On what to read ahead of the Olympics
William Oscar Johnson’s All That Glitters Is Not Gold is a wonderfully acerbic book that takes a look at the sometimes shady business of Olympic dealmaking. Leni Riefenstahl is a memoir by Hitler’s famous cinematographer, who makes the case that she was more than just a propagandist when she made Olympia, which was about the 1936 Berlin Olympics and was probably the first sports documentary. And there’s Chariots of Fire by William Weatherby. It’s bizarre, I know, to read a book based on the screenplay of a movie, but I could read or watch either of them all day. It’s about two British runners at the 1924 Olympics and a great story of conflict between amateurism and professionalism — still a dominant theme in the Olympics.
McCallum’s new book is Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever