Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 164
 Great book December 23, 2009
Jobetta Hedelman (Yakima, WA)
Book came much earlier than expected and is in excellent condition.
I read the book and found it to be quite funny and informative. While it would be hard to enjoy most of the jokes if you didn't pay attention to pop culture, I enjoyed Simmons style.
Masterful work and also hilarious December 28, 2009
Brad Kearns (Auburn, CA)
I'd never read Bill Simmons before and was a little leery about such a long book. Sure he rambles on and on about various topics that might be skippable, but the writing is so witty you simply can't miss a single page. What a great effort and one any basketball fan will enjoy. It's valuable to compare and contrast the other high profile basketball book just released, Chris Ballard's "The Art of a Beautiful Game" which by comparison seemed slapped together quickly with minimal extra effort or revealing insights ("Kobe is very competitive"; no kidding).
I really appreciate Simmons' freewheeling style and his ability to call things straight, offer brutally frank and candid but well supported opinions. You can pick this up anytime and get a guaranteed laugh within a couple of paragraphs, especially with the 800 zillion footnotes full of zingers.
Unique and comprehensive January 7, 2010
Snooze (Avon, IN USA)
The writing style will certainly be familiar to regular readers of Simmons' articles. Some may find the cultural references too cutesy or forced ( or inappropriate for some), but the vast majority of the time I find them quite funny. I am the same age as Simmons so perhaps they resonate more with me than some others. Regardless, the quality of the basketball analysis is outstanding and is worth a read even if you skip past all the references. I found the "How the Hell Did We Get Here" chapter especially elucidating, a fantastic description of the various eras. He writes explicitly of the important but usually avoided topics such as race and drug use and how they affected certain eras. He is willing to tell insider's stories even though his basic premise has always been writing from the fan's perspective. I have never liked the Celtics but am entertained and amused by his Celtic stories and unlike other readers do not feel like his rankings are overly biased. I am a lifelong Pacers (and therefore Reggie Miller) fan, and believe his evaluation of Reggie's strengths and weaknesses are spot-on and fair , despite his labeling of Reg as the most overrated "superstar" in the last 30 years. A potential complaint might be that although he emphasizes that the Secret of Basketball is achieved when players willingly ignore statistical goals for the betterment of the team, the book at times gives overwhelming statistical analysis. The beauty, however, is that the book is divided into many short segments which can be read at different times and order, if one gets exhausted.
I bought this book for my 15 year old basketball player/fan (knowing that I also wanted to read it) so that he could get a better grasp of names and teams from the past. I believe Simmons did a fantastic job of creating an extremely lively and fair appraisal of the important players and teams in the modern times of pro basketball. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys pro basketball. By the way , I am one of the seemingly few fans who prefers the pro game to college, especially playoff basketball. Perhaps this book will encourage some people who dismiss the NBA to see what they are missing.
Great read for NBA lovers January 7, 2010
Travis R. Banko
Great book. If you love Bill Simmons, you will get great pleasure in reading the 700 pages in this little beauty!
Awesome Book January 7, 2010
Gregory M. Bachkora (Kansas City)
Great book. He is really passionate about the sport and did a tremendous amount of research for the book. Very informative and entertaining
Showing reviews 16-20 of 164
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