there's something about roundball

Is there really a market for a book about a clueless American learning about a foreign culture via basketball?

As I was wondering about the potential of my own book, I spotted this new entry into the rapidly expanding genre: Away Games--My Season of Misadventures in Czech Semi-Pro basketball. Nice.

It's not due out 'till November, but I'll be sure to snag a copy when it hits the bookstores, it sounds pretty entertaining: a sub-6-foot-tall law-school-bound collegian decides to take a year off and pursure his dream of playing basketball for whoever will have him.

And...another recent entry into the hoops-abroad market, written by an ex-NBA scrub by the name of Paul Shirley, is entitled: Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond .

Reviews are mixed, ranging from "wildly entertaining," to "250 pages of complaining," so I guess now I'll actually have to buy it and decide for myself. I've seen some of his blog posts on ESPN.com, and they have some pretty amusing slice-of-life stories about playing abroad, and some good cameo appearances by "where are they now" NBA players surfacing in the Spanish D-League and other sketchy places.

Regardless of their literary merit or place on the best seller list, both these books show that there's something about roundball that continues to connect people from around the world.