Order The Capital of Basketball here, or at Amazon here.
- Dec 7, Saturday, 12 noon, Barnes and Noble, Rockville, MD. Special guest: Hall of Fame Coach Gary Williams!
- Dec 10, Tuesday, 6 pm, Dematha Stags vs Archbishop Carroll at Dematha High School
- Dec 14, Saturday, 2 pm-5pm Takoma Park Book Fair
- Dec 15, Sunday, time TBA, Barnes and Noble, Columbia Mall, Columbia, MD
- January 16, 2020, Time TBA, Historical Society of DC
- Nov. 22, 12 noon, Howard University Barnes and Noble, 2225 Georgia Ave. NW B&N 8102 Washington, DC 20059. Special guest: Ed Henderson III, grandson of HoF player, coach and civil rights activist Dr. EB Henderson!
- Nov 21, 6 pm, Knight Hall, University of Maryland, College Park. Special guest: Hall of Fame Coach Gary Williams!
- Nov 16, 11 am, Barnes and Noble, Annapolis. MD. Special guest: Hall of Fame Coach Gary Williams!
- Nov 3, 2019, 1 pm, Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008
- Nov 1, 2019, 5:30 pm, National Press Club Book Fair and Author’s Night, 529 14th Street, NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045. Special guest: co-author David Elfin.
THE CAPITAL OF BASKETBALL
The celebration of Washington, D.C. basketball is long overdue. D.C. metro area stands second to none in its contributions to the game. Countless figures who have had a significant impact on the sport over the years have roots in the region, including E.B. Henderson, the first African-American certified to teach physical education in public schools in the United States, and Earl Lloyd, the first African-American to take the court in an actual NBA game. The city’s Spingarn High School produced two players – Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing – that are recognized among the NBA’s 50 greatest at the League’s 50th anniversary celebration. No other high school in the country can make that claim.
These figures and many others are chronicled in this book, the first-ever comprehensive look at the great high school players, teams and coaches in the D.C. metropolitan area.
Based on more than 150 interviews, The Capital of Basketball is first and foremost a book about basketball. But in discussing the trends and evolution of the game, McNamara also uncovers the turmoil in the lives of the players and area residents as they dealt with issues such as prejudice, educational inequities, politics, and the ways the area has changed through the years.
John McNamara (@CapitalofBBall) was a staff writer for the Annapolis Capital newspaper. He earned a degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland and spent over 30 years covering local, college, and professional sports. He won several awards from the Maryland-DC-Delaware Press Association for his writing. McNamara was one of five employees of the Annapolis Capital who were gunned down in a mass shooting at the newspaper on June 28, 2018. He was 56 years old.
Andrea Chamblee (@AndreaChamblee), John McNamara’s widow, covered high school basketball for her community paper and attended more than 500 college and high school games in the D.C. metro area often with her husband, the best play by play man she ever met. She has barked from the stands for a switch from zone to back to man-to-man, much to his dismay.
David Elfin (@David Elfin) who has called D.C. home since 1965, has covered local sports for most of the last four decades while writing seven books on Washington sports and serving on the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame selection committee.
Preorder The Capital of Basketball here.
312 pp., 7 x 10
Hardcover
ISBN: 9781626167209 (1626167206)
November 2019
LC: 2019004745