[Full Book] PDF Download The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life by Thomas Pletzinger

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The Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger PDF DownloadThe Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger KINDLEThe Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger EBOOKThe Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger EPUBThe Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger Read onlineThe Great Nowitzki by Thomas Pletzinger Full PDFBook Description: A journey into the mindset of a historic basketball superstar, and theimportance of his landmark career.The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest players in basketball history. The DallasMaverick’s legend revolutionized the sport, redefining the role of the big man in the modern game.Dirk moved differently: flexible and fast, confident and in control. He thought differently, too. On thecourt, his shots were masterful―none more venerated than his signature one-legged flamingofadeaway, a move that lives on in the repertoire of today’s most skilled NBA players.How did this lanky kid from the German suburbs become an all-time top ten scorer and NBAchampion? How can a superstar stay so humble? Award-winning novelist and sportswriter ThomasPletzinger spent over seven years traveling with Nowitzki. He witnessed Dirk’s summer workouts,involving fingertip pushups and the study of the physics, and spent days discussing literature andphilosophy with Holger Geschwindner, Dirk’s enigmatic mentor and coach. Watching Nowitzki inempty gyms and in packed arenas with 30,000 fans, Pletzinger began to understand how Dirk andHolger’s philosophical insights on performance, creativity, and freedom enabled his success andlongevity.The Great Nowitzki tells Dirk’s dramatic story like never before. Pletzinger describes Dirk’s youth insmall-town Germany, follows the steep learning curve of Dirk’s early seasons, the devastating Finalsloss to the Miami Heat, and the triumphant championship five years later. Traveling with Dirk in hisfinal seasons, Pletzinger immerses himself in the community of people impacted by Nowitzki’s game,interviewing everyone from average fans in Dallas and security guards at the arena to front officeexecutives and Hall of Fame teammates, who reflect on what Dirk’s career means to the nextgeneration of ballplayers. And to the game itself.A masterpiece of sports writing that reads like a novel, The Great Nowitzki brims with a fan’s passion.Pletzinger shows how strongly basketball influences our imagination and the extraordinary journey anicon like Dirk Nowitzki must take to reach the pinnacle of the game.=====================================================================As a young writer, my naiveté about the publishing process nearly led me to financial ruin.Here’s how to avoid my mistakes.The first thing I tell debut authors is this: Assume nothing.If just one person had sat me down when I signed my first book contract and explained howpublishing works, how nothing is guaranteed, and how it often feels like playing RussianRoulette with words, I would have made much sounder financial and creative decisions. Iwould have set a foundation for a healthy life as an artist, laying the groundwork to thrive inuncertainty, to avoid desperation, panic, and bad decisions that would affect me for years tocome.
How would my life be different if a fellow writer or someone in the industry had told me thatthe money I’d be receiving for my advances was absolutely no indication of what I couldmake on future book deals? What pain could I have avoided if they had advised me not tospend that money as though there would be more where that came from? I suspect I mayhave avoided a near nervous breakdown and not come so perilously close to financial ruinand creative burnout. But no one came forward.Let me back up. One of the most respected publishing houses in the world gave me$100,000 to write two books, one of which was already finished, and I was feeling… well,fancy.As a kid who’d once stood in line with her mother to get food stamps, I could not believe thefigures in my bank account.Now, I want to acknowledge the inherent privilege that I hold as a white, educated,middleclass American. The problems I write about here are “struggles” many people wouldlove to have. They are good problems. Lucky, even. Growing up with a lack of financialliteracy didn’t mean there weren’t opportunities for me out there because of my positioningin the world. I had a leg up, even when it felt like I was in the trenches. Access equalsprivilege, and I understand that. I try hard to acknowledge my privilege and not be part ofthe problem, but didn’t do so explicitly in the original version of this article. Revising is myfavorite part of the writing process, and clearly a big part of my personal life. In fact I wish Icould go back and revise the past six years.I did play it smart, though: I didn’t quit my day job, and wrote a larger-than-usual check tomy student loan company when the advance came through. I didn’t know if this was aonetime thing or not.Each new book is like a weekend in Vegas: Maybe I’ll get lucky, maybe I won’t.But when I sold a trilogy to another publisher the following year for over $250,000 dollars(even now I cannot believe I wrote that sentence and, furthermore, that it’s true), I reallythought I had made it — forever, not just for a moment. Not for this one book deal. Forever.Otherwise, I reasoned, they would never have paid me such enormous sums. Thesepublishers must be investing in me for the long run. I was one of their own.It had happened twice in a row, these six-figures: Surely I had somehow become one of thechosen few. After years of research and struggle to break out in such a ferociouslycompetitive industry, I’d somehow come out ahead.But in that process, I’d somehow missed several critical aspects of the business, and thatwas on me (to some extent). Surely there were writers who had gotten the memo abouthow advances worked, and the ins and outs of publishing. But so much of an aspiringwriter’s life — and so many of the resources available to them — is focused on getting thatfirst book deal. What came after was beside the point.It would also be fair to say that the same energy and drive that had landed me a book dealin the first place guided much of my decision-making process in ways that weren’t alwayshelpful. I reasoned that if I’d achieved the impossible once, why not again? Someone has tobe on the bestseller list, win the National Book Award, have the big movie deal.
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