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It's hard to believe that there was a time when the jump shot didn't exist in basketball. When the sport was invented in 1891, players would take set shots with both feet firmly planted on the ground. Defenders controlled the sport, the pace was slower, and games would frequently end with scores fit for a football field. It took almost forty years before players began shooting jump shots of any kind and sixty-five years before it became a common sight. When the first jump shooting pioneers left the ground, they rose not only above their defenders, but also above the sport's conventions. The jump shot created a soaring offense, infectious excitement, loyal fans, and legends. Basketball would never be the same.Rise and Fire celebrates this crucial shot while tracing the history of how it revolutionized the game, shedding light on all corners of the basketball world, from NBA arenas to the playgrounds of New York City and the barns of Indiana. Award-winning journalist Shawn Fury obsesses over the jump shot, explores its fundamentals, puzzles over its complexities, marvels at its simplicity, and honors those who created some of basketball's greatest moments. Part history, part travelogue, and part memoir, Rise and Fire bounces from the dirt courts of the 1930s to today's NBA courts and state-of-the-art shooting labs, examining everything from how nets and rims affect a shooter to rivalries between shooting coaches to how the three-pointer came to rule the game. Impeccably researched and engaging, the book features interviews and profiles of legendary figures like Jerry West, Bob McAdoo, Ray Allen, and Denise Long---the first woman ever drafted by the NBA, plus dozens more, revealing the evolution of the shot over time.Analyzing the techniques and reliving some of the most unforgettable plays from the greats, Fury creates a technical, personal, historical, and even spiritual examination of the shot. This is not a dry how-to textbook of basketball mechanics; it is a lively tour of basketball history and a love letter to the sport and the shot that changed it forever.



About the Author

Shawn Fury

I'm a nonfiction writer in New York City. I grew up in the small town of Janesville, Minnesota, and after graduating from St. John's University (Collegeville, MN) , I worked at various newspapers for a decade. My first book, Keeping the Faith: In the Trenches With College Football's Worst Team (Lyons Press, 2005 ) tells the story of the Trinity Bible College Lions, out of Ellendale, North Dakota, which once lost a game 105-0. Publishers Weekly wrote of Keeping the Faith, "By refusing to caricature or sentimentalize the players, Fury delivers a heartfelt tale."

My second book, Rise and Fire: The Origins, Science, and Evolution of The Jump Shot--And How It Transformed Basketball Forever, releases February 23, 2016 (Flatiron Books/Macmillan) . Rise and Fire goes back in time and documents how the jump shot first came into basketball, and chronicles how it altered basketball history. Along the way I show how the jump shot -- and the game's great shooters -- changed basketball, from the 1960s to the great gunners like Pete Maravich in the 1970s to the dominance of the three-pointer in today's game. I met and spoke with numerous great shooters, including Jerry West, Rick Mount, Bob McAdoo, Mark Price, Jimmy Rayl, Dennis Scott, and many more. It's a book I believe all basketball fans will enjoy.

Rise and Fire is available for preorder. http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fire-Shot-Transformed-Basketball/dp/1250062160

My website is www.shawnfury.com. I also have written at www.tvfury.wordpress.com. Check out the Q&As I've done with everyone from Chris Jones of Esquire, to Chris Ballard with Sports Illustrated, to Seth Reiss with The Onion. All of my interviews are available atwww.https://tvfury.wordpress.com/tag/the-fury-files/



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