Big Game, Small World

Alexander Wolff is a journalist, editor, and author. Formerly a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated, he is the author and coauthor of several books, including The Audacity of Hoop: Basketball and the Age of Obama, Raw Recruits (with Armen Keteyian), and Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home.

“Every piece could be a book or movie in itself. . . . They're tied together by Wolff's search for the soul of hoops, in himself and in the lives of the people and cultures he meets. . . . This book’s a keeper.” - ESPN.com “Wolff’s passion for the game burns feverishly. . . . This is a wonderful book, certainly the best on basketball this season.” (Booklist (starred review)) "[An] excellent book. . . . The Preface for the new edition offers a new context in which to understand and measure the significance of basketball within cultures as varied as that of contemporary Poland, Bosnia, and Bhutan. Wolff analyzes the Netflix production, The Last Dance, and pairs it with the end of American dominance of basketball internationally, as well as the ways in which basketball is understood and played across the world." - Richard Crepeau (New York Journal of Books) “His reporting is terrific. The most entertaining chapters focus on people torn between their love of the game and conflicting, often incongruous forces.” (New York Times Book Review) “Enlightening. . . . Wolff’s knack for finding fascinating people to interview goes far in humanizing basketball in a global context. Highly recommended.” (Library Journal) “May lead the league in ambitiousness of scope . . . most instructive and great fun.” - Bill Littlefield, NPR's (Only a Game) “Alexander Wolff takes us through 16 countries, from Bhutan to Poland, and dozens of states in search of a community of hoops. What he finds may be just too quirky to win the Nobel Peace Prize, but the pieces are prize winners.” - Robert Lipsyte (New York Times) “A lengthy, sprawling, eclectic book, Big Game, Small World is part travelogue, part memoir, a mÉlange of concise histories, quick-hitting ethnographies and biographical portraits. . . . [It] is a self-consciously meditative narrative, a historically informed, critically alert quest for authenticity and meaning.” - Daniel Nathan, (International Journal of the History of Sport)

• Preface to the Duke Edition  xiiiPrologue  1Called for Traveling  3Fall: Founding Myths, Conflicting Cultures1. Almonte, Ontario: Duck on a Rock  132. Lithuania: Forest Brothers in Short Pants  263. Poland: The Sultans of Złoty  394. Switzerland: Please Do Not Air You Dirty Laundry  555. Celebration Florida: Communities of Three  666. Italy: Strength vs. Virtue  767. Sarajevo Airport: Prisoners of War  888. Bosnia: The Woman Who Sells Men  103Winter: The American Game and Its Far-Flung Offspring9. Peoria, Illinois: Crossover Dreamers  11710. Eastern Kansas: Driving Mister John  12811. El Paso, Texas: The Bear in Winter  13812. Whiteriver, Arizona: Shoots from the Sky  15213. Boone, North Carolina: Mayberry Friends  16114. Ireland: To Build a Gym  17215. Israel: The Long Arm of the Law of Return  18416. The Philippines: Madness and Mimicry  20017. China: Qiao Dan, Celestial Citizen  213Spring: The Game Within18. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Quaker Meetinghouse  23119. Brazil: Women of the Laughing Blood  24320. Des Moines, Iowa: Unguarded Moments  25521. Japan: A Journey of a Thousand Miles, Begun with a Single Shot  26422. Bhutan: Gross National Hoopiness  280Summer: Fast Break to the Future23. Washington, D.C.: Going to the Next Level  30324. France: The “I Love This Game” Theory of Conflict Prevention  31525. Angola: Lasme‘s Plane Will Be Arriving Shortly  32326. Kansas City, Missouri: To Rest, Rather Than to Mischief  34427. Princeton, New Jersey: Through the Back Door  352Acknowledgments  361Index  369