Dave Zirin: Muhammed Ali Handbook

Scheme: When did you decide that being a writer was what you wanted your career to be? Who and or what were your inspirations?

Dave Zirin: I didn’t want to write until I realized that there was something I wanted to say. There is this hidden history in sports of athletes who have used their hyper-exalted platform to speak out on issues of social justice. There are also a layer of athletes today who attempt to walk in those footsteps. That story is the one I want to tell.

My inspiration are really those sports writers that have treated athletes like people and not pieces of equipment: Bob Lipsyte, Ralph Wiley, Sonja Steptoe. And the great rebel athletes: Jim Brown, Billie Jean King, Curt Flood, Dave Meggyesy, and of course Muhammad Ali.

Scheme: What attracted you to writing about Ali?

Dave Zirin: What makes Ali so attractive? To ask the question is to answer it. He is so attractive because no could rock the ring or rock the mike like Ali. No one risked so much and gained and lost so much… as Ali. If he had never existed and a screenwriter made up his life, it would be dismissed as wildly unrealistic.

Scheme: What is people’s biggest misconception about him?

Dave Zirin: There are two angles on Ali that often are ignored. The first is that he wasn’t Malcolm X with boxing gloves. He didn’t have any kind of political programme figured out in advance. His genius was in his ability to instinctively stake out unpopular ground. He knew there was right and wrong and he knew which side he was on. The other angle is that I don’t think people today realize just how vilified he was. The man was strikingly unpopular with the press and much of the country. And yet he perservered.

Scheme: Who are your favorite boxers and why?

Dave Zirin: Other than Ali, I grew up drunk on Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Aaron Pryor. Both could hit you from crazy angles and I find that approach to boxing – strategy, angles, etc – endlessly interesting.

Scheme: Have you ever or do you think we will ever see another athlete like that, that will stand up for what they believe in, even if it costs them endorsements etc?

Dave Zirin: Absolutely. We are already seeing athletes begin to stand up. Etan Thomas, Josh Howard, Nick Van Exel, Steve Nash, Adam Morrison, Carlos Delgado, Martina Navratilova, Adonal Foyle, Jokim Noah, NFL player Adalius Thomas, and even Ultimate Fighting Champion Jeff Monson have all spoken out against the war. The reason more people don’t know their stories is, A - the absence of a mass, active, anti-war movement. B - The timid, corporate media. That media will be less timid as social movements grow.

“My advice for writers is always be in a position where you can get constant feedback on your work. Fight to make it a collaborative process or you’ll start hearing voices and carrying on conversations with inanimate objects.”

Scheme: What’s the hardest thing about writing a book about an icon?

Dave Zirin: The hardest part is having something original to say.

Scheme: What’s the hardest thing about starting and finishing a book?

Dave Zirin: Isolation. My advice for writers is always be in a position where you can get constant feedback on your work. Fight to make it a collaborative process or you’ll start hearing voices and carrying on conversations with inanimate objects.

Scheme: Do you already have plans for another book if so on what?
Dave Zirin: My latest book is called “Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports.” It’s about a sports world that is getting more powerful and more ugly by the moment and the jocks, fans, and sportswriters that resist.

Scheme: Have you ever thought about doing a book on Mike Tyson?

Dave Zirin: Maybe a graphic novel. I’m not sure anything else could match it’s subject.

Scheme: Who do you have winning in the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight?

Dave Zirin: Mayweather by decision! (laughs).