Shea Serrano’s new book, Basketball And Other Things, is literally the greatest book of all time.
Just ask him:
His last book, The Rap Year Book, appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List, was a #1 best seller on Amazon and was ranked as one of the best music books of all time by Billboard. Before that he wrote Bun B’s Rap Coloring and Activity Book which didn’t win any awards or anything but balances out this photo nicely.
Basketball And Other Things doesn’t release until October 10, 2017. Shea hasn’t even finished writing it yet but it’s available for pre-order on Amazon and is already a best seller!
This is the cover:
Yes, that’s Teen Wolf behind Larry Bird in front of a giant squid.
No, I don’t know what a giant squid has to do with basketball. I suppose it’s part of ‘Other Things’.
But that’s why we are here today.
SHEA SERRANO BOOK GIVEAWAY
In collaboration with Shea Serrano, StockX is proud to GIVE AWAY A FREE COPY OF BASKETBALL AND OTHER THINGS to anyone who purchases any sneaker, watch or handbag from StockX.
HERE’S HOW TO CLAIM YOUR FREE BOOK:
- Enter the Discount Code — StockXShea — BEFORE you place a Bid / Buy an item. See screenshot:
- StockX will ship your book in October once it’s officially released and Shea has finished writing it (not in that order).
- You can only claim one book per StockX account.
- With your qualifying sneakers/watch/handbag purchase, we will send you a receipt for a pre-order copy of Basketball And Other Things.
- You will also receive a free Teen Wolf* bookmark designed by Shea** featuring a StockX-authenticated pair of the adidas basketball sneakers that Michael J.Fox wore in the movie:
*Not the TV show. Teen Wolf was originally an 80’s movie about Michael J. Fox (the guy who wore Air MAGs in a movie) as a high school kid who turns into a werewolf and then becomes amazing at basketball and gets girls and surfs on the top of a van driven by a guy named Styles. Here’s his first game as a wolf. Yes, that’s Francis from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure on his team.
**Shea Serrano is the worlds’ most prodigious bookmark giver. Ever. He has designed and given away about a dozen bookmarks, including a bunch related to The Rap Yearbook, J.R. Smith, ‘Shoot Your Shot’ Steph Curry and Petty LeBron as The Ultimate Warrior. How many bookmarks have you given away?
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Because we can.
Because it’s what Shea would do if he were StockX and someone else (presumably another former middle school teacher turned basketball obsessed writer) were him.
He’s pretty consistent in his belief.
In fact, he leads an entire army dedicated to those beliefs.
And uses ‘Voltron‘ as a verb in leading that army.
Of course, BAOT hasn’t come out yet so we can’t know for sure if it’s cool, but pretty much everything Shea has ever written forever ever has been cool so its Voltron* likely that BAOT will also be cool. Even if it isn’t, Shea is definitely a dope person ‘tryna’ make some cool shit, so we’re supporting either way.
*I don’t think I used that right.
SHEA SERRANO IS THE ONLY THING I READ
“Shea Serrano has the pulse of what doesn’t matter in this world but should matter if the world cared about what should matter.” –my friend Adam from high school
“I only read two things these days: my email and Shea Serrano”. –me
[This is where a traditional intro of Shea Serrano would go. Read this GQ article for his background and how Shea became a New York Times best selling author. I’m going to prove he’s a dope person making cool shit.]
Shea is a national treasure (movie sequel). His writing is the voice of a generation (gap). His job, I think, is to write about sports at The Ringer (and before that, Grantland) but he might actually be employed by Twitter to give us all a reason to never let it die. Whether it’s in book, blog or tweet form, in writer lingo, Shea tells the stories no one else can tell. Shea tells the stories no one else can even think of.
After an NFL game last year he asked 59 Questions for the Person Who Threw a Dildo on the Field During the Patriots Game. “Did the guy who threw it say anything cool when he threw it? Did he lean over to his friend right before throwing it and say something like, ‘You know what they say: Football is a game of inches,’ and then throw it? Or maybe, ‘Some people dil-don’t. Me? I dil-do,’ and then threw it.”
Shea also does analytics.
He did some Nate Silver-esque number crunching in Is a Head-Butt Worth $35,000? examining how the NBA polices bad on-court behavior and compared fines levied against certain players. “Markieff [Morris] kicked a person in the genitals and he got fined $25,000. Draymond Green kicked a person in the genitals last year and he got to go the Finals and then he got Kevin Durant on his team. That’s a way higher return on genitals-kick investment.”
Shea writes about sports, but also about music and movies and TV and pop culture – which I guess is music and movies and TV – so let’s just say Shea writes about sports and pop culture.
Under ‘Pop Culture (Music)’ we’ve learned that Shea does not like J. Cole.
In The Great J. Cole Debate, Shea explains that “J Cole as a rapper is like if one of those paint-by-numbers things were a human. He’s like if a pair of Sketchers had come to life. He’s like if one of those braided leather belts became sentient. He’s like the last 30 minutes of a comedy movie where they try to get all serious but mostly just end up saying a bunch of regular-ass stuff.”
Under ‘Pop Culture (Movies)’ we’ve learned that Shea likes Con Air.
In Let’s Give ‘Con Air’ the Sequel(s) It Deserves Shea flexes his mastery of other writing forms, such as texting. “There’s a scene in Con Air where Poe writes a note to a law enforcement officer on a dead body and then shoves the dead body out of the plane, which is the second most aggressive kind of text message to send someone. (A dick pic is first.)”
Under ‘Pop Culture (TV)’ we’ve learned that Shea likes The Wire. Yes, everyone likes The Wire but Shea tweets about it better than you.
Beyond sports and pop culture, we’ve learned a lot about Shea personally.
Shea is not a guy who works out.
In Is It In You? Hell Yes, Gatorade Is In You Shea explains that, “One time I accidentally did four push-ups trying to get off the couch, so I immediately went and ate 36 Bagel Bites so my body wouldn’t start to think I’d decided we were going to become a guy who works out.”
Shea likes a reason to eat.
Shea has three sons…
…whom he inspires…
In Dad Talk: The Shea Serrano Father’s Day Mailbag he explains that “My boys have had a picture in their room of Manu Ginobili dunking that they’ve thought was me for, like, the last three years. Every time we go to a basketball court I have to come up with excuses why I can’t dunk for them that particular day.”
…and teaches…
…and feeds…
So Shea’s a good dad.
Which definitely helps qualify him as a dope person.
But mainly we like what he writes.
Which is the cool shit he makes.
And we want to share that with you.
And support him writing more.
So buy something on StockX and we’ll give you a free copy of Shea Serrano’s new book.
Basketball And Other Things.
And a Teen Wolf bookmark.
