The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy

Product Description

The NBA according to The Sports Guy

Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell
 
Newly updated with fresh takes on LeBron, Kobe, the Celtics & more*

Bill Simmons, the wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining basketball addict known to millions as ESPN.com’s The Sports Guy, has written the definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA. 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.

*Including even more footnotes!

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• Great product!

Top Reviews

Enjoyable Time for the Right Audience
by Jesse LeGault (4 out of 5 stars)
April 16, 2018

I'm a pretty big fan of Bill Simmons: I listen to his Podcast, read his columns, and even briefly subscribed to HBO to watch his short-lived show. That said, it took me a long time to read The Book of Basketball, mainly because I couldn't justify paying for BS content, when there was so much available for free. Having finished reading the book today, and I can say that it was enjoyable, but it is a LONG read.

The love Bill has for basketball is pretty evident, and the degree of detail he goes into is impressive. Unfortunately, I'm not as into basketball as he is, and found myself skipping paragraphs to get through it. I wished I had read it sooner, as the views reflect the years in which they were written, and are somewhat out of date for a few players.

While enjoyable, the numerous footnotes used were kind of frustrating. They offer skippable tidbits that can help to flesh out a thought, but getting the content was not without struggle. I read on a Kindle app, and was able to click on the footnotes to bring them up, but I would sometimes be skipped to the end of the chapter (where the footnote was), and would then have to navigate back to where I had been. The alternatives did not seem much better, as flipping back and forth or waiting until the end of the chapter would break the flow.

If you enjoyable basketball, this book offers great insight into the history of the game. If you enjoy Bill Simmons, this book offers tons of his takes. If you don't enjoy either, it won't change your opinion.

Last thought: I can't believe Bill Walton didn't read the book! He can skip over the sections he's in and still have a good experience.
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The Book of Basketball Or: Why Did Bill Simmons Order These Chapters in This Manner?
by Zachary F. (4 out of 5 stars)
December 10, 2015

A great read. Superb when Simmons doesn't let himself got lost in pop culture references. But for the life of me i cannot figure out why he ordered the chapters in the manner that he did. The meat of this book is The Pyramid, a ranking of the NBA greats. Its the best part, the thesis, the thrust of the book. Every other chapter should complement and support it. Chapters Two, Four, and Five are amazingly confusing if you don't have a great handle on who was who in the basketball Pyramid. All of those chapters occur before the basketball Pyramid. Chapter One (The Secret) and Three (How the Hell Did We Get Here?) are fantastic building blocks to the Pyramid (also probably his best chapters outside of the pyramid).

This would have been a 5 star with the below ordering and i would recommend a reader new to basketball (not aware of its history pre 2000) to read in the following order:

Prologue (A Four Dollar Ticket: Why Simmons loves basketball)

One (The Secret: the secret that makes a player great)

Three (How the Hell Did We Get Here?: a history of shifts in basketball rules, strategy, popularity and how it influenced the game)

Six to Eleven (The Pyramid)

Two (Russell, Then Wilt: why one was greater than the other. This comes right on the heels of the pyramid where they're fresh in your mind)

Five (Most Valuable Chapter: History of the most shady MVP awards)

Twelve (The Legend of Keyser Soze: The best single season by an NBA team)

Thirteen (The WIne Cellar: The best hypothetical NBA team)

Epilogue
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Maybe the greatest book on the NBA...EVER!
by Roy E Galloway (5 out of 5 stars)
February 16, 2014

Last year I purchased Bill Simmons' The Book of Basketball for my birthday. Wow I didn't know what I was getting into. The book was released in 2009. I picked up the soft cover of the book which is the one I suggest everyone pick up. He has updated the book over the years only adding to how good it is. This book is 700 pages long so be ready for a long read. While it is an easy read for big fans of the NBA it may not be for the casual fan. If you aren't a fan who loves reading about the past in great detail this book may not be for you. Me? I am a big NBA fan and do love its past.

I will preface everything by saying Bill Simmons isn't perfect but he is a fan, a passionate fan, who has used this medium to put down his thoughts on the sport he loves. And he did a great job in doing so. Simmons is a Celtic homer. No doubts there. And while it may make you wrinkle your nose at some of his thoughts he is still pretty centered and doesn't go too far left. Since he grew up going to Celtics games in his youth there is plenty of Celtic love in this book and some Laker hating as well. Do not let this cloud your thoughts about reading this book. Simmons did tons of research including reading a library of books on the NBA as well as tons of video research to ensure his writing was as accurate as his memory. I want to say it took him three years to write the book. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed it. His perspective is a great easy read and he loves having fun with his words. Simmons also has a love for the footnote. Almost every page has at least one. His humor can also be on the adult side at times. Not that an eleven year-old is going to pick up this book but I just wanted to mention it.

I didn't start following the NBA until around the time I was eight or nine. My brother-in-law Curtis got me into playing an NBA board game (Statis Pro Basketball) in the 70's and I was hooked. Weird how a board game can get someone hooked on sport such as basketball. Go figure. It was perfect timing for me as the Larry Bird - Magic Johnson era kicked in at the same time and I've never looked back. I love history and learning more about things I enjoy. This book was perfect me. I wish there had been a little more love for my favorite Dominique Wilkins and the Atlanta Hawks but I was still very happy with his thoughts on both.

We all look at sports in our own unique way. I am 43 now and how I viewed and learned the sport of basketball 30 plus years ago is much different in how I learn and view it now. To that end I loved Bill Simmons' insight into the game. To quote Paul Harvey this book gave me "the rest of the story". While I could always see the play on the court I didn't have the basketball/NBA smarts to dissect some of the details. There was little NBA coverage at that time in small town America and until the NBA hit cable it was just as hard to see games consistently. This book provides tons of insight I never had. Nowadays every move is over analyzed instantly on TV and on the web allowing us to make a better informed analysis of what we are seeing in a game and around the league. It just wasn't that way back in the day. So as Bill Simmons looks at the NBA from every possible angle I was able to live those early days of watching the NBA all over again. This time with a new appreciation.

This is a must read for any NBA fan. Again it may be a bit much for the casual fan but if you think there is any possibility you might like this book I suggest you spend the $11.11 on Amazon or at some other retailer and I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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It's what the games all about, man!
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
April 30, 2018

Funny?....Knowledgeable?....Incisive?.....All of that and more, on this update of the best Wisenheimer review of pro basketball's galaxy of personalities. Simmons locks down with barbed but accurate ratings of hundreds of pro basketballs players up to Lebron and Kobe. His statistical accounts of performances are revealingly on the mark, and the people; their habits, appearances, even off-court dramatics give a humorous but grounded honesty to his constant judgement calls on what makes a great pro player, and if they know "The Secret". You have to read it. SAA, 30Apr2018.
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An encyclopedic slam dunk binge for the purist hoops junkie
by Tail End Boomer (5 out of 5 stars)
June 15, 2015

I've always liked the Sports Guy and his flippant pro everyman rants by default since I grew up back east and share part of his ethnicity. He writes from the gut with a rare passion not seen among the literary sedentary set. Having said that, this book is too much to digest for casual fans. You must be from an A list basketball hub---Boston, LA, Chitown---or at least be an OCD hoops fanatic. A guy could get a stroke trying to read this in just a few sittings. Heck, writing it must've been a trip. So it has to be enjoyed in manic fits and starts or furtive bits 'n pieces. It's that exhausting and uber comprehensive.

The focus here beyond his dad's Celtics season tickets sealing his fate as a kid fan, is on pyramid pantheon best ever debates, what ifs, secret knowledge, team comparison compendiums and various other scenario incidentals. Simmons, master of the between the lines scoop, says what's on his mind, is quick to offend and may be off the cuff with tactless fan boy antics, but he thinks like a genius GM and really should be considered as part of an NBA team brain trust someday. BS's magnum opus is media layman proof that astute educated fans can know the game better than some insider suits.

His bias as a loyal Beantown homer is readily evident, but it doesn't detract from the overall tome scope. He has a hoop sleuth's way of witnessing the pall of history by outing its mistakes, rebuffs. etc. Like how inventor of the shot clock Danny Biasone and Celtics defensive clutch gem Dennis Johnson were snubbed from timely HoF induction. Via a coach sharp humanist link tying cults of personality to levels of performance, we learn that selfish players hit a ceiling and greats must share the ball to be transcendent. Someone give Bill a PhD in basketball. He really is an expert above the 4th estate rim.

As for fun pop culture trivia references he's well known for, they rock here when they relate to more civilized innocence of the 70s and 80s. However, when they veer off into the 90s and beyond they get too dystopian for old school taste. And there are so many offbeatedly forced porn references that it makes you wonder if he somehow missed his true calling in life. For the record, pop culture in bed with sports didn't start with Simmons. Twas ironically originated by an adult cinema historian who mixed pop, news and sports trivia intros with his movie reviews in an erotic film bible from the early 1980s.

There are just enough extras missing here to make room for a 2nd volume that would be salable at even half the length. With so much info on elite players and teams, this needed a tongue-in-cheek chapter on footnote characters of the game like Darryl Dawkins, aka Chocolate Thunder, a rushed high school prospect who never reached his full potential but was memorable for destroying backboards on slam dunks. It also could've used a special part on basketball video games. But if this book is so discursively expansive that you anticipate a welcome sequel, then that's surely saying something.
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I always follow and like the NBA
by Bo Roberts (4 out of 5 stars)
June 17, 2016

A 3,4,5 Star read

If I could, that would have been my rating.....to wit: The writing quality, wit, and obvious passion is 5-star quality. The passion yields some diversion that I think even the most NBA wonk might get a bit overwhelmed by. As I await game seven of the NBA playoffs, my interest is at its peak, I always follow and like the NBA, liking it more during the playoffs, especially the last few years with players like Paul,Westbrook, Curry, Durant, Lebron to follow. But, Wow, I never plowed the depths that BS wants to take...I admire the passion and most of the reasoning, but maybe for me 4-500 pages would have sufficed. My 3-star rating is for the hypothetical examinations, a tad interesting for a bit, then it goes on and on, and....you get the picture. BTW, his postscripts were must-read 5-star stuff. Thanks Bill, I look forward to your HBO series. Bo Roberts
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One expert's fascinating (if skewed) view of the sport he loves
by Ken K. (4 out of 5 stars)
July 20, 2014

Very interesting and engaging read, weakened only by Simmons' pronounced biases and historical blind spots. One simply has to learn to counter them.

For example, reduce by roughly 30% the praise he heaps upon any Celtics team or player, especially from his childhood in the mid-80s. Yes, these were great teams and athletes in many cases, but Simmons' adulation overcomes his objectivity here.

Increase by 20-25% his unenthused assessment of any star or team from an era before his time and for which he can find little video. (For example, being unable to view Julius Erving's astounding 5-year ABA career, during which Dr. J achieved heights (literal and figurative) of skill and creativity that no other hoopster has or will, leaves Simmons to assess Erving less generously (and less accurately) solely on his more restrained subsequent NBA work.)

Increase by 20% his assessment of any team that beat (or outdid) a Celtic team by playing better "Celtics basketball" (his assessments of the 69-70 and 72-73 NY Knicks championship teams are especially stingy).

And decrease by 15-20% his assessment of recent stars in the overall pantheon of NBA talent - again, he relies too heavily on the familiar.

Much here to pick nits and argue with, but also much to enjoy - and Simmons does communicate convincingly his love for the sport and the league. He could also be a bit more skeptical of the ways that marketing has weakened the sport and fan experience, but there are some hands that feed him that he might be best served not to bite.

Overall a very enjoyable read.
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The best basketball book I've ever read.
by Tong Zou (5 out of 5 stars)
May 12, 2014

I bought this book when I got into basketball a few years ago, and it really opened my eyes about the sport, I became really fascinated with different players and how they compare to each other. Bill's breakdown of each players strengths and weaknesses are alot better and more informed than those guys at ESPN 1st take who argue about players all the time and how 'great' they are. Yeah we all knew Jordan and Magic were great, but exactly how great was Kareem compared to Russell and Wilt? How about underrated players like Elgin Baylor and Bob Pettit and Rick Barry? It's all here. This was written a few years ago, but now I believe the spots of Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Dwayne Wade, Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzki, Dwight Howard and of course Lebron James would have moved up a bit. I would put my Pantheon as follows:
1. Michael Jordan
2. Bill Russell
3. Magic Johnson
4. Kareem Abdul Jabbar
5. Wilt Chamberlain
6. Larry Bird
7. Tim Duncan
8. Lebron James
9. Kobe Bryant
10. Jerry West
11. Oscar Robertson
12. Hakeem Olajuwon
13. Shaq
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For fans of Bill Simmons
by Baxuwell (5 out of 5 stars)
August 6, 2012

I've been a fan of Bill Simmons since my college friends introduced me to his Boston Sports Guy website in 2000. Like so many of his fans, I've read every column he's released since that point - he has an easy going and informative writing style which has appealed to so many people. So for fans of his work - I recommend this book whole-heartedly. I believe Simmons wrote this with the goal of doing the best work of his career, and he left nothing on the table. The breakdowns, stories and rankings are all amazingly thought out, and while he may make points that you might disagree with, they are never unsubstantiated.

For those who aren't familiar with Simmons' work: a few notes. First, he is an unabashed homer for all Boston sports teams, and this bleeds through everything he writes. So if you are expecting an unbiased look at the sport of basketball, look elsewhere. Second, his writing builds over time with inside jokes, references to previous columns, etc. It's impossible for me to say how this would translate to a reader unfamiliar with all of his Simmons-isms, but I doubt it would improve the reading experience. Third, while there is some structure to the book, most notably in the ranking of the 96 (not an arbitrarily chosen number, by the way) greatest players of time, there are several sections that are just there so Simmons can write detailed chapters expounding on his basketball thoughts (what-ifs, building a perfect team, etc.). It's all really great stuff, but has the feel of a collection of essays as opposed to one cohesive book. Finally, Simmons frequently inserts pop culture references into his writing. As other reviewers have noted these can and will become dated with time. We'll see how the book ages.

None of the above is meant to scare off the uninitiated - he's a terrific writer, and certainly one of the absolute best current sports writers around. It just helps to know what you are getting into.
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... follow it until playoffs roll around - but you enjoy the game
by M. A. Foley (5 out of 5 stars)
October 9, 2014

Even if you do not follow NBA basketball daily - I do not follow it until playoffs roll around - but you enjoy the game, you will love this book. The stories are wonderful. The history of the game puts the reader behind the scenes to understand NBA history. The writing is terrific. There are some very good laughs as well. Be sure to read the footnotes. They are as good as the book. I have given this book as a gift already to one of my friends, and several more will be receiving it at Christmas. Also, the book does not need to be read from beginning to end. I read it that way, but one can skip around. Eventually, you will want to read the entire book. Even if you do not agree with everything that Bill Simmons says, and he say a great deal, you will have been made to think more critically about what you do think. Who was the better basketball player, Russell or Chamberlain? Read the book. Who were the really great players and why? Read the book. You will be entertained.

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