During the late 1990s, eminent basketball journalist Alexander Wolff traveled the globe to determine how a game invented by a Canadian clergyman became an international phenomenon. Big Game, Small World presents Wolff’s dispatches from sixteen countries spread across five continents and multiple US states. In them, he asks: What can the game tell us about the world? And what can the world tell us about the game? Whether traveling to Bhutan to challenge its king to a pickup game, exploring the women’s game in Brazil, or covering the Afrobasket tournament in Luanda, Angola, during a civil war, Wolff shows how basketball has the power to define an individual, a culture, and even a country.
This updated twentieth anniversary edition features a new preface in which Wolff outlines the contemporary rise of athlete-activists while discussing the increasing dominance within the NBA of marquee international players like Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo. A loving celebration of basketball, Big Game, Small World is one of the most insightful books ever written about the game.
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface to the Duke Edition
- Prologue
- Called for Traveling
- Fall: Founding Myths, Conflicting Cultures
- 1. Almonte, Ontario: Duck on a Rock
- 2. Lithuania: Forest Brothers in Short Pants
- 3. Poland: The Sultans of Złoty
- 4. Switzerland: Please Do Not Air Your Dirty Laundry
- 5. Celebration, Florida: Communities of Three
- 6. Italy: Strength vs. Virtue
- 7. Sarajevo Airport: Prisoners of War
- 8. Bosnia: The Woman Who Sells Men
- Winter: The American Game and its Far-Flung offspring
- 9. Peoria, Illinois: Crossover Dreamers
- 10. Eastern Kansas: Driving Mister John
- 11. El Paso, Texas: The Bear in Winter
- 12. Whiteriver, Arizona: Shoots from the Sky
- 13. Boone, North Carolina: Mayberry Friends
- 14. Ireland: To Build a Gym
- 15. Israel: The Long Arm of the Law of Return
- 16. The Philippines: Madness and Mimicry
- 17. China: Qiao Dan, Celestial Citizen
- Spring: The Game Within
- 18. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Quaker Meetinghouse
- 19. Brazil: Women of the Laughing Blood
- 20. Des Moines, Iowa: Unguarded Moments
- 21. Japan: A Journey of a Thousand Miles, Begun with a Single Shot
- 22. Bhutan: Gross National Hoopiness
- Summer: Fast Break to the Future
- 23. Washington, D.C.: Going to the Next Level
- 24. France: The “I Love This Game” Theory of Conflict Prevention
- 25. Angola: Lasme’s Plane Will Be Arriving Shortly
- 26. Kansas City, Missouri: To Rest, Rather Than to Mischief
- 27. Princeton, New Jersey: Through the Back Door
- Acknowledgments
- Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z