2009 Holiday Gift Guide!

November 26, 2009 at 9:00 am
Filed under Basketball, Bill Bradley, Chris Young, Pete Carril, Princeton

Happy Thanksgiving! Hard to believe, but Christmas and Hanukkah are both less than a month away. Looking for something special to buy for the basketball fan in your life? Don't go for what's in the mystery box! Try one of the following items from the 2009 princetonbasketball.com Holiday Gift Guide instead. A percentage of all purchases support this site. Something missing that you think people would enjoy? Please drop a line.

Reading Materials:

Earlier this month I spoke with author Kathy Orton about her new book Outside the Limelight: Basketball in the Ivy League, which follows the league through the highs and lows of the 2005-06 season.

A companion to Orton's book is Playing the Game: Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League by Chris Lincoln, the first book to detail the Academic Index and the ins/outs of recruiting in the Ancient Eight.

Alexander Wolff's Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure starts at Jadwin Gym and then circles the globe, from remote mountaintops to the Palestra and across to China. The first book this web site was ever thanked in!

There's always The Smart Take from the Strong: The Basketball Philosophy of Pete Carril, the second book about the legendary Princeton coach.

I've read it hundreds of times, but if you've never enjoyed John McPhee's A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton, give it a go this year.

Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference features an introduction by Bill Bradley and has a wide range of scribes (George Vecsey, John Irving, Frank Deford...) telling tales of coaches that impacted their lives.

Bradley is also the author of Values of the Game, The New American Story and Life on the Run.

There was no better, more beautifully detailed basketball book I read this summer than When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball, about Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and the 1978-79 college basketball season. No direct Princeton content, but well worth your time.

He's written a good deal about Princeton basketball over the ages, but Grant Wahl's true passion is soccer. The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America looks at the most famous player in the beautiful game's journey to the MLS.

I know I'm getting the latest iteration for Hanukkah every year, and I love traveling with books in this series. Best American Sports Writing always has incredible pieces written by well-known and newly discovered authors.

Interested in the history of college hoops? Pick up the Official 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball Records Book, full of information about every season.

Get lost in the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game or Sports Illustrated's The Basketball Book.

Diagrams and descriptions more your thing? Then perhaps Basketball's Princeton-Style Offense: A Simplified Approach for High School Coaches will interest you.

Someday I dream of having a web site that looks as good as FreeDarko presents The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats, and Stars in Today's Game does.

Video Games:

The best college basketball video game out there is EA's NCAA Basketball 10, available for the Playstation 3 and XBox. You can even run the "Princeton Offense" as one of the game's many sets.

Sporting Goods:

Actually want to play the game? The Wilson NCAA Solution Game Ball lets you use the same basketball as Division I players.

While dribbing, look sharp in this Princeton replica jersey by Nike, available in youth and adult sizes and emblazoned with Bill Bradley's #42.

How about some Chris Young replica jerseys?

Youth 2009 Majestic Road Khaki Replica #32

Adult 2009 Majestic Road Khaki Replica #32

San Diego Padres Home White MLB Replica Jersey