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Kings of Summer
- The Rise of Beach Volleyball
- Narrated by: Robert Restivo
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's summary
It started with a kiss. In 1955, that’s what the best beach volleyball players in the world played for: A kiss from Hollywood star Greta Thyssen. It was a seminal moment for the sport, and the subculture that it soon birthed: Players could ditch the 9-5 work life and instead spend their days on the beach, working odd jobs to make ends meet, doing whatever it took to stay on the sand.
By 1980, the winners had much more at stake, much more to reach for. Money. By 1990, the top players were making a fortune in winnings, into the millions. In 1996, beach volleyball charged onto the ultimate sporting stage: The Atlanta Olympic Games.
It seemed to be an unstoppable rise, a rapid and smooth ascent from lifestyle sport to a mainstream professional sport. It was anything but. Beach volleyball was a sport built by a rebel culture that had no intention of being tamed. It was volatile, mercurial, a sport run by testosterone-fueled men with an existence that embodied the California lifestyle: Sun, sex, drugs, alcohol, and money. The permanent vacation. Some wanted to keep the sport in America, keep the good times rolling, all to themselves. Others wanted to expand, make it global, push for the biggest spotlight in sport: The Summer Olympics.
What resulted was a fraught, tension-filled push for beach volleyball to become an Olympic sport. The best two players in the world, Karch Kiraly and Sinjin Smith, former partners and best friends, ultimately became the sport’s biggest rivals. The result was the match of the century, at a sold-out Olympic stadium, an Olympic Medal Ceremony that saw Americans take gold and silver.
The sport of beach volleyball would never be the same.
As told by Kent Steffes, the most dominant player in the history of the game, and Travis Mewhirter, a professional player and the leading authentic voice in beach volleyball, Kings of Summer paints an unforgettable portrait of beach volleyball’s golden era.
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- Unabridged
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For the past year, John U. Bacon has received unprecedented access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. Overtime captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s winningest team battles to reclaim its former glory. But what if the price of success today comes at the cost of your soul? Do you pay it, or compete without compromising?
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Good story.... but
- By Amazon Customer on 10-07-19
By: John U. Bacon
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Got to Give the People What They Want
- True Stories and Flagrant Opinions from Center Court
- By: Jalen Rose
- Narrated by: Jalen Rose
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Jalen Rose has never been quiet. Not as a kid growing up in Detroit in the '70s and '80s. Not as the brash, trash-talking leader of the legendary "Fab Five" at the University of Michigan. Not as the player under the stewardship of Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and others throughout his 13-year NBA career. And certainly not as a commentator and analyst on ABC/ESPN and Grantland.
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Amazing book - a MUST download / read
- By Terry on 10-08-15
By: Jalen Rose
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Players
- The Story of Sports and Money - and the Visionaries Who Fought to Create a Revolution
- By: Matthew Futterman
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of Michael Lewis, the astounding untold story of how professional sports transformed, in the span of a single generation, from a cottage industry into a massive global business. In the cash-soaked world of contemporary sports, where every season brings news of higher salaries, endorsement deals, and television contracts, it is mind-boggling to remember that as recently as the 1970s elite athletes earned so little money that many were forced to work second jobs in the off-season to make ends meet.
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Starts slow...
- By John on 08-09-16
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From Darkness to Dynasty
- The First 40 Years of the New England Patriots
- By: Jerry Thornton
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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From Darkness to Dynasty tells the unlikely history of the New England Patriots as it has never been told before. From their humble beginnings as a team bought with rainy-day money by a man who had no idea what he was doing, to the fateful season that saw them win their first Super Bowl, Jerry Thornton shares the wild, humiliating, unbelievable, and wonderful stories that comprised the first 40 years of what would ultimately become the most dominant franchise in NFL history.
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great narration, great book
- By BenRias on 01-25-18
By: Jerry Thornton
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Scribe
- My Life in Sports
- By: Bob Ryan
- Narrated by: Bob Ryan
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
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Ever since he joined the sports department of the Boston Globe in 1968, sports enthusiasts have been blessed with the writing and reporting of Bob Ryan. Tony Kornheiser calls him the "quintessential American sportswriter". For the past 25 years, he has also been a regular on various ESPN shows, especially The Sports Reporters, spreading his knowledge and enthusiasm for sports of all kinds.
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No my idea of a memoir
- By Michael Friedman on 12-19-14
By: Bob Ryan
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The Cup They Couldn't Lose
- America, the Ryder Cup, and the Long Road to Whistling Straits
- By: Shane Ryan
- Narrated by: Shane Ryan
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The task facing Steve Stricker at the 2021 Ryder Cup was enormous. It was his job, as the American captain, to stare down almost 40 years of Ryder Cup history, break a pattern of home losses that had persisted almost as long, and reverse the tide of European dominance in one of golf's most tense and emotional events. This was the epitome of a must-win, but it was also something more—in the entire 93-year history of the event, no American side had ever faced this kind of pressure.
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Great listen
- By Amazon Customer on 05-27-24
By: Shane Ryan
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You Herd Me!
- I'll Say It If Nobody Else Will
- By: Colin Cowherd
- Narrated by: Colin Cowherd
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In this age of billion dollar athletic marketing campaigns, “feel good” philosophy with no connection to reality, and a Sports Media echo chamber that’s all too eager swallow whatever idiotic notion happens to be in vogue at the moment, it’s tough to find people who aren’t afraid to say what they’re really thinking.
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Great book, Repeats majority of themes from radio
- By Troy on 01-20-14
By: Colin Cowherd
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The QB
- The Making of Modern Quarterbacks
- By: Bruce Feldman
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
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The QB tells the story of the interlocking paths of the most fascinating characters involved in this secretive world, examining how advanced analysis has taken root in football. Manziel's portrait is the most intimate look at him yet, detailing all his talents and antics. In The QB, the stories of these men illustrate how high the stakes of the quarterback's game really are, taking readers on a compelling journey into the heart of America's beloved game.
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Interesting and entertaining
- By R. Koehler on 02-25-15
By: Bruce Feldman
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Furious George
- My Forty Years Surviving NBA Divas, Clueless GMs, and Poor Shot Selection
- By: George Karl, Curt Sampson
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
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A man of deep passion and intensity, George Karl earned his bad boy reputation while playing at the University of North Carolina, a rap that continued through the five years he spent with the San Antonio Spurs - and long after he stopped playing. Karl's beery nights, fistfights, and barking followed him into a 35-year coaching career. In a game defined by big stakes and bigger egos, rabid fans and an unforgiving media, Karl was hired and fired a dozen times.
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Pathetic little black book.
- By Brad Howard on 04-20-20
By: George Karl, and others
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Basketball
- A Love Story
- By: Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, Dan Klores
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Jim Frangione, Sullivan Jones, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
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A sweeping and revelatory history of basketball, drawing upon hundreds of hours of interviews with the greatest players, coaches, executives, and journalists in the history of the game. In an effort to tell the complete story of basketball in all its fascinating dimensions, acclaimed authors Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, and Dan Klores have compiled nearly a thousand hours' worth of interviews with a staggering number of basketball greats. The audiobook that grew out of those interviews is an extraordinary project and quite possibly the most ambitious basketball work ever made.
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Underwhelming
- By Adam Kosberg on 12-02-18
By: Jackie MacMullan, and others
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Glory Days
- The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever
- By: L. Jon Wertheim
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
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The summer of 1984 was a watershed moment in the birth of modern sports when the nation watched Michael Jordan grow from college basketball player to professional athlete and star. That summer also saw ESPN’s rise to media dominance as the country’s premier sports network and the first modern, commercialized, profitable Olympics. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird’s rivalry raged, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe reigned in tennis, and Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon made pro wrestling a business, while Donald Trump pierced the national consciousness as a pro football team owner.
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A great sports summer
- By Hebern on 07-06-21
By: L. Jon Wertheim
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Boys Among Men
- How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution
- By: Jonathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
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When Kevin Garnett shocked the world by announcing that he would not be attending college - as young basketball prodigies were expected to do - but instead would enter the 1995 NBA draft directly from high school, he blazed a trail for a generation of teenage basketball players to head straight for the pros. That trend would continue until the NBA instituted an age limit in 2005, requiring all players to attend college or another developmental program for at least one year.
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Bad pronunciation
- By K. Spearman on 07-03-16
By: Jonathan Abrams
What listeners say about Kings of Summer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-05-22
Excellent history of Beach Volleyball
This is an excellent historical account of the history of beach volleyball and the rise and fall of the AVP tour. I have listened to Travis Merwhirter's podcast Sandcast which turned me on to the book. Travis does a great job recounting the history of beach volleyball from multiple perspectives with a cohesive narrative. I wish Kent Steffes would have narrated the book since he has such a big personality. I realize that also might be self indulgent since Kent is easily considered one of the sports greatest players because of all his winning accomplishments. As one who plays beach volleyball and grew up watching the 'Kings of Summer' when they were broadcast on tv, this book was thoroughly enjoyable and walked me through memory lane of the rise of beach volleyball in the 90's.
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- B Rose
- 08-11-23
Well Structured and Written
Super easy listen. Great story and vivid imagery. Love the structure and pacing. Great job!
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- Kevin
- 05-12-24
Great stories!
It is great to see that these stories are being told and that this material is being covered. there is so much more to tell, and I hope this is the first of many books.
Having been to more than 50 pro Beach events including the 96 Olympics, I always take great offense to the idea that that quarterfinal match in '96 was the greatest match ever played. It wasn't. Not even close. It was a very important match. The bad blood ran very deep. It may have been one of the more passionate matches. but as far as greatest... no way. I listened to the whole thing, but it was very tempting to fast forward through the recap of that 96 match. without the visual, it doesn't make for good listening. It's also completely unnecessary in telling this story. I would much rather have had more stories from the history of beach volleyball then all of the time dedicated to that one match.
I also have to mention that listening to the narrator mispronounce Tim Hovland's name over and over again with like nails on a chalkboard.
That all said, it is still a must listen for any volleyball fan. It's an important book. The stories must be preserved and retold.
I grew up at Southern California beaches in the '70s and early '80s watching these guys practice. The game was different. The rules were different. The court was different. Everything was different. This book does a good job of capturing those differences. The book captures what made the game so great. It also gets into how the changes to make it more TV friendly have made it less entertaining. Never was volleyball more exciting then when a great team went down 12 to 2 in a side out scoring game to 15 and watching them work their way back to win the match. With rally score, that type of suspense and energy no longer exists.
I hope this is the first of many books on beach volleyball. I don't know if the sport will ever come back to what it once was, but books like this will only serve to help.
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