What is "coach"? Do we need it?
In a post yesterday, I appeared to strike a chord (and for some a nerve) when I supplied the history of the attitudes manifest in Marc Stein’s scolding LeBron James for his “unbecoming” behavior in...
View ArticleWhat Racism Means to Me
This is probably hopeless, but the teacher in me won’t seem to allow me to let it go or write it off. In the wake of my posts over the last week on Steph Curry, LeBron James and coaching, and coaching...
View ArticleTeaching Values: Coaching the Right Way
In the wake of my posts last week exploring some of the history, assumptions and implications underlying various aspects of coaching, I had a great conversation with Nick Houseman at BBallBreakdown....
View ArticleCrowdsource Query: Case Studies for Sports Concepts
Last Fall, I inaugurated a new large lecture/small discussion group format course at Michigan called Global Sports Cultures. I organized it around conceptual lenses—play, values, creativity, media,...
View ArticleThe Culture of Moving Dots
Today I listened to a very well crafted, informative lecture by Rajiv Maheswaran on how basketball teams are using movement tracking devices and computing power to inform the decisions they make about...
View ArticleBad Prof’s Top Basketball Books – Second Team
Yesterday, I began presenting the list of my favorite basketball books with my First Team All-Bad Prof selections. Today I move on to the second team (presented alphabetically by title), using the...
View ArticleTroubleshooting the Sports Machine (Global Sports Cultures, 1st Lecture)
Yesterday I gave my first lecture in Global Sports Cultures (Comparative Literature 100). After teaching the course for the first time last year, I retooled the syllabus both to make the material more...
View Article“Ball Don’t Lie!” Is Coming Soon (Here’s a discount code!)
I’m very excited! Here’s the flyer for my book, Ball Don’t Lie! Myth, Genealogy, and Invention in the Cultures of Basketball, which comes out in March. There’s a code at the bottom for a discount on...
View ArticleBasketball Analytics (Take 2): Winning
I’m realizing from the feedback on my post about basketball analytics that the issues the phenomenon raises are more complex than what I’d thought or allowed for in that post. In fact, they are too...
View ArticleSomaesthetics and Sports: Call for Papers
Call for Papers: Special Volume on “Somaesthetics and Sport” Sport offers opportunities for the integrated experience of human embodiment. At the same time, sport occurs within, shapes and is shaped...
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