Back Bloging. Books First

I always feel guilty when I forget to blog. I apologize, but I had a good reason. I've been finishing the 3rd novel in my Brovelli Brothers Mystery series: The Case of the Volkswagen Hippie Bus. Oh, by the way, the second in the series: The Case of the '66 Ford Mustang will launch this coming October. So, apologies and excuses done with, let's begin, starting in reverse order: Literature and Life first, sports second.

This morning on my walk, I was greeted with "Love that T-shirt" by four fellow-walkers. As a retired English teacher, (that was my career after 10 years playing in the NBA.) this made me happy. My T- shirt is black with white lettering. On the front is a picture of a cartoon smiley face book. The caption reads: Ban the Fascist, Save Our Books. If you haven't noticed, there are many Republican governors and Republican state legislators who are passing legislation banning books of all types from school libraries and county libraries state wide. I will leave for another blog, Texas closing high school libraies in Houston and converting them into disciplinary centers. OMG!  I taught high school AP senior English for 24 years in Reno High School. Nevada is by no means a liberal state. So, from time to time, as a teacher I encountered conservative flare-ups from some school board members. In one such case I had included Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon on my summer reading list for incoming seniors. The novel is, i grant you, a tough read, but I felt it was touching and profoundly important for students heading to college as most of mine were. Within hours of my distributing the list, my principal got calls from parents who did not want their children to read a story with a good deal of explicit sexual content. These were conservative and religious parents. What was the result of these calls? Well, the governor of Nevada didn't go ballistic and begin banning books, I can assure you, and I my family were not threatened as teachers and librarians are being threatened today. What did we do? We simply provided an alternative book for the kids to read, one that satisfied parents and me. In this case alternative novel was Earnest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Look, I'm not using this platform to na na parents who overly oversee their children's book choices, even though I feel strongly that by the last years of high school, such scrutiny interferes with their children's ability to understand the society they are about to become a part of as adults. My point is BANNING BOOKS IS WRONG AND A SLIPPY SLOPE TO A FACIST CONTROLED SOCIETY. I believe absolutely that people of good will can solve problems, even the hardest problems. We did in Reno. It can happen throughout the country. 

Now, back to sports:

Congratulations to Co Co Gauf for winning her first U.S. Open title. There has been some fabulous tennis being played this year. Hopefully, you didn't miss the 20 year old Ben Shelton defeating a more seasoned Francis Tiafoe to make it to the Semi Finals. He lost to the incredible Novak Djkovic, but was not blown away. I was happy to see that the USTA allowed Russian and Belarussian players to compete while not allowing them to play under their national flag in protest of Putin's invasion of the Ukraine.

 Given how well our young American players performed, it looks like America is back in the pro tennis scene. I was sorry to see the young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz lose. It will be the Russian Medvedev facing Djokovic in the finals. It is hard for me to cheer for Djokovic after his refusal to take his COVID shots. 

I'm not sure I can be enthusiastic about America's international basketball prospects. Our FIBA team will not bring back any medals this year. Germany and Lithuania smashed us on the boards and made our defense look pathetic. Canada beat us yesterday for the Bronze. Of course, this should not have surprised anyone as we were not playing with our best pros but with a cast of young upcoming NBA stars. As long as we don't play with our best players in the FIBA World Cup, we can look forward to more losing seasons in international competition. The world has generally caught up to us in basketball. That's good thing. 

I like to think I played some part in tje growth of basketball overseas. KC Jones, John Havlicek and I were the second group of American basketball players to travel to West Africa to promote the game back in 1964. The year before Bill Russell and Bob Cousy went. In 1965, again I returned with Si Green and in 1985 I spent 4 months by myself touring West Africa coaching. African players are now playing all over Europe and players of African decent are common in the NBA. The way things are going with International basketball, I would not be surprised in a few years down the line, there will no longer be an NBA but an IBA, the International Basketball Association, comprised of 4 Conferences: Asian, European, African, and Americas. 

Here is a poem I wrote about tennis. 

Tennis Tournament in Chinatown

    For Peter Sears

His first serve slices pencil thin
over the net and drops like a broken elbow,
skittering to the side out of reach,
and after his next serve curves like a new moon
to my forehand, then changes direction
like a scythe to my back-hand, I know
I’m in trouble. Forty-love, the first game
his, won on a squirrelly shot that, were it not
a ball, might well have been a squirrel.
 
My service, a hard one with top-spin
comes just in time to save me from disgrace,
or so I think. In the split second I see it
catch the corner, a certain winner, it returns
to me as a butterfly attaching itself to the silk
thread of the net, as delicate as a brushstroke,
before fluttering off where I can’t touch it.
 
I’m thinking this is not tennis but an ancient
form of art, disguised as tennis for the purpose
of torture, invented in the court of the Sung
Dynasty, and it is the sly Emperor Hui-Tang
himself on the other side of the net.
He is staring at me, crouched, his whites
gleaming in the sun, racket spinning in his hand,
waiting for me to decide how to paint
the rising peacock. Will I paint the left leg
or the right leg first? Meanwhile I’ve two balls
in my hand, confused, wondering which one
to serve and which one to place in my pocket.