If you're part of the NBA-shpere and you haven't heard of Shea Serrano's Basketball (and Other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated, then you most likely have been living under a rock. (Or at least taking an extended stay at Under a Rock Hotel since the book came out in early October).
So I'm pretty late to this, but I just finished the book the other day, and I thought I'd add my praise onto the already-massive heap of it that Serrano's already gotten.
I'd been a fan of Shea's work for a long time dating back to Grantland (R.I.P.) and then The Ringer, so I was ecstatic when I heard about the book.
The book is broken up into thirty-three chapters some covering basketball, some covering other things (I know, shocker! The "other things" chapters always have at least a tangential relationship to basketball).
There are some serious basketball arguments, like "which Michael Jordan season was the best Michael Jordan season?" There are some not-so serious basketball related questions, like "What's the plot for Death Hammer 2: Hammergeddon?," in which Serrano creates the sequel to a fictional movie that was created and starred in by alternate-universe James Harden whose name happens to be John instead (You'll have to read the book to find out what's up with that, I promise that it makes sense).
Throughout the book, Serrano exploits his expert knowledge of pop culture to make analogies and connections to the world of the NBA, just like his Ringer boss, Bill Simmons, before him.
In fact, this book reminded me a lot of Simmons's The Book of Basketball, only it's not nearly as dauntingly long as Simmons's masterpiece (that's right, I called it a masterpiece).
If you can't tell, I highly recommend B(aOT) for any fan of Basketball (if you aren't one of those, what are you doing here?) or a fan of Other Things (Look at that, I did it again).
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