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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: $12.50
as of 11/26/2009 19:15 CST details
You Save: $17.50 (58%)
New (34) Used (10) Collectible (1) from $12.00
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 24
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Printing
Pages: 736
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.7
ISBN: 034551176X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323640973
EAN: 9780345511768
ASIN: 034551176X
Publication Date: October 27, 2009 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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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 54
 A perfect book to "have around" for any basketball fan November 25, 2009
B. Galvin (Santa Monica, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having Bill Simmons' book laying around the house is like having another rabid basketball fan roommate with whom to debate hoops history for 5-10 minutes whenever I feel the need. This book is my favorite "pick it up and read for 5 minutes" since The Football Uncyclopedia - just a terrific coffee table (or, as Simmons hears often, bathroom) book to have for those few down moments in life when you need a few minutes of levity and sporting debate!
Pretty Good, a little short of the patheon- November 25, 2009
Alax Martin
It is hard to deny with the Book of Basketball that a lot of information will be learned.
Pluses: The top players of all time rankings were very insightful with the average of 2 or 3 pages per player. Also the top teams were ranked (tending to leaning towards teams in the 80s and early 90s. Also the Wine Cellar Team (top team ever and choosing a individual season) was very good as well.
Negative- There is some bias towards the Celtics and Laker hating going on but as a 80s Celtics fan I find it tolerable. The repeated rips of Kareem, Wilt, and Karl Malone get old. No coach rankings are a dissapointment. Probably could have been cut by 50 to 100 pages and been equally as good.
Overall: This book is a must read for any basketball fan, from junkie to casual. Just be prepared to plow through 700 pages. That lowers it from 5 to 4 stars. 550-600 would have been a lot better but still a great book.
The Greatest NBA Bathroom Book Ever November 24, 2009
Nicholas Franklin (Aust, TX United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am pretty sure I have now ready most all of the book. I can't be sure because I did not read it straight through (and do not think it was meant to be read that way) and skipped most of the parts pre Bird/Magic (fortunately much more time is spent on that time period forward with the exception of the Wilt/Russell debate which is well done). Here is what I think you should know:
1. Large swaths of the book are from old Simmons columns from ESPN. I would not say that is a bad thing as in some ways the book manages to take a decade's worth of Simmons' thoughts scattered across every imaginable NBA topic and bring them together in a way that makes the old stuff better and more focused...if that makes sense.
2. If you are familiar with Simmons you know that when he says Book of Basketball he means Book of NBA Basketball. There is virtually nothing about college basketball or international basketball. I consider this a good thing.
3. Virtually nothing about coaches other than as a reference for evaluating how good/bad/annoying other guys are
4. Seemed a little odd that he finished the book right before the 2009 playoffs which he addresses in the epilogue.
5. Thankfully that may have caused him to write the epilogue with the Bill Walton story. The meeting with Walton was the best part of the book.
6. Simmons FINALLY gets to use profanity!
Anyway, despite a great deal of material you may have already read, there are tons of stories and anecdotes that I imagine few have ever heard. All of them INTERESTING. And ultimately I think that is the whole point of Simmons' style, to channel Gladwell's introduction to What the Dog Saw: You may not agree with him and what he writes, but you will at least say THAT is interesting.
This book will get a coveted spot in my bathroom for future reference during the NBA playoffs every summer.
**Also, if you need a good reading list, he provides a handy list of books he consulted on this one. Basicly the Simmons' version of The Great Books degree only for NBA basketball
Sports Guy's Bible November 24, 2009
Rajiv J. Raj
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The perfect book for anyone who is a fan of Bill Simmon's. Also, good for anyone who enjoys pro basketball, history, well thought out & researched ideas, mixed with creativity and a sharp sense of humor.
Also, I would like to thank Bill Simmon's for his time on the book tour!
Great Insights from a Passionate Fan November 23, 2009
Jason S. Waggoner (Baltimore, MD United States)
I have been a fan of Bill Simmons' online Sports Guy columns for several years and I liked his first book on the Boston Red Sox. His latest offering is a fascinating look at the history of the NBA through the eyes of an avid, Boston Celtics loving fan. Simmons' love of the game is evident, and it comes through in his writing. I found his rankings of the top players of all time to be interesting and his re-imagining of the Hall of Fame to be intriguing. However, as one previous reviewer mentioned, I was surprised by the lack of a separate section on referees, despite Simmons' frequent mention and criticism of them in his other writings. I was also surprised that there was not a separate section on the greatest and worst coaches, once again despite Simmons' previous material. Considering that this book ended up being over 700 pages long, perhaps Simmons felt that he could not do justice to these subjects without adding significant length to an already hefty volume. Maybe Simmons will include sections on referees and coaches in the second edition, which will supposedly arrive in 2016 when he needs a quick influx of cash (as humorously mentioned a couple times in this book). Some reviewers have expressed their dislike of the numerous footnotes, but I laughed out loud at a few of them and found myself nodding in agreement as I read many others. While reading the epilogue, I wondered why Simmons and/or his publisher didn't wait until the 2009 NBA season had concluded before putting the book out so that the most current information and statistics could be used. As much as I enjoyed this book, I felt compelled to only give it 4 stars out of 5 due to the numerous typos and other mistakes spread throughout. Those are the sorts of things that should be rectified in the editing process, and I hope that either Simmons' editor does a better job on his next book or is replaced by a better one.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 54
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