When the Garden Was Eden
Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks
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- $229.00
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- $229.00
Descripción editorial
In the tradition of The Boys of Summer and The Bronx Is Burning, New York Times sports columnist Harvey Araton delivers a fascinating look at the 1970s New York Knicks—part autobiography, part sports history, part epic, set against the tumultuous era when Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, and Bill Bradley reigned supreme in the world of basketball. Perfect for readers of Jeff Pearlman’s The Bad Guys Won!, Peter Richmond’s Badasses, and Pat Williams’s Coach Wooden, Araton’s revealing story of the Knicks’ heyday is far more than a review of one of basketball’s greatest teams’ inspiring story—it is, at heart, a stirring recreation of a time and place when the NBA championships defined the national dream.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Long before he was a sports columnist for the New York Times, native New Yorker Araton grew up loving the Knicks during their championship heyday. Personal significance aside, according to Araton, the teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s "were the city's first true basketball love, consummated in the years before the romance of sport became complicated by money and the constructed divide between athlete and fan." Their share-the-wealth success spurred countless books and created several heroes, such as Walt "Clyde" Frazier, who was smooth on and off the court, and inspirational leader Willis Reed, whose dramatic return from a painful knee injury in game seven of the 1970s NBA finals cemented his legend. Araton profiles the team's construction, its players (some of whom have seen better days since retirement), and the high profile fans ( Woody Allen, Elliot Gould) who may have helped turn pro basketball into a media-savvy, worldwide business. The author's attempts to tie the era's political tumult and his own personal experiences to the larger story feel arbitrary and forced, but this thoroughly reported examination of the "Old Knicks" and their connection to the city is still an essential read for basketball history buffs. 8 pages of b&w photo.
