Golden

Book Review : Golden

Author : Marcus Thompson

My Rating : 3 out of 5

The complete title of the book is “Golden : The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry”.

Even though I am addicted to watching sports, reading about personal life of sports personalities, is something that I have absolutely no interest in. So I am not sure why I picked up this book. Perhaps I thought it will improve my understanding of the sport, that I have fallen in love with for last 10 years or so.

I didn’t grow up with Basketball around me, and I have never played the sport. Even after I moved to USA, I didn’t watch Basketball for many years. My interest grew when I started understanding the game a bit, started appreciating the fadeaway jump shots of Kobe, then the completeness of LeBron and now this jaw dropping shooting by Steph Curry. So when I read the title, I was intrigued.

Author Marcus Thompson is a sports columnist, which turns out to be a big plus as well as a big minus for this book. The entire book feels like a big newspaper column, and not in the best possible way. There is very detailed play-by-play description of many games. So many that I started just skipping these multi-page replays. I think this book would have been greatly benefited by a good editor who would have ruthlessly chopped down the running commentary of so many games.

In between these lengthy game recaps, there is good information and insight sprinkled in. You will learn about Steph’s childhood, his family, his values, his hard work and his determination. I would have preferred a better structure to this information, as it feels arranged a bit randomly in different chapters. You will also find some new information here that was never mentioned in sports columns before.

One thing that I would highlight is the candid discussion about race and privilege. Curry, unlike many other basketball players, did not have to battle financial adversity in his childhood. As a son of an NBA player, his childhood was comparatively comfortable. The adversity he has faced is due to his smaller relative size on the court, and he has overcome it with spades. Still, he is not “black enough” for many. This particular discussion was very illuminating me. I applaud the author for being very forthright and open about this issue.

The book is written from the point of view of a fan, so expect little criticism of Steph here. I am ok with it, as I was not looking for a bland balanced approach anyways. 

I can only offer a lukewarm recommendation. I have no idea how a die-hard Basketball fan, already with a lot of insight, will feel about this book. How much new would he or she find in this book, is something I cannot say. For a casual fan, this can be an interesting book to read.