Reviews
Called for Traveling: My Nomadic Life Playing Pro Basketball around the World, by Tyler Smith
michaelnlibrarian's review
4.0
I look at the sports books in the new books shelves at the local public library mostly seeing books about cycling or perhaps baseball - I am not someone who follows basketball (at all) although I went to a small middle school so was obliged to play at least at that point. And in high school, the houses where I hung out had a backboard over the garage so it was an occasional time-killer - but I don't really understand much about how the game is played when played seriously.
But I figured a book like this is probably mostly about the challenges (and perhaps misadventures) of living in various countries as the rental American player among more established national players. Which worked out to be about right. The discussion of basketball strategy and descriptions of some games hardly requires much basketball knowledge.
Mr. Smith has a likable writing style - the narrative flows along well. He doesn't dwell on his upbringing; just enough is provided to make certain things clear. He talks about the mechanics of how he went about finding work overseas as a not-quite-good-enough-for-the-NBA player. He ends up playing in the Netherlands, Uruguay, Argentina, Italy (briefly), Thailand (also briefly) and Japan. He also was a try-out member of the Utah Jazz for one pre-season and played in the NBA's so-called D-league (in effect, minor league) for a while - all this lasted about a decade that he describes chronologically. During some of the time he is accompanied by his wife, and eventually by his first daughter. More of the day-to-day descriptions are about the logistics of being abroad as an American player than about particular games.
Until the last year in Japan that he spent with his daughter there who was just old enough to attend pre-school and allow some more varied interactions with locals that he describes, the focus is almost entirely on how he interacts with these countries through basketball. At first I was a little surprised by how limited his experiences and insights (if you will) are but then when you think about it, he is just in each of these places for the basketball. So perhaps it is more surprising that he picks up anything about the local culture at all. And most of the stories he tells have some humor, which he does well.
Smith is what I guess can be referred to as a born-again Christian (he doesn't provide details); that is, he occasionally interrupts his story to point out the role God or Jesus played in the outcome - these moments are brief enough that they can be ignored without difficulty if that isn't your sort of thing. Overall he seems to be a non-judgmental sort of fundamental Christian. He notes that the Japanese as a nation seems to act in very Christian ways yet somehow almost none of them are (Christians). Apparently this was something for him to ponder.
After I was done, I thought there were aspects of being an ex patriot player-for-hire in this way that he could have described but didn't - and if he had, the book might have been more interesting - but it is a nicely readable book. And I admire a (former) professional athlete who writes a book this engaging running more than 300 pages on his own.
But I figured a book like this is probably mostly about the challenges (and perhaps misadventures) of living in various countries as the rental American player among more established national players. Which worked out to be about right. The discussion of basketball strategy and descriptions of some games hardly requires much basketball knowledge.
Mr. Smith has a likable writing style - the narrative flows along well. He doesn't dwell on his upbringing; just enough is provided to make certain things clear. He talks about the mechanics of how he went about finding work overseas as a not-quite-good-enough-for-the-NBA player. He ends up playing in the Netherlands, Uruguay, Argentina, Italy (briefly), Thailand (also briefly) and Japan. He also was a try-out member of the Utah Jazz for one pre-season and played in the NBA's so-called D-league (in effect, minor league) for a while - all this lasted about a decade that he describes chronologically. During some of the time he is accompanied by his wife, and eventually by his first daughter. More of the day-to-day descriptions are about the logistics of being abroad as an American player than about particular games.
Until the last year in Japan that he spent with his daughter there who was just old enough to attend pre-school and allow some more varied interactions with locals that he describes, the focus is almost entirely on how he interacts with these countries through basketball. At first I was a little surprised by how limited his experiences and insights (if you will) are but then when you think about it, he is just in each of these places for the basketball. So perhaps it is more surprising that he picks up anything about the local culture at all. And most of the stories he tells have some humor, which he does well.
Smith is what I guess can be referred to as a born-again Christian (he doesn't provide details); that is, he occasionally interrupts his story to point out the role God or Jesus played in the outcome - these moments are brief enough that they can be ignored without difficulty if that isn't your sort of thing. Overall he seems to be a non-judgmental sort of fundamental Christian. He notes that the Japanese as a nation seems to act in very Christian ways yet somehow almost none of them are (Christians). Apparently this was something for him to ponder.
After I was done, I thought there were aspects of being an ex patriot player-for-hire in this way that he could have described but didn't - and if he had, the book might have been more interesting - but it is a nicely readable book. And I admire a (former) professional athlete who writes a book this engaging running more than 300 pages on his own.
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