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Welcome new readers! The SportsThink Weekly Read highlights my favorite sport-related article of the week. On the last Friday of each month, I send out the Monthly Review, a longer digest of readings and other content of interest. Most articles are recently published, but some are not; the only rule is that I’ve read them within the past week (or the past month, in the case of the Monthly Review). Some are relevant to my day job as a professor teaching courses on the business, history, and philosophy of sports. Others are just plain interesting, relevant to my life-long obsession with the games we play. I also occasionally share articles and assorted musings on Twitter. The newsletter is free, but comes with two requests. 1. I’m always open to suggestions, so send me the good stuff that you read! 2. If you enjoy the newsletter, please share it with other folks who might enjoy it as well. Finally, I try to focus on non-paywalled writing, but if you find yourself unable to access anything, just hit reply to the email and I’ll do my best to get you a copy. Thanks for reading!
The Weekly Read
Most of my reading this week was focused on the Olympics, but having shared two pieces on that subject last week, I figured I’d go in a different direction. I enjoyed this excerpt from Ian O’Connor’s new book on Mike Krzyzewski, aptly titled Coach K. The focus here is the unraveling of the relationship between Krzyzewski and his mentor, the notoriously awful Bobby Knight. A cool piece of insider basketball history, pretty juicy if not somewhat sad at times. Definitely worth a read for fans of basketball or college sports.
A Couple Extras
I’ve got a lot of stuff saved for the Monthly Review next week, but I wrote a couple things this week that are timely.
Here’s my take on the doping scandal surrounding Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. My focus in this one is more on matters of sport governance than on doping specifically. There’s also some discussion of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by the Stooges. For my broader perspective on doping, here’s something I wrote a little while back.
I also shared some thoughts on the much-hyped Super Bowl halftime show, an event I found to be somewhat culturally interesting and aesthetically depressing. I’ll probably take some heat for this one, so feel free to reply to this email or use the comment section below to tell me what I got wrong!
As always, thanks for reading. Please share the newsletter if you find it interesting!
See you next week,
Tolga