can bring to basketball, and use a common questioning format so that the perspectives build on one another. Edit the results ruthlessly.Although the book is ostensibly about basketball, the result is that you also see these observers in a new way through the common lens of their relationship to basketball. For example, some of the very mild-mannered public figures like Tom Brokaw use the four letter word that begins with "f" in their comments. Knowing that they were being taped, I am surprised by their language. Obviously, the public personnas and the real person are at variance in some ways. A further example comes from Walter Matthau's addiction to betting on the games, even though he doesn't enjoy it (the winning isn't enough fun to offset the pain of losing). You will have your own favorite sections. If I quote a lot of the best material, it will spoil the book for you. But it may whet your appetite to know who some of the interviewees are:Woody Allen (filmmaker)William Cohen (President Clinton's Secretary of Defense)Edward Villella (ballet dancer and choreographer)Chris Rock (comedian)Erica Jong (novelist)Gene Siskel (film critic)Donald Trump (businessman)Reverend Edward Aloysius Malloy (President, Notre Dame University)Julia Child (chef)Mario Cuomo (former Governor of New York)Alan Dershowitz (law professor)Seiju Ozawa (conductor)Sharon Stone (actress)Saul Bellow (novelist)In general, the comments by those who played basketball are the most interesting. But the narrow lens that our profession brings to our perspective is also very clear. Few draw on analogies and metaphors from outside their profession. Many people are not well schooled in basketball. Their interest usually starts with the rise of Michael Jordan, so stars of the past are seldom mentioned. No one seems to have an explanation of how Michael Jordan could take off at the free throw line and dunk the ball. One interesting hypothesis presented is that he used some sort of extrasensory power. Basketball players are also looked on as individuals. You get comments on the Latrell Spreewell coach-choking incident, immature behavior on the court and off, and the important potential role of education in these young peoples' lives.Most of the observers either live in New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, so you get a lot about the Knicks, Lakers, and Bulls. Some residual Larry Bird sneaks in now and then. This book would also make a great gift for anyone who is an NBA fan. But you should give it to yourself firs

Soaring

"Court Vision," by Ira Berkow, celebrates the diversity of those who not only love, but also appreciate the complexities of basketball. Looking at the sport through the eyes of people who use their own fields of high expertise as a prism, elevates the game from the purely mechanical to the art form which it surely is. In the book, Frank Stella, the artist, speaks of the beauty of the game "..in the coordination and getting it all together." We're dealing with magic also- the defiance of gravity engaged in by basketball's foremost practitioners in their daily work.All sorts of contradictions to conventional physics are rampant when they come to play: they float when lesser men crash to the ground, and they have the capability of going backwards and forwards at the same time. Kary Mullis, the Nobel laureate, speculates about this ability to float, about whether mental strength is capable of violating physical law, or whether they're "...putting helium in their shorts."If great basketball players are a special breed, then some of those who try to make serious sense of who they are and what they do, are special too. It helps to have been or even to still be in the trenches. Berkow's last book, "To the Hoop," dealt with another grave defiance, that of having to come to terms with oncoming age. In it, he recounts the tribulations of an over 50 player of pickup games, beset by a bum knee and much younger teammates and opponents. This time around, he lets Johnnie Cochran, Tom Brokaw, Mario Cuomo and all the standouts he has interviewed do most of the talking. Yet the experienced journalist's hand is there to keep matters on track. The leitmotiv is always close to the surface, the need to make esthetic, emotional and intellectual sense out of this hybrid of sport, metaphysics and art.Sex, opera, psychiatry, music, the law and other indispensable pursuits have been given a voice by Berkow in this winning attempt at illuminating a complex subject. The last interview says it all though. It is with that acute observer of the chronic human condition, Saul Bellow. In response to the question as to whether there is anything in basketball or a specific basketball player with which Bellow might identify, the visionary of Chicago (now unaccountably in a Boston exile,)speaking of Michael Jordan, has the final word on the subject: "I do identify myself with this power to hang in the air."