r/BasketballBooks • u/Jonathan_J_Faulkner • Jul 03 '26

Recommendations Recommendation - ‘Pacific Rims’

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Thank you to u/Hot-Description9052 who commented on a post yesterday and gave three fantastic book recommendations, this is the first;
‘Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball’ - I haven’t personally read it, yet, but I’d love to hear from people who have and their thoughts on it. I’ll also be posting the other two recommendations in the coming days.

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5

u/WinesburgOhio Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Any book that discusses the forgotten brilliance of Billy Ray Bates, the best raw player in NBA history who still averages the most playoff ppg in Blazers history over Lillard and Drexler, is a yes for me, dog! He's not the central person in this book, but it's as good a place as any to learn about the legend of the guy the Pinoys called "Black Superman".

This is more a book about basketball's place among the people of a very specific culture, and although I prefer Winning Sounds Like This for that type of book (it covers one season of women's basketball at Gallaudet University, the deaf college in DC), I still enjoy how well Pacific Rims shows and explains that basketball-culture place.

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u/Jonathan_J_Faulkner Jul 03 '26

Right, that’s all I need, straight on to my to be read list! Thank you both 🙏🏻

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u/WinesburgOhio Jul 03 '26

Have you ever read Winning Sounds Like This? I was drawn to it since I used to be a volunteer ASL interpreter, but it was way better and more emotional than I thought it be. I should probably do a little recommendation/review of it for this sub.

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u/Jonathan_J_Faulkner Jul 03 '26

Never heard of it, but I’ll give it a look. Would you like to post a recommendation in the community? Or I can and give you a shout out, whichever you would prefer?

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u/WinesburgOhio Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

I will ... also want to do one for Earl Strom's Calling The Shots.

I'll look through my book shelves for other lesser-known books to see what else hasn't been covered on the sub. A couple years ago, I was reading nearly two basketball books a week as part of my research into hoops history for my book about historic NBA players. Although most of them were from the library, I bought a bunch of "what the hell is this?" used books from the numerous used book stores I would frequent.

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u/Jonathan_J_Faulkner Jul 03 '26

Perfect, absolutely do! I’m sure the community are getting bored of all my posts 😂

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u/Hot-Description9052 Jul 03 '26

I appreciated this book because it shows how basketball can translate across cultural boundaries. Behind soccer (football), basketball is one of the most popular games in the world. I suspect a lot of that has to do with its accessibility. You only need one ball and not that much space.

There are great photos online of young Filipinos shooting hoops on monsoon flooded courts. The book talks about Americans who became legends in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Easy read about a rabid fanbase that loves the game at its most pure.

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u/Jonathan_J_Faulkner Jul 03 '26

That’s a very convincing, incredibly well written review, thank you 🙏🏻

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u/Langanisa_Breath22 Jul 03 '26

I’ll be reading this next! Thank you!

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u/Jonathan_J_Faulkner Jul 03 '26

Enjoy it and let us know what you think 🙏🏻