cover image Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, an American Coach, and Two Cultures Clashing

Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, an American Coach, and Two Cultures Clashing

Jim Yardley. Knopf, $26.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-307-27221-8

"We believe that by working harder, bit by bit, it's like water dripping into a cup. Over time, you finally achieve a full cup." Such is the philosophy of basketball according to Liu Tie, the unsuccessful coach of the Shanxi Brave Dragons, as reported by Pulitzer Prize-winner Yardley in this rags-to-riches tale of modern Chinese basketball. Ten years ago, when Boss Wang%E2%80%94#236 on Forbes list of China's richest%E2%80%94acquired the bedraggled Brave Dragons, he set his sights on turning them into a fire-breathing dream team. A farmer's son, Wang escaped the poverty of the Cultural Revolution when he made the cut for the elite basketball team, and later%E2%80%94as a "Red Hat Capitalist"%E2%80%94made his millions in steel. Yardley, the former Beijing bureau chief for the New York Times, chronicles Wang's Sisyphean challenge beginning in 2008 when Wang recruited Bob Weiss of the Seattle Sonics to become the first NBA coach to lead a team in China. Weiss moved to Taiyuan, the infamously polluted Shanxi capital, where he soon became a local celebrity.%C2%A0The Dragons provide Yardley with a colorful cast of characters, including the notorious Bonzi Wells of Portland's "Jail Blazers," who came to China to play with the team. Despite rampant corruption among game officials and myriad cultural obstacles, Weiss remarkably fills Tie's proverbial cup in this engaging story that will appeal to sports fans and general readers alike. (Feb.)