Operation Yao Ming

Author : Brook Larmer
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101216611
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Yao Ming written by Brook Larmer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-11-03 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The riveting story behind NBA giant Yao Ming, the ruthless Chinese sports machine that created him, and the East-West struggle over China’s most famous son. The NBA’s 7‘6" All-Star Yao Ming has changed the face of basketball, revitalizing a league desperate for a new hero while becoming a multimillionaire pitchman for Reebok and McDonald’s. But his journey to America—like that of his forgotten foil, 7‘1" Wang Zhizhi—began long before he set foot on the world’s brightest athletic stage. Operation Yao Ming opens with the story of the two boys’ parents, basketball players brought together by Chinese officials intent on creating a generation of athletes who could bring glory to their resurgent motherland. Their children would have no more freedom to choose their fates. By age thirteen, Yao was pulled out of sports school to join the Shanghai Sharks pro team, following in the footsteps of Wang, then the star of the People’s Liberation Army team. Rumors of the pair of Chinese giants soon attracted the NBA and American sports companies, all eager to tap a market of 1.3 billion consumers. In suspenseful scenes, journalist Brook Larmer details the backroom maneuverings that brought China’s first players to the NBA. Drawing on years of firsthand reporting, Larmer uncovers the disturbing truth behind China’s drive to produce Olympic champions, while also taking readers behind the scenes of America’s multibillion-dollar sports empire. Caught in the middle are two young men—one will become a mega-rich superstar and hero to millions, the other a struggling athlete rejected by his homeland yet lost in America.

Author : Brook Larmer
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9781592400782
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Operation Yao Ming written by Brook Larmer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A behind-the-scenes profile of the Chinese NBA star and the factors that drove his career reveals how his basketball player parents were brought together by Chinese officials intent on creating Olympic athletes, his role as a corporate pitchman, and the struggle between China and America over his NBA draft, in an account that simultaneously traces the life of fellow athlete Wang Zhizhi. 50,000 first printing.

Author : Yao Ming
Publisher : Miramax Books
ISBN 13 : 9781401359836
Total Pages : 332 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Yao written by Yao Ming and published by Miramax Books. This book was released on 2005-09-14 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2002, Yao Ming became the NBA's first foreign #1 draft pick and a media sensation. Sports writer Ric Bucher was the only American reporter with unrestricted access to Yao's first year in the NBA. Now available in paperback, Yao: A Life in Two Worlds captures Yao's private story and traces his remarkable journey from Chinese success story to international icon. Whether winning over skeptical teammates, or treading lightly with ever-watchful Chinese officials, Yao reveals the many challenges he has faced with delicacy and humor. Spanning sports, politics, business, and popular culture, Yao's fascinating memoir reveals the humble, profoundly likeable young man behind the myth.

Author : Jim Yardley
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307473368
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Brave Dragons written by Jim Yardley and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the former New York Times Beijing bureau chief comes a closely observed story of a struggling Chinese basketball team and its quixotic, often comical attempt to make the playoffs by copying the American stars of the NBA. When the worst professional basketball team in China, the Shanxi Brave Dragons, hired former NBA coach Bob Weiss to improve its fortunes, the team's owner, Boss Wang, promised that Weiss would be allowed to Americanize his players by teaching them "advanced basketball culture." That promise would be broken from the moment Weiss landed in China. As we follow this team of colorful oddballs on a fascinating road trip through modern China, we see Weiss learn firsthand what so many other foreigners there have discovered: that changing China happens only when and how China wants to be changed.

Author : Nate Robinson with Jon Finkel
Publisher : LULU
ISBN 13 : 1483413039
Total Pages : 143 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Heart Over Height written by Nate Robinson with Jon Finkel and published by LULU. This book was released on 2014-05-30 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heart Over Height tells the motivational story of how three-time NBA Slam Dunk Champion Nate Robinson combined an unstoppable will with dogged determination to achieve his goals, and how those traits can apply to anyone facing their own seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Author : Jayson Williams
Publisher : Crown Archetype
ISBN 13 : 0767909380
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Loose Balls written by Jayson Williams and published by Crown Archetype. This book was released on 2002-01-08 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first candid report from a land of fragile egos, available women, unexpected tenderness, intramural fistfights, colossal partying, bizarre humor, inconceivable riches, and desperate competition, Loose Balls does for roundball what Ball Four did for hardball. From revelations about the meanest, softest, and smelliest players in the league, to Williams’s early days as a “young man with a lot of money and not a lot of sense,” to his strong and powerful views on race, privilege, and giving back, Loose Balls is a basketball book unlike any other. No inspirational pieties or chest-thumping boasting here—instead, Jayson Williams gives us the real insider tales of refs, groupies, coaches, entourages, and all the superstars, bench warmers, journeymen, clowns, and other performers in the rarefied circus that is professional basketball.

Author : Oliver Clyde Chin
Publisher : Frog Books
ISBN 13 : 9781583940907
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Tao of Yao written by Oliver Clyde Chin and published by Frog Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a basketball player and international spokesman, Yao Ming has quickly become the eighth wonder of the sports world. Amazing fans, players, and experts with both his surprising performance and down-to-earth personality, Yao has proven to be a refreshing font of contemporary wisdom. But perhaps that is because that Yao's words and deeds are deeply rooted in the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism.

Author : Monroe Price
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
ISBN 13 : 0472024507
Total Pages : 426 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Owning the Olympics written by Monroe Price and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2009-12-10 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A major contribution to the study of global events in times of global media. Owning the Olympics tests the possibilities and limits of the concept of 'media events' by analyzing the mega-event of the information age: the Beijing Olympics. . . . A good read from cover to cover." —Guobin Yang, Associate Professor, Asian/Middle Eastern Cultures & Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University From the moment they were announced, the Beijing Games were a major media event and the focus of intense scrutiny and speculation. In contrast to earlier such events, however, the Beijing Games are also unfolding in a newly volatile global media environment that is no longer monopolized by broadcast media. The dramatic expansion of media outlets and the growth of mobile communications technology have changed the nature of media events, making it significantly more difficult to regulate them or control their meaning. This volatility is reflected in the multiple, well-publicized controversies characterizing the run-up to Beijing 2008. According to many Western commentators, the People's Republic of China seized the Olympics as an opportunity to reinvent itself as the "New China"---a global leader in economics, technology, and environmental issues, with an improving human-rights record. But China's maneuverings have also been hotly contested by diverse global voices, including prominent human-rights advocates, all seeking to displace the official story of the Games. Bringing together a distinguished group of scholars from Chinese studies, human rights, media studies, law, and other fields, Owning the Olympics reveals how multiple entities---including the Chinese Communist Party itself---seek to influence and control the narratives through which the Beijing Games will be understood. digitalculturebooks is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative and accessible work exploring new media and their impact on society, culture, and scholarly communication. Visit the website at www.digitalculture.org.

Author : Michael Strahan
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 9781592402984
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inside the Helmet written by Michael Strahan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strahan, one of the NFL's most talented players--and one of the game's most vocal personalities--pens a no-holds-barred, hard-hitting account of what life is "really" like behind America's most popular sport. 8-page photo insert.

Author : Diego Armando Maradona
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1626366543
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Maradona written by Diego Armando Maradona and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argentina history book about the controversial Diego Maradona A soccer biography for kids Follows the author’s journey from childhood to 1994 “Sometimes I think that my whole life is on film, that my whole life is in print. But it’s not like that. There are things which are only in my heart—that no one knows. At last I have decided to tell everything.” —Diego Maradona Diego Maradona went from a poor boy in a Buenos Aires shanty town to a genius with the soccer ball. He kicked his way to the top of South American, European, and world soccer, but his battles with the many pressures of life inside and outside the game consistently threatened to tear his legend and his spirit down. He is one of many famous soccer players, but one of only a few to write their own soccer autobiography. Villain or hero, one thing about Maradona is clear: he was the best soccer player of his generation and possibly of all time. He has never shared his remarkable story in his own words—until this autobiography. From his poverty-stricken origins to his greatest successes on the field, Maradona remembers, with frankness and insight, the most impactful moments of his life. These include the pressures of being a child prodigy, the infamous semi-final game against England in the 1986 World Cup, an amazing turn-around and the dream-turned-sour at Napoli, and the disgrace and shame of his positive drug test at USA 1994. In this brutally honest autobiography, readers glimpse the inner thoughts of one of the most controversial, talented, and complex professional athletes of the times. He was a man divided between the demands of his corporate club bosses, the media, the fans, and his own tempestuous personal life. With a new epilogue that updates Maradona’s amazing story and includes over 80 delightful photographs, Maradona is a confessional, a revelation, an apology, and a celebration.