Beam Me Up Scottie

Rating:
Summary: Around the World in a Day...With the NBA.
Review: Patrick Pippen has written a memoir of sorts, no small feat for a guy who is still in his twenties!
Patrick is the nephew of one of professional basketball's most exciting players: Scottie Pippen. (Recently retired from the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trailblazers.) But the book is not just one of those stylized "tell all" tomes that seem to be required nowadays when some sports superstar retires.
Instead, the books tells a fascinating account of young Patrick's life: from growing up on the mean streets of the Bronx to the jetsetter lifestyles of professional sports.
The book deals with all things basketball, from its link to the ancient Aztecs to wheelchair basketball and the hustle of streetball. Toss in a stint in the Marine Corps and travels to exotic places like Japan and rural America and you've got quite a ride!
If there is one constant theme in this book, its NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! A sort of rags to riches to rags Horatio Alger meets Hoop Dreams. Something, the author maintains, is still possible in a jaded, materialistic world. Underlying all of this is the concept that dreams, no matter how small or large, can be a realization in and of themselves.
Told in a witty and ascerbic style, this book is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. You'll want to finish it all in one sitting!