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.

Dangal

Movie Review : Dangal

Released : 2016

Language : Hindi

Director : Nitesh Tiwari

Genre : Biography

Starring :  Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra, Aparshakti Khurana, Zaira Wasim, Suhani Bhatnagar

My Rating : 9 out of 10

Movies about Sports pose interesting challenges. They have to do a balancing act between focusing on the sport and focusing on the characters. The actors have to take on intensive efforts to appear believable. The drama around the sporting scenes has to be exciting, but should not feel far fetched. Last but not the least, if the ending is predictable, the movie has to ensure that the viewers stay engaged till the end.

Dangal wrestles these challenges (pun intended) and scores a gold medal. It walks the sport movie tightrope without ever losing its balance. Its focus on wrestling is unwavering, but it also manages to pack a social message. While taking us along on a near straight-line journey of Geeta Phogat towards the Gold Medal, it still manages to make us visit the special bonds between all the characters. It ignites nationalism without being melodramatic. Most importantly, it keeps us on the edge of our seat even when there is no real villain and we know how it’s going to end. Yes, it fabricates an exaggerated fictionalized ending for the cinematic effect, but doesn’t push it beyond the borders of believability.

This success is a result of the entire team. The director Nilesh Tiwari never lets the movie go out of his control. The actors, all of them, from Aamir Khan to the kid actors, have put in phenomenal efforts in their roles as wrestlers. The music sticks to taking on a just a supportive role. The picturization of the wrestling scenes is undoubtedly the highlight of the movie. They can be described with one word - electrifying. That’s because of efforts of actors, wrestling consultants, director - and the camera crew and the editors. In presenting such high octane sports scenes, so much depends on camera angles and skillful editing. Hats off to the technical crew.

As must be obvious, I really enjoyed this latest Aamir Khan movie. He is one of the rare Bollywood stars whose movies I look forward too. I have been very happy with hist last few movies, such as PK, or 3 Idiots. Only Dhoom 3 was a huge disappointment for me.

Dangal is another feather in the cap for Amir Khan. I still remember watching him sing “Papa kehte hai”. This journey from a chocolate hero to a super serious dedicated actor has been a delight to witness. Here he plays the middle aged humorless father perfectly. A lot has been and will be talked about his physical transformation. I was equally impressed by his acting effort. The way he talks, the way he sits on the scooter, the way he runs at the end of the movie. Everything is perfect. This is perhaps his best performance. 

He presents the real life story of wrestling champion Mahavir Singh Phogat and his efforts to earn a gold medal for India via his daughters. This is a fairly recent story, with both the daughters still active as athletes. It’s a story of dedication, hard work and courage to fight against the social norms.

It’s impossible to talk about this movie without talking about the acting performance of the two child actresses. They are adorable, and admirable for the amount of effort they put in. Both  Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra have done justice to their roles as elder Geeta and Babita. Even the unenviable role of the cousin is played superbly by Aparshakti Khurana.

I absolutely recommend this movie. It’s fast, does not extend longer than needed and safe for kids. Actually, it’s a great family movie. Do not miss this one.

Yogisms

When I moved to US from India, I had no idea who Yogi Berra was. Soon, I started noticing that journalists sometimes insert his quotes in their stories on many diverse topics. In India, the term "Yogi" has some specific meanings. With that kind of name, and those uniquely styled quotes made me really curious about him. He seemed like some modern day Confucius!

Wikipedia didn't exist then. (Really!) So I found out about him the old fashioned way - by asking around. Turned out that he was one of the greatest Baseball players, Lawrence Berra, and a celebrated Yankees coach, and the name "Yogi" was given to him jokingly for his sitting style.

He stopped playing even before I was born. Although I enjoy Baseball, and watch the play-offs, specially when SF Giants are playing, I am not a fan enough to learn history, or dig up old videos to see him in action. But I did try to read up about his quotes. Were these intentional? Turns out, these brilliant quotes were just accidental.

I just decided to note my favorites, "Yogisms". Why and why today? Why not? :-)

The following are used so often, that we have stopped noticing the tautology and the paradox. I really find it amazing that we have actually adjusted our minds to use these appropriately.

It ain't over, till it's over.
It's Deja'vu all over again.
Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

Some can be very thought provoking. It's remarkable that someone can say these without actually meaning to be intellectual.

The future ain't what it used to be.
If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.

Some are just funny, but still require a bit of attention to notice the humor.

I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.
Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours.

The real Yogism's to me are the ones that make you go, "What? Come again ...".

When someone asked him what's the time, he replied, "You mean, now?"
It gets late early out here.
90% of the game is half mental.
While giving directions to his home, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
You can observe a lot by watching.
If the people don't want to come out to the ballpark, nobody's going to stop them.
Never answer an anonymous letter.
We made too many wrong mistakes.
A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.

Naturally, the question is, how much of this is falsely attributed to him. I don't know. He has published a book called the "The Yogi Book" that explains the stories behind his quote. I haven't read it. May be I should. But he himself answered that question best, by saying,

I didn't really say everything I said.

What a week that was

The last week was very interesting for Sports and Science. Somewhat historic as well. Here is a quick recap of all the things that happened in this short time.

1. Spain's historic win at Euro 2012.
It's hard enough to win a Soccer tournament at such massively competitive world stage. Doing 2 in a row is way harder. Doing 3 in row, definitely deserves being labeled as historic. I wrote about it in my previous post.

2. Federer's win at Wimbeldon.
I don't think I have to say a lot about this, as this is obvious. Astonishing 17th grand slam title, regaining number 1 at the age of 30, what more a man can do ?

3. Anderson Silva's Win at UFC 148
Although UFC is gaining popularity, it still hasn't gone mainstream. More and more will be shown on Fox, so it just has begun its upward swing. Many think of it as too violent. I find it less violent than boxing, as often times the fights are decided by grappling skills. In any case, I enjoy watching UFC, and find Anderson Silva's 10th title defense legendary. In a field that requires insane physical fitness and a lion's heart, no one has been at the top for so long. And Silva does it convincingly. Jon Jones might surpass Silva's records, but till today, Silva has been the best pound for pound fighter in the world.

Now on to Science - where the discoveries are truly historic in nature.

4. Higgs Boson
The confirmation of this so called "God Particle" was one of the main objectives of Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. To be honest, I don't understand the theory at all. To my layman brain, Higgs Boson has always felt like the "aether" that was supposed to permeate the space. But of course, I believe the modern scientists when they tell us, that Higgs Boson is based on sound mathematics, unlike the discredited "aether". This week the CERN announced that they have indeed found evidence of Higgs Boson in LHC. This is the most important discovery in particle physics, and it confirms The Standard Model. I wish there were more accessible books that explain the Higgs Boson, and particle physics in general.

5. Dark Matter Detected
With all the celebration about the Higgs Boson in the media, one other equally important discovery did not get as much mention. For the first time the dark matter was "observed directly". Dark Matter by definition does not interact with other matter. That's why it has been hard to detect it in spite of it being 5 times as plentiful. The only way to detect it as via its gravitational effects on neighboring matter. On the same day CERN announced about Higgs Boson, Nature announced about the first detection of dark matter "filament" joining 2 clusters of galaxies. Dark Matter is even more mysterious than Higss Boson, but it's at the cosmological scale, not quantum scale. I do not know if this discovery proves the hypothesis of Dark Matter. It does seem extraordinary, confirming that although we know precious little about the universe, we are perhaps on the right track.

The Greatest Soccer Team Ever

It's very rare to watch history in the making, and much rarer to realize that in real time. I think the time has come to declare just that.

About 6 years ago, the Spanish National Football team made a crucial decision. Having realized their inability to out-muscle their opponents, they decided to adopt a playing style that has now come to be known as "Tiki-Taka". This style was not their invention - some credit goes to the Barcelona team during the early 90s under the super-successful manager and a legendary player himself - Johan Cruyff. It has been evolving since then. The Barcelona team under Josep Guardiola (a pupil of Johan Cryuff) and the Spaniards just took it to the level of absolute perfection. There is a significant overlap between the rosters of Barcelona and the Spain National Football team, and the playing styles are nearly identical.

The Dutch made "Total Football" famous and highly effective in the seventies. In this style, the players can switch positions and reliance on specialists is reduced. Barcelona's "Tiki-Taka" takes this basic idea even further and adds more elements to it. In this system, the players can be physically small, as long as they are technically talented and exceptionally fit. They make quick passes to each other, with just one or two touches before passing. It requires exceptional team coordination, vision and space awareness. A typical pattern in this system is triangulation, where 3 players keep advancing field position while passing ball to one another. Others join in as needed to make new triangles.

But the style is just a technicality if it isn't successful. Barcelona has won 15 titles under Guardiola, and Spain just became the first country to ever win 3 consecutive titles - Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and now Euro 2012. And of course, success of the style depends on the caliber of the players as well.

The relationship is mutual. This style has created a generation of great Spanish players and the continued success of the style depends on their greatness. Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Fabregas, Silva, Torres, Pedro - the list is endless. In Euro 2012, they were without Puyol and David Villa - and they still won. This combination of individual talent and a great style, has been a perfect match. Hence, I have no hesitation in claiming that we are indeed watching THE greatest national soccer team ever.

Such claims are often met with skepticism. What about Brazil with Pele, or the Dutch team of 70s ? Comparing players across generations is hard, comparing teams is even harder. What is great about Spanish team today, is that it is not dependent on some key players - rather it depends on having many players that play the system exceptionally well. Surely, Xavi has been the architects on many attacks - but the success doesn't just depend on him. Messi makes Barcelona the ultimate club team ever, but he is not part of the Spanish team. That's the point. Spain doesn't need a Pele or a Maradona or a Platini or a Zidane. There is no one player without whom the whole edifice will collapse.

A key idea of the system is to keep possession at all times. In many games, Spain has possession for 70% of the time, and routinely complete 500+ passes every game (with 80%) accuracy. If your opponents do not get the ball, how will they score ?

This style of play also generates criticism. Spain's goal margin in wins is often 1-0. People find the game slow, some go as far as calling it boring. I can see why they might feel it that way. But I find their play mesmerizing. It's like watching an intricately choreographed ballet. Elegance and precision are two words often used to describe their play.

What's remarkable is this style is not a secret. Other teams have been studying them, trying to copy some of their ideas, but more importantly figuring out ways to defeat them. Neither Spain, nor Barcelona is invincible. Chelsea has had success against Barcelona. But overall, both Spain and Barcelona have maintained their position at the peak for a long time. This playing style, and the physique of current players makes the long crosses and headers a bit rare. Very few players are over 6 feet. I don't mind that.

You cannot defeat them because you cannot take away the ball from them, and if you get the ball, you cannot score a goal against them. That's true. Often during the Tiki Taka talk, what gets little mention is Spain's defense. In the entire Euro 2012, Spain played more games than everyone else except Italy, but there was just one goal scored against them. Just ONE. This was when their main defender Puyol could not play the tournament due to an injury. Think about it. Victor Valdez is considered to be the best goalkeeper Barcelona has ever had. And he is a reserve for Spanish team, because current goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas is on track to be called one of the greatest goalkeepers ever. Spain's coach has the reverse problem - who to keep on the bench ! The talent pool is very deep.

No matter what you think of this being the greatest team ever, it's beyond doubt that Spain and Barcelona have redefined Soccer. And this happened in last 5 years. Many great teams have come and gone, many more will surely come in future. But very rarely a team is credited for starting a new School of Soccer playing. I consider myself to be absolutely lucky to have watched Spain - and in particular Barcelona play. It has been a pure joy. Thank you Spain, thank you Barcelona !

Here is a very nice video explaining this style of play - not goal scoring, just passing.

Bend It Like Beckham ! Indeed.

MLS 2011 Conference Finals. LA Galaxy v/s Real Salt Lake. The game would be remembered for how many times the ball hit the post and for this amazing assist by Beckham. I am not a fan of Beckham, but this is indeed his signature cross. Beautiful, perfect and it just makes you exclaim ... WOW.

Why do I think Messi is the greatest soccer player ?

FC Barcelona won the UEFA Champion's League 2011 Final (3-1) against Manchester United in style. Messi scored one, and helped in David Villa's magical goal. It was yet another amazing performance and complete dominance by Barca under Josep Guardiola.

I just want to bookmark a few videos celebrating the best Soccer player ever - Lionel Messi. At 23, he is already at the top of the world. Has won the FIFA best Player of the Year in 2009, 2010 and will likely win it again, having scored the most goals in La Liga and Champion's League.

There is a reason why. He is not just a prolific goal scorer, but he is also a dribbler and a passer. He is not the forward waiting for the midfielders to create an oportunity for him. He creates the opportunities for himself and others. And his control of the ball is already legendary.

For his dribbling skill, check out this video. At around 0:48 check out the sea of yellow jerseys needed to prevent him from scoring.



For his amazing passes, check out


And even you have watched this before, please watch again one of the greatest goals in the history. Starting behind the half-line, he beat 6 defenders and the goal keeper to score this goal !

Messi !

First leg of UEFA Champion's League Semifinal between Real Madrid and Barcelona. One of the long standing great rivalries. A completely start studded event. Among them is the brightest star - Lionel Messi who at 23 is already being considered as one of the best soccer players ever. In my mind, he is the greatest, surpassing Maradona and Pele.

Watch him create an attack out of nowhere, beating 4 defenders (among the finest in the world), and then the goalkeeper Casillas (who is also the goal keeper of the Spanish team that won the World Championship), and also a 5th player that tried to catch him in vain.

AMAZING. The speed, the dexterity, the control and the imagination.

On The Right Track

Book Review : On The Right Track
Author : Marion Jones
My Rating : 4 out of 5 stars

The complete title for this small book is quite long "On the Right Track: From Olympic Downfall to Finding Forgiveness and the Strength to Overcome and Succeed".

Marion Jones was the superstar of the 2000 Olympics, winning 5 medals. Later she lied under oath when questioned by federal agents about performance enhancing drugs made by the infamous BALCO. After a many months, she came clean on her own. Unfortunately, she received the maximum sentence for this offense and spent 6 months in a jail. Her medals were taken away, she was financially broke, lost her home via foreclosure and well, everything was bleak.

This is her story, in her own words about her struggle to get back to normal life. It's a touching, honest account of her feelings.

There is very little in this book about Marion Jones before she went to prison. This is not an auto-biography. This is a long monologue containing her guilty plea, her difficult journey to get back to normal life, her love for her family and how faith helped her.

Marion Jones is not a very good author. The book lacks coherency - but she makes it up for all that and more, by her truthfulness, maturity and honesty. She owns it up, admits her own mistake, doesn't try to transfer the blame, and stays completely non-controversial. The honesty is refreshing and striking. It's impossible to not be moved by her ordeal and her approach to stay positive. The book overall is inspiring, and your heart goes out to her.

What she did requires tremendous courage, very few people can manage to do it. And I can only salute her for that and thank her for writing this book. God bless her !

This is one more book I decided to read because of watching an interview on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show". Happy that I have read it, I can definitely recommend it.

Humpy Koneru

I know Cricket World Cup is happening, but this is an important news, that should not be overshadowed. India's highest rated woman GM, Humpy Koneru, has qualified as a challenger to play for the title of the Woman's World Chess Champion against the current World Champion - Chinese GM Hou Yifan !

Humpy has been a leading female player for a while. With some impressive results so far (like winning Girls Junior world championship title). She has been awarded Arjuna Award and Padma Shri by the Indian Government.

The current Woman's World Champion Hou Yifan is a phenomenally talented 17 year old. She won the title when she was 16 years old - and created the record of being the youngest person in the history to win a chess world championship.

Apart from the highest rated female player Judit Polgar (who does not participate in Woman only tournaments), these are the only 2 other girls rated over 2600. So they are the logical contenders for the championship. But the match would be tough for Humpy - in their games so far, Hou has won 7, and Humpy only 2.

If Humpy wins the match later this year, both male and female World Chess Champions would be Indians.

Henry The Cheater

Last world cup, Zidane's heroic effort made it possible for France to reach the finals, only to be overshadowed by his headbutt. I was sorry for France and upset with Italy. Being World Champion, Italy has already qualified, but I am still going to root against them. But now, because of what Henry did, I am not going to root for France as well. Not that my rooting matters, but this is how I feel.

Playing against Ireland in the deciding match to qualify for World Cup 2010, France sneaked through, based on this handball by their best player Thiery Henry. Incredibly, neither the referee nor the linesman saw this. Poor Ireland lost their bid due to Henry's skillful hands.

I know soccer players try to get away with as much as they can. But this is disgraceful. I hope France, along with Italy, does not even make it to the knockout stage in World Cup 2010.

Ibrahimovic

This world cup, we will miss Ibrahimovic in action, as Sweden did not qualify. That's a loss to soccer fans. I couldn't believe my eyes last weekend, when he pulled out this pass.

Now this is not just a skill drill, his pass pierced the defense and help score a goal.



This was a WOW moment.

Fabregas

For this World Cup one of the countries I will be rooting for is Spain (along with Brazil and USA). They have some amazingly talented players. Here is their midfielder playing for Arsenal. It took him 5 touches to steal the ball at the center line and taking it single-handedly all the way before hitting it into the net.

Amazing.

Back pass

One of the most exiting things to watch in Soccer is of course the passes. In this, the back passes are electrifying.

Yesterday, the Arsenal demolished AZ (4-1), in their UEFA group round match. Watch the highlights - the long back pass comes after midpoint.

Once more ...

Have you seen a goalkeeper make a big mistake ? I am sure you have. But have you seen the same goalkeeper repeating the same mistake in the same soccer game ?

Watch it to believe it.

:-) The expression on the coach's face says it all.

Magnus Carlsen

Earlier this month Magnus Carlsen won a major chess tournament held in China. See the report of the final round here.

Carlsen will now be the 5th player to cross the rating of 2800. The other 4 being Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Topalov.

Carlsen is now being trained by no other than Gary Kasparov. But even before that it was certain that he is destined to be one of the best players.

I can claim some clairvoyance :-) as I wrote the following email in March 2008, on a mailing list shared by some friends.

The beginning of the year has 2 important chess tournaments. The Corus at Wijk An Zee in the Netherlands and Linares (Mexico-Spain). These are by invitation only, and you need to be a superstar in order to get invited.

Anand is in great form. He came in at 3rd place behind 2 new stars (Aronian and Magnus Carlsen) who shared the first prize. And he won Linares outright. He played more aggressively than his usual style, and was intent on making a statement like a World Champion should. It was joy to watch his games. His usual rivals Kramnik and Topalov were left far behind. They haven't been able to keep up with the new warriors. That's what makes Anand and Kasparov so remarkable. It's near impossible to handle that stress for such a long time when so many youngsters are constantly challenging the status quo.

And that's the real story here. It wasn't Anand whom I wanted to write about. Chess and music are probably the only 2 fields where a young genius so often makes a tremendous mark and creates a storm. So how about a Mozart of Chess ? Here we saw the coming of age for Magnus Carlsen, whom I have no problem referring to as the future numero uno.

He became the youngest grandmaster at age 13, by defeating Karpov and drawing with Kasparov in 2004. Just 4 years later, at 17 and half he won the above said prestigious Corus tournament ahead of Anand, Kramnik and Topalov. He is expected to become one of the top 5 chess players when the April ratings come out. In Linares, he mated the previous world champion Topalov. Now Topalov committed a serious blunder, but that was because the stress created by Magnus's play.

If you want to check out just one of his games, I highly recommend playing over his game against Aronian which Magnus offers a counter queen sacrifice. Anand called it "one heck of a game". You can find it here.

We may have another Magnus Carlsen in India - Negi. Negi was second in Group C of the same Corus tournament. That's how Magnus also started. But it's too early for that call. Currently it's all about Magnus.

You can read more about Magnus at his Wikipedia page.

He is good looking, young and destined to rule the chess world. He is one chess player who won't have problem finding girls to date ;-)

Roberto Carlos

Every sports fan has some moments etched into his memory. In my soccer loving mind, there are many unforgettable goals. But none is as jaw dropping as this one by Roberto Carlos.

Roberto Carlos is perhaps the best wing-back ever. With great defensive skills he also displayed amazingly explosive strikes. One moment he is defending near his goal post and next he is speeding the ball along the left edge all the way to the opposite goal.

But he is best known for his free kicks. Something no soccer fan will ever forget is the way this curved - seemingly defying the laws of physics.



The same kick from another angle ...


I cannot resist adding another impossible angle. People do this as penalty corner kicks, but Roberto Carlos has much shorter distance and has to do this while running at full speed.

Phelphs : From drugs to philanthropy

Well, not everything was wrong about Phelps doing that dope thingy.

At least someone benefited from this.

The celebrated marijuana controversy surrounding Olympic superstar swimmer Michael Phelps has turned out to benefit the San Francisco Food Bank.

Soon after a British newspaper published a photo of what appeared to be Phelps smoking marijuana, Kellogg's announced it would not renew the swimmer's endorsement contract - never mind the eight gold medals he won at the Beijing Olympics.

Apparently, that left only one problem: what to do with the boxes of Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes bearing Phelps' toothy grin. The answer seemed pretty clear two weeks ago when the local Food Bank took delivery of nearly 2 tons of the cereal.
...

The Food Bank, of course, is delighted. With the downturn in the economy, donations of packaged foods are down. It is also important, Ash says, that the cereal company donated to the hungry rather than simply throwing the product away.

Michael Phelps : Still a role model

Now that Michael Phelps has shown himself to be yet another idiot celebrity athlete, he is winning some great supporters.

Their argument ?

"Kellogg's had no problem signing up Phelps when he had a conviction for drunk driving, an illegal act that could actually have killed someone," said Rob Kampia, the group's executive director. "To drop him for choosing to relax with a substance that's safer than beer is an outrage, and it sends a dangerous message to young people."

Yeah, right. The better message for young people - according to this argument - is "stop drinking beer, relax with marijuana instead". How about teaching them that both alcohol and drugs should be avoided ? Of course that would be so old fashioned.

I am not at all surprised that a celebrity is smoking pot. But putting himself in this situation - after a drunk driving conviction - is still perplexing, in spite of being typical.

At least Phelps should be relieved. Not everyone is dissing him - he is still a role model for some !