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The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy |  | Author: Bill Simmons
Creator: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: ESPN
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $17.32
as of 3/21/2010 08:22 CDT details
You Save: $12.68 (42%)
New (52) Used (27) from $11.95
Seller: OB1S
Rating:  146 reviews
Sales Rank: 725
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 736
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 6.3 x 1.9
ISBN: 034551176X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323640973
EAN: 9780345511768
ASIN: 034551176X
Publication Date: October 27, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780345511768 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: The Book of Basketball is a 700-page work of hoops genius that would make Dr. James Naismith beam proudly – and probably blush. Author Bill Simmons, best known as ESPN.com's "The Sports Guy," explores the NBA with hilarious insight, brilliant analysis, and a bevy of irreverent footnotes. Simmons is a fan first – a fact best explained in an entertaining foreword by Malcolm Gladwell – and writes from the stands, not the press room. His knowledge and passion for the game provide him with few peers, yet his voice represents those who stick by their teams through thick and thin. As a result, The Book of Basketball is not just a tribute to hardwood heroes, but also a celebration of yelling at TV sets, revering lucky jerseys, and holding our breath until the final buzzer sounds. Throw in pages of nearly-insane statistical breakdowns (including a projected boxscore from the movie Teen Wolf), and it's easy to see why fans of all levels should clear shelf space for this instant classic. --Dave Callanan
Product Description
There is only one writer on the planet who possesses enough basketball knowledge and passion to write the definitive book on the NBA.* Bill Simmons, the from-the-womb hoops addict known to millions as ESPN.com’s Sports Guy, is that writer. And The Book of Basketball is that book.
Nowhere in the roundball universe will you find another single volume that covers as much in such depth as this wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining look at the past, present, and future of pro basketball.
From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens–and then closes, once and for all–every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind, five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball.
Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.
* More to the point, he’s the only one crazy enough to try to pull it off.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
 entertaining and fairly accurate book March 13, 2010
Garry Flora (Amarillo, Tx. USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a lifelong Lakers fan and the absolute biggest Boston Celtics hater you will ever find, I was somewhat doubtful whether I should buy this book. I was well aware of the sports guys almost pathological hatred of great Lakers such as Kareem and Kobe and I did not think he could do a book and be fair in his pyramid ratings of them, nor anyone who didn`t play for the Celtics. I finally got the book and am glad I did. Simmons took plenty of shots at Kareem, but, ultimately gave him a 3rd best player ever rating. At the beginning of the book, Simmons went into great detail as to why he says Bill Russell was a greater player than Wilt, and his arguments and historical proof of his opinion was so accurate that I have to change my own opinion ad go over to the Sports Guys side-Russ was better than Wilt. His rating of Kobe at only the 15th best player ever was ridiculous. With Kobe`s 4th ring won in 2009 (without Shaq to you Kobe haters) was the final hurdle he had to get over to be rated as one of the top 7 or 8 players ever. West and Oscar won one championship each, Wilt and Kareem were the MVP`s on the teams that they did win their one ring on, and Kobe has won 4 and, yet, Simmons rates him behind both of them? Laughable. No sport places a higher premium on the all time status of players being based on championships won than pro basketball. With that truth, Bird with 3 rings, rated way higher than Kobe with his 4. Well, thats just the Celtic bias coming through since Simmons makes quite clear he thinks the sun sets on Bird`s rear end. Oh well, basically the book was fair, it was funny , it was worth 700 pages and would be a nice addition to any basketball fans library.
 Wide-ranging, fact filled, Boston bias March 12, 2010
AuthorHouse
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Discard the Amazon Best of the Month review. Gibberish. An "instant classic"? A case of "hoops genius"? Must have been Simmons' buddy who wrote that. This is hardly the stuff of legend. But I liked it nevertheless, with a few key caveats. Although the book often seems slapdash, sloppy, and unedited, Simmons generally has an engaging way with words. A nice style. Most of the book is devoted to ranking the top hundred or so players of all time. These chapters are fun to read, full of interesting insights into the psyche of the greats.
But don't be fooled. Simmons is no impartial observer: he's a Celtics homer through and through. At times you feel as though the book is an elaborate attempt to canonize ten or twelve Celtic legends. Put them on a high pedestal, far above the Lakers or Sixers. Only the Celtics' peripheral opponents come off well--the Bulls, Knicks, Bucks. If you were a direct challenger to the Celtics, forget it. You'll get dusted in this tome, briefly lauded for your hall-of-fame career, then treated to a expose of all your hidden flaws. Simmons is glorifying his childhood memories here. His eighties Celtics naturally come out on top. A deification of Bird, McHale, Walton, and the gang. They deserve a high place in the pantheon, but not as high above the rest as he puts them.
Secondly, Simmons has a grating tendency to insert himself in every story, thinly masking the fact that he thinks awfully highly of himself. He also thinks he's extremely funny. And he's petulant too, frequently closing arguments with boyish phrases like, "And you can't tell me any different!" Like an annoying grade-school geek.
Finally, though, the book is a good read for basketball junkies who like obscure statistical comparisons and anecdotes about hall-of-famers. Junkies will definitely enjoy it, so long as they can stomach the self-adulation and homerism.
Simmons is funny and extremely knowledgeable as he delivers a great read. March 9, 2010
J. Cochran (Iberia, Missouri United States)
I bought this book because I enjoyed how Bill Simmons can "write funny" on his column and I have been a fan of the NBA since I was a child. His book was great, filling me in on stats and stories about my favorite, and most hated, players in the league from the past fifty years. Some of the stories took me back to my child hood when I played one on one with my best friend for hours on end and we would start a mini draft like; I get bird, he takes Magic, I take Jordan, etc, and the debate on who was the best would be begin. It was truly a great read and if you have enjoyed the NBA at all in your life, you will love this book. I have already purchased copies for a couple friends and I would recommend it to anyone I know that has enjoyed watching the NBA.
Astounding achievemnt March 4, 2010
Jordan Crane
The most fun I had reading a book in a long time.
Entertaining, funny, and loads of stats and information
Don't be intimdiated by the amount of pages. I skipped a lot.
A lot of pop culture references which was hard to keep up with.
Simmons knows a lot of useless stuff but I love it.
Didn't like all the criticisms of some of the great players: Stockton, K. Malone, Oscar Robertson, etc...
Obviously, Simmons loved certain players more than others: Bernard King, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Johnson
Hates: Vince Carter, Kareem, and Wilt Chamberlian.
But I defintley recommend this book.
Must Read For Basketball Fans March 2, 2010
Spined Out (Texas)
The Book of Basketball, by Bill Simmons, is a massive work on the state of the NBA and how it got to where it is today. If you're a fan of his blog, The Sports Guy, then you'll love this book.
Simmons discusses the NBA in his typical fashion--smart, funny, informative, and sarcastic. He isn't afraid to be a fan as well as a sportswriter, and this is why people love him. His writing style flows along easily, and the footnotes in this book--that's right, footnotes in a sports book--are as interesting as the main subject.
The Book of Basketball covers a wide variety of interesting topics relating to the NBA. Simmons plays the "What If" game, going over several scenarios that could have changed the face of the NBA had they played out differently. "The Most Valuable Chapter" dissects some of the MVP awards from the past. But a large portion of the book is dedicated to ranking the 96 best players in NBA history. Simmons divides these 96 into five categories, detailing why he put them where.
This is a must-have for any basketball junkie or fan of Simmons' writing. It's long--almost 700 pages--but it's a great read that will have you turning pages for hours.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 146
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