Jack McCallum – författare

New York Times BestsellerIn this candid autobiography, Syracuse head coach and long time college basketball fixture Jim Boeheim reflects on his life, his teachers, and the game he loves.Jim Boeheim walked onto the Syracuse campus as a freshman in 1963 . . . and never walked off. A man who has been written off at various stages of his career and criticized for being disagreeable, Boeheim has experienced it all—triumph, despair, redemption; controversy, heartbreak, and scandal; championships, epic disappointments, colorful personalities, NCAA investigations.His combative personality helped ignite what was arguably the most competitive college basketball conference ever: the Big East of the 1980s, when he and Syracuse battled with Big John Thompson of Georgetown, roly-poly Rollie Massimino of Villanova, feisty Jim Calhoun of Connecticut, and beloved Looie Carnesecca of St. John''s, turning the Big East into a Coaches Conference and the Best Show in College Basketball. Boeheim talks about those days and the coming battles with powerhouses North Carolina and Duke, now that Syracuse has joined the Atlantic Coast Conference.From his association with Syracuse greats Dave Bing (a college teammate), Pearl Washington, and Derrick Coleman, to the Olympics—where he coached players such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant—Boeheim has learned many lessons that have helped his team and continue to encourage him now as he nears seventy.His unprecedented fifty-year career as a player, assistant, head coach and icon has given him unique insight into coaching and the college game, knowledge he now shares.

The true story behind Crispus Attucks High School and the all-Black basketball team loosely depicted as the championship opponent in the beloved classic sports movie Hoosiers. "Jack McCallum, the dean of basketball journalism, does it again ... exhaustingly excavating, and expertly crafting the true story of Hoosier basketball to deliver a jewel that resonates far beyond any hardwood court.” ―Jonathan Abrams, author of Boys Among Men For far too long the mythology of Indiana basketball has been dominated by Hoosiers. Framed as the ultimate underdog, feel-good story, there has also long been a cultural debate surrounding the film. The Real Hoosiers sets out to illuminate the narrative that the film omits, the story of the unheralded Crispus Attucks Tigers, playing the game at the highest level in the 1950s in a racially divided Indiana. After a crushing loss to Milan High School in the 1954 semifinal, which was the game that the final scenes in Hoosiers are based on, Attucks went on to win back-to-back Indiana state championships. That team was led by a young Oscar Robertson and coached by Ray Crowe, who fully recognized the seemingly insurmountable challenges of playing basketball in a state that was a bastion for not only the game but also the Ku Klux Klan. Veteran sportswriter and the bestselling author of Dream Team, Jack McCallum, pulls back the curtain on that history, which is rich, far beyond the basketball court.The Real Hoosiers replaces a lacuna in the history of Indiana while dissecting the myths and lore of Hoosier hoops; placing the game in the context of migration, segregation, and integration; and enhancing our understanding of this country’s struggle for civil rights.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   Acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team. As a writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona. Drawing on fresh interviews with the players, McCallum provides the definitive account of the Dream Team phenomenon. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial selection process. He takes us inside the team’s Olympic suites for late-night card games and bull sessions where superstars like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird debated the finer points of basketball. And he narrates a riveting account of the legendary intrasquad scrimmage that pitted the Dream Teamers against one another in what may have been the greatest pickup game in history. In the twenty years since the Dream Team first captivated the world, its mystique has only grown. Dream Team vividly re-creates the moment when a once-in-a-millennium group of athletes came together and changed the future of sports—one perfectly executed fast break at a time.   With a new Afterword by the author   “The absolute definitive work on the subject, a perfectly wonderful once-you-pick-it-up-you-won’t-be-able-to-put-it-down book.”—The Boston Globe   “An Olympic hoops dream.”—Newsday   “What makes this volume a must-read for nostalgic hoopsters are the robust portraits of the outsize personalities of the participants, all of whom were remarkably open with McCallum, both then and now.”—Booklist (starred review)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   Acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team. As a writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona. Drawing on fresh interviews with the players, McCallum provides the definitive account of the Dream Team phenomenon. He offers a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial selection process. He takes us inside the team’s Olympic suites for late-night card games and bull sessions where superstars like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird debated the finer points of basketball. And he narrates a riveting account of the legendary intrasquad scrimmage that pitted the Dream Teamers against one another in what may have been the greatest pickup game in history. In the twenty years since the Dream Team first captivated the world, its mystique has only grown. Dream Team vividly re-creates the moment when a once-in-a-millennium group of athletes came together and changed the future of sports—one perfectly executed fast break at a time.   With a new Afterword by the author.   “The absolute definitive work on the subject, a perfectly wonderful once-you-pick-it-up-you-won’t-be-able-to-put-it-down book.”—The Boston Globe   “An Olympic hoops dream.”—Newsday   “What makes this volume a must-read for nostalgic hoopsters are the robust portraits of the outsize personalities of the participants, all of whom were remarkably open with McCallum, both then and now.”—Booklist (starred review)

The bestselling author of Dream Team tells the interconnected stories of the NBA champion Golden State Warriors and the early-1970s Los Angeles Lakers, two extraordinary teams playing in extraordinary times and linked by one extraordinary man: Jerry West. During their 1971–72 championship season, the L.A. Lakers won thirty-three games in a row, a streak that still stands as the longest and greatest in the history of American professional sports. It was a run of uninterrupted dominance that predated by decades the overwhelming firepower of today’s Warriors, a revolutionary team whose recent seasons include some record-threatening win streaks of their own. In Golden Days, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum uses these two teams—the Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain/Elgin Baylor Lakers and the Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant/Draymond Green Warriors—to trace the dynamic history of the National Basketball Association, which for much of the last half-century has marched memorably through the state of California. Tying together the two strands of McCallum’s story is Hall of Famer West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors. With “the Logo” as his guide, McCallum takes us deep into the locker rooms and front offices of these two era-defining teams, leveraging the access and authority he has amassed over his forty-year career to create a picture of the cultural juggernaut that the NBA has become. Featuring up-close-and-personal portraits of some of the biggest names in basketball history, from the larger-than-life Wilt Chamberlain to the innovative Warriors coach Steve Kerr to the transcendent duo of Curry and Durant, Golden Days is a history, not just of a changing sport, but a changing America, as seen through the prism of two teams that ruled the league during times of violence and political turmoil—the Charles Manson murders and the athlete-activist in the age of Trump among the narrative backdrops. In the end, McCallum’s book leaves an indelible portrait of West, the man who lived, played, and worked through it all—and who remains, on the cusp of his eightieth birthday, one of the most vital, complicated, and compelling figures in all of sports.“I spent some of the 2016–17 season working as a consultant for the Golden State Warriors, but even I didn’t know every detail of how this championship team came together. Golden Days breaks that all down and shows how the Warriors have revolutionized basketball.”—Steve Nash, two-time MVP

From two senior Sports Illustrated writers comes an explosive, fast-paced satire that will do for today's NBA what North Dallas Forty did for the NFL a generation ago. Just months from his Yale graduation, street-smart whiz kid Jamal Kelly leaves school to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the front office of the Los Angeles Lasers. Once on the West Coast, Jamal gets a quick introduction to a subculture awash in big egos and fast cars, as well as an introduction to the charms of the team's new hard-charging beat writer, Jilly Forrester. In the spirit of Primary Colors and The Devil Wears Prada, Foul Lines peels back the curtain on the trappings of big-time professional basketball. No other sport encapsulates so many cultural hot-button topics, and Foul Lines at once exposes and lampoons this parallel universe.

From two senior Sports Illustrated writers comes an explosive, fast-paced satire that will do for today''s NBA what North Dallas Forty did for the NFL a generation ago. Just months from his Yale graduation, street-smart whiz kid Jamal Kelly leaves school to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the front office of the Los Angeles Lasers. Once on the West Coast, Jamal gets a quick introduction to a subculture awash in big egos and fast cars, as well as an introduction to the charms of the team''s new hard-charging beat writer, Jilly Forrester. In the spirit of Primary Colors and The Devil Wears Prada, Foul Lines peels back the curtain on the trappings of big-time professional basketball. No other sport encapsulates so many cultural hot-button topics, and Foul Lines at once exposes and lampoons this parallel universe.

Sports Illustrated's chief NBA writer Jack McCallum gets in the paint with the Phoenix Suns and takes a season-long look at the NBA's most exciting and controversial team.Jack McCallum—NBA writer for Sports Illustrated—only planned to spend the preseason with the Phoenix Suns as an "assistant coach" and then write a story about his experiences. Instead, he stayed on with the Suns throughout their exciting and controversial 2005 to 2006 season. McCallum describes in detail his year trying to keep up with the fast-breaking Suns on and off the court. He takes readers inside the heads of Steve Nash, the team's mercurial floor general; the maverick Mike D'Antoni; and dozens of others who make up the close-knit Suns family. On the court, there's excitement as the Suns overcome a rash of injuries to once again battle for a conference title. Off the court, controversy rages as the team endures a major front-office change in midseason. Throughout it all, the team continues to bedevil opponents and challenge the status quo with their throwback style. In the spirit of Buzz Bissinger's Three Nights in August and John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink, Seven Seconds or Less is an in-depth look at one of the greatest shows in sports.

One of the most fascinating but least remembered figures in modern American history, Major General Leonard Wood (1860-1927) was, with his close friend Theodore Roosevelt, an icon of U.S. imperialism as the nation evolved into a global power at the dawn of the twentieth century. The myriad of roles that Wood played in his extraordinary career offer a mirror image of the country's expansion from the urban Northeast to the western frontier to Latin America and the Far East. Boston surgeon, Indian fighter, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Medal of Honor winner, commander of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, Governor General of the Philippines, and presidential candidate, Wood was one of a select cadre of men that transformed the American military at the turn of the century, turning it into a modern fighting force and the nation into a world power.Throughout his life, Wood tested the division between military and civilian power to its very limits. His 1920 presidential campaign and his conflicts with civilian politicians were harbingers of the struggles that Generals Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower would face as they moved from the battlefield to Washington following World War II.Jack McCallum has mined Wood's extensive personal records—including diaries, correspondence, and photographs—to create a vivid portrait of a complex man and the legacy he left on U.S. imperialism. America's rapid conquest of Cuba and the Philippines and the subsequent political and economic reconstruction it imposed under Wood's military supervision in these regions have important parallels to current U.S. involvement in the Middle East, both in its successes and its failures.

Sports Illustrated''s chief NBA writer Jack McCallum gets in the paint with the Phoenix Suns and takes a season-long look at the NBA''s most exciting and controversial team.Jack McCallum—NBA writer for Sports Illustrated—only planned to spend the preseason with the Phoenix Suns as an "assistant coach" and then write a story about his experiences. Instead, he stayed on with the Suns throughout their exciting and controversial 2005 to 2006 season. McCallum describes in detail his year trying to keep up with the fast-breaking Suns on and off the court. He takes readers inside the heads of Steve Nash, the team''s mercurial floor general; the maverick Mike D''Antoni; and dozens of others who make up the close-knit Suns family. On the court, there''s excitement as the Suns overcome a rash of injuries to once again battle for a conference title. Off the court, controversy rages as the team endures a major front-office change in midseason. Throughout it all, the team continues to bedevil opponents and challenge the status quo with their throwback style. In the spirit of Buzz Bissinger''s Three Nights in August and John Feinstein''s A Season on the Brink, Seven Seconds or Less is an in-depth look at one of the greatest shows in sports.

Recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and approaching surgery, Jack McCallum wanted to tackle the confusion, misconceptions, and conflicting medical advice that so many men struggle with when thinking about the disease. So he got to work writing The Prostate Monologues.Through the lens of his own experience, McCallum attacks the nitty-gritty questions about prostate cancer that men think about (but may be too bashful to ask their doctors) with honesty and humor. For example, "When is it safe to attempt intercourse, or at least, self-inflicted orgasm?" Or, if you have surgery, "What''s it like the first time you shop for adult diapers?" With wry humor, McCallum decodes the sometimes-confusing jargon of medical professionals so that it is understandable and relatable to "regular" men. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men and the second most fatal. Worse than the obvious commonality and mortality of the disease, though, is the fact that prostate cancer can rob a man of his manhood. Accordingly, McCallum handles the subject not only with care and knowledge, but also with good cheer. Through the honest telling of his own story, and drawing on the latest research, McCallum shares insight into what''s worked for him—and what''s proven to work—in surviving cancer with your sense of humor intact.

The rollicking, rags-to-riches story of Rocky Aoki, prodigiously successful businessman and expert sportsman who founded the multimillion-dollar restaurant chain Benihana, forever changed Americans’ view of Japanese cuisine, and whose pursuits include wrestling at world-class level, power-boat racing, ballooning, and undersea explorationRocky Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything that he undertook, and his range of interests were wild and exciting. His empire of restaurants put the name Benihana on the map and changed the way Americans viewed Japanese cuisine. The business of running and expanding them would be all-absorbing for most people, but not so for Rocky, whose energies had also attracted him to many sports in which he excelled, sometimes nearly to the point of death.At a young age, he was a world-class Olympic wrestler. Introduced to the dangerous world of offshore powerboat racing, he arranged for Benihana to sponsor the world’s largest offshore powerboat race, and was nearly killed in an accident, crushing both legs, while preparing for the Benihana Grand Prix. Then, seeking a new sport, he turned to ballooning, completing the first trans-Pacific flight from Japan to California in a manned balloon and breaking the previous long-distance record for a manned balloon flight.Then, there was flying ultra-light aircraft, collecting and driving fast cars, and exploring under the sea in a specially designed two-man submarine, with future dreams of winning the America’s Cup for Japan.But Aoki also served the common good, acting as Commissioner on the Mayor’s Council on Youth and Physical Fitness in New York City, and campaigning for the advancement, both physical and cultural, of youth everywhere. He was actively involved in promoting the cultural exchanges between the country of his birth and his US home and sponsored sporting and cultural events such as the first professional heavyweight boxing match in the Far East between Muhammad Ali and Mac Foster, becoming Broadway’s first Japanese angel, acting as patron to young Japanese artists in the US, and producing films about them.Rocky Aoki’s wild, capitalistic interpretation of the American dream is one for the ages, was a modern champion, in business, sports, and in life.

An in-depth biography of the famed Japanese American restaurateur, his rags to riches story, his determination in business, and his zest for life.“Traveling the world with my father, watching him interact with people, famous and ordinary, observing up close his balls-out sense of adventure, and having a larger-than-life personality to live up to had a profound effect on me and the formation of my character.” —From the foreword by Steve Aoki, Grammy–nominated producer and Billboard Award–winning DJHiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued—from world-class wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana. Rocky’s passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America. His rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is a wild American dream realized unlike any other. Running and expanding the business would be all-consuming for most people—not to mention battling the perception of otherness—but Rocky would not be deterred. His determination for the business rivaled the drive he demonstrated in his other interests, some of which almost killed him. American Hiro by Jack McCallum, who had full access to Rocky Aoki and those in his enterprises, provides the only full inside account of one of the most famous symbols of cultural assimilation and capitalistic zeal in modern US history—a champion in business, sports, and life.

NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Jack McCallum (DREAM TEAM) gives an inside look at the legendary Boston Celtics during a season of change."One of the five best NBA books ever written."—Bill Simmons, ESPNIn the 1990-91 basketball season, the Boston Celtics were a team in transition, both on and off the court. Jack McCallum, also the author of the critically-acclaimed SEVEN SECONDS OR LESS, chronicled this crucial year from the back-room planning on draft day to Larry Bird''s unforgettable effort in the postseason.With aging superstar Bird nearing the end of his career, the season was filled with glorious highs and devastating lows. McCallum gets up close and personal with the players and management from this storied franchise, showing the larger-than-life characters in a rarely-seen light. The day-to-day drama of Bird''s aching back plays in concert with the drumbeat of banter from his frontcourt partner, Kevin McHale. The book reveals the deep bonds—and sometimes deeper rivalries—of the locker room, and also provides an inside look at a league that was entering its Golden Age.