Two high school teams overcome incredible obstacles to play soccer. women overcome layer upon layer of sexism to succeed. a professional league struggles to finish a season inside a bubble amid race riots, while a manager most people love to hate keeps winning.
All of those stories were highlighted by a group of talented writers who captured our attention and taught us so much over the past year.
You are reading: Best sports books 2021
Take a closer look at 10 sports books we enjoy reading in 2021.
“paradise found: the rise from the ashes of a high school football team” | plaschke invoice
“rising from the ashes” is a common metaphor in the athletic comeback genre, but in this case it is literally the story of the wildcats of paradise, most of whom lost nearly everything in the 2018 wildfire that reduced 18,000 homes in california pueblo to smoldering embers. the role of sports is sometimes exaggerated in helping communities heal. not here. plaschke, for 25 years and l.a. Times, the book begins by recounting in harrowing detail the flight to safety, then moves on to the rebuilding, which finds its raw and gripping voice in the individual stories of more than a dozen players and coaches.
“Across the River: Life, Death, and Soccer in an American City” | kent babb
The Washington Post’s Kent Babb takes readers to a place they’re unlikely to explore on their own: the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers. Combining detailed reporting with flowing writing, Babb introduces us to Ednar Karr’s trainer, Brice Brown, and the weight he carries beyond trying to win a fourth state championship. His players are growing up amid an epidemic of gun violence, allowing him to not only coach the fundamentals of soccer but also how to deal with the stress of mental health challenges, a prolific drug trade and economic inequality.
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“all inclusive: an autobiography” | billie jean king
athletic activism traces its roots back to the 1960s, when tennis star billie jean king, who grew up on 36th street in long beach, began her fight for gender, racial, and economic equity that continues to this day. today. The 432-page book, co-written with journalists Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers, carries King’s unmistakably feisty, feisty voice and shares the author’s most personal struggles. Like Andre Agassi’s 2009 autobiography “Open,” King’s memoir is not only a great read, but also an essential public service.
“bubbleball: inside the nba’s fight to save a season” | ben goliver
The washington post national basketball writer was one of the few sportswriters to spend the 107 days in the nba bubble necessitated by the pandemic. it was a long and strange ride, albeit stationary, 22 teams chasing a championship in a high school gym setting. The Lakers would claim that title, which Golliver captures in great detail, but his downstairs eyewitness to the real-world tumult of the summer of 2020, which included a work stoppage sparked by the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the player’s mental health challenged by prolonged seclusion, is the real gold in the book. The NBA built a bubble and saved the season (and the Lakers’ 17th championship) but it didn’t isolate the real world from its occupants.
“giannis: the unlikely rise of an nba mvp” | mirin dimmer
mirin fader couldn’t have timed better an inside look at the unlikely rise of giannis antetokounmpo, with the greek sensation who led the milwaukee bucks to an nba title in conjunction with the book’s release. Fader is a talented writer who shares vivid details about Antetokounmpo’s impoverished upbringing in Greece. his undocumented immigrant status prevented him from playing for top Greek club teams and he sold trinkets with his family on the streets as they fought racism. Through it all, Antetokounmpo struggled to make it to the NBA. While he remains tough on himself as he strives to retain the opportunities he’s earned, the book is infused with the Greek star’s humility and good humor that have made him one of the NBA’s most endearing stars.
“glory days: the summer of 1984 and the 90 days that changed sport and culture forever” | I Jon Wertheim
Middle-aged sportswriters have become a cottage industry by infusing their work with references to John Hughes, Michael Jackson, and Jordan movies and “Karate Kid,” to name a few. Few, if any, have turned them into a decade-long, 336-page hilarious tale that was honestly very funny and hilarious. The prolific Wertheim, Executive Editor of Sports Illustrated and author of 15 books ranging from children’s books to Al Michaels’s memoir, delves into a summer that spawned big-time personalities and cultural moments, most notably the 2010 Summer Olympics. Angels, still considered gold. standard for modern games.
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“ave maria: the rise and fall of the national women’s soccer league” | britni de la cretaz and lyndsey d’archangelo
You’ve probably heard of “A League of Their Own,” a film that captured the magic of a women’s professional baseball team that once thrived in the US. uu. Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D’Archangelo tell equally sweet stories from another prominent women’s professional league that received little attention. They show the rudimentary women’s professional soccer league that operated in the United States in the 1970s. Squads include the short-lived L.A. dandelions, which was competitive but could not overcome the geographic distance from other teams operating in other parts of the country.
“Better to be Feared: The New England Patriots’ Dynasty and the Quest for Greatness” | seth wickersham
Throughout his career, Wickersham, a writer for ESPN, has brought a journalistic attention to detail that can make an NFL owners’ meeting read as absorbing and entertaining as the closing minutes of a Tom Brady’s Super Bowl Return. The Brady-Bill Belichick Dynasty is an irresistible and menacing canvas for anyone who sets out to tell the definitive story of the most famous secret success story in NFL history. Wickersham delivers the products with a Halberstamian level of original detail and insight. you might hate reading the book, because the brady-belichick patriots tend to inspire that sort of thing, but you won’t regret hating reading it (unless, maybe, you’re a fan of usc and/or the chargers, both of who had Brady on their hands more than two decades ago, only to drop him in favor of much, much less).
“outcast: sports, culture and being a woman in the united states” | julie dicaro
julie dicaro highlights topics that are often ignored because they make both writers and readers uncomfortable. While many of us love sports and see them as an escape, it is important to acknowledge the sexism, inequality, and unequal responsibility of athletes involved in intimate partner violence that leaves women out. Along with her personal experience, DiCaro uses a combination of interviews and research to give readers a fuller picture of what many women must overcome to enjoy any kind of affiliation with sports in America.
“tall men, short shorts” | leigh montville
The former Boston Globe columnist and senior sports illustrated writer has had a successful journalistic second life as one of the world’s foremost sports biographers. The latest addition to Montville’s oeuvre is more of an autobiography, the memoir of a 25-year-old Boston columnist who immersed himself in the last days of Bill Russell’s Celtic dynasty and his dominance of the Lakers. While Montville is a Boston guy, he brings a fresh inside perspective to the Jerry West/Elgin Baylor/Wilt Chamberlain Lakers. these were the days when teams traveled commercially with the writers covering them, when the biggest stars stayed long after the final whistle to exchange kindness with those same writers. Montville put away his half-century-old notebooks, for which readers are rewarded with the definitive account of a pivotal season in one of sport’s great rivalries, supplemented by the often hilarious personal recollections of a generational observer of sports.
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