Narrating the NBA: Cultural Representations of Leading Players after the Michael Jordan Era

(Hardback)

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This book analyzes career narratives of selected prominent NBA players after the Michael Jordan era, understood as the time after his second retirement in January 1999. It was a pivotal time for the league, as Jordan became synonymous with NBA basketball and the face of its global expansion. The players discussed in the book have been selected because of the significance of their career narratives, as all of them correspond with certain archetypes, prevalent in the world not only of professional basketball, but of professional sports in general. The private and public personas of eight players as well as their depiction by the media are analyzed not only regarding their success on the basketball court, but also in light of what they have come to represent for the modern NBA. The players discussed in this book are Shaquille ONeal, Alonzo Mourning, Vin Baker, Allen Iverson, Antoine Walker, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, and Kobe Bryant. Collectively, these eight players embody the distinguishing character profiles and career arcs of sports superstars with dominance, individualism, and athleticism being as much parts of sports star culture as egotism, injuries, boredom, addiction, and bankruptcy.

Reviews

Narrating the NBA is an insightful and dynamic study of the NBAs rich mythology, which traces the carer narratives of many of the leagues most iconic players. Dr. Muniowski effectively demonstrates how individual athletes are transformed into mythical figures by showing how these narratives inform players careers, lives, and legacies. By unpacking the archetypal associations of basketballs biggest athlete-celebrities, he reveals the complex tension between sport biographies and biofictions. This is a fascinating read, for both sport scholars and fans of the game.

This is a fascinating collection of studies of the career narratives of nine leading NBA players, including Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, and Kobe Bryant, each of them chosen because they represent archetypes that are prevalent not only in the world of professional basketball also in professional sport more generally. This book is both a labor of love and a highly significant contribution to academic debates about sports celebrity. It will also be read avidly by countless NBA fans from Chicago to Chongqing, Madrid to Manila.

Author Bio

ukasz Muniowski holds a PhD in American Literature from the University of Warsaw and is the author of Three-Pointer! A 40-Year NBA History.