| | |  | Newspapers & Magazines | Home » » » » » The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy | | | | | | | 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.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Bill Simmons | | Hardcover:
| 736 pages | | Publisher:
| ESPN | | Publication Date:
| October 27, 2009 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 034551176X | | Product Length:
| 6.3 inches | | Product Width:
| 1.75 inches | | Product Height:
| 9.5 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.44 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.9 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.35 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 219 reviews |
| | | | Used and New: | | | |
| All | |
| $2.39 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $2.39 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $2.45 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $2.57 | Used
- Good | | | $2.94 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $2.94 | Used
- Good | | | $2.95 | Used
- Good | | | $3.50 | Used
- Good | | | $3.75 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $4.00 | Used
- Good | | | $4.04 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $4.65 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $4.69 | Used
- Good | | | $4.89 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.89 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.90 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.90 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $4.94 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.95 | Used
- Mint | | | $5.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $5.90 | Used
- Good | | | $5.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Acceptable | | | $6.00 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $6.63 | New | | | $6.63 | New | | | $6.64 | New | | | $6.65 | New | | | $6.66 | New | | | $6.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $7.00 | Used
- Good | | | $7.24 | Used
- Good | | | $7.50 | Used
- Mint | | | $7.53 | New | | | $7.63 | New | | | $7.64 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Good | | | $7.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $7.99 | New | | | $8.00 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $8.76 | New | | | $8.77 | New | | | $8.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $9.28 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.29 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.29 | New | | | $9.49 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.57 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $9.60 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.98 | New | | | $9.98 | New | | | $9.99 | New | | | $9.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $9.99 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.99 | New | | | $10.00 | New | | | $10.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $10.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.95 | Used
- Good | | | $10.95 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.95 | Used
- Good | | | $10.97 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Good | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $11.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $11.50 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $11.57 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $11.82 | New | | | $11.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Mint | | | $11.99 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $12.00 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $12.20 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $12.27 | New | | | $12.55 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $14.65 | Used
- Good | | | $14.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $14.99 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $14.99 | New | | | $15.00 | New | | | $15.00 | Used
- Good | | | $15.00 | New | | | $15.50 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $15.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $15.95 | Used
- Good | | | $17.58 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $17.80 | Used
- Good | | | $17.95 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $18.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $18.38 | Used
- Mint | | | $18.50 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $18.95 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $19.10 | New | | | $19.79 | Used
- Mint | | | $20.00 | New | | | $21.00 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $22.93 | New | | | $30.00 | New | | | $36.03 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $36.37 | Used
- Mint | |
| New | |
| $6.63 | New | | | $6.63 | New | | | $6.64 | New | | | $6.65 | New | | | $6.66 | New | | | $7.53 | New | | | $7.63 | New | | | $7.99 | New | | | $8.76 | New | | | $8.77 | New | | | $9.29 | New | | | $9.98 | New | | | $9.98 | New | | | $9.99 | New | | | $9.99 | New | | | $10.00 | New | | | $11.82 | New | | | $12.27 | New | | | $14.99 | New | | | $15.00 | New | | | $15.00 | New | | | $19.10 | New | | | $20.00 | New | | | $22.93 | New | | | $30.00 | New | |
| Used | |
| $2.39 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $2.39 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $2.45 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $2.57 | Used
- Good | | | $2.94 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $2.94 | Used
- Good | | | $2.95 | Used
- Good | | | $3.50 | Used
- Good | | | $3.75 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $4.00 | Used
- Good | | | $4.04 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $4.65 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $4.69 | Used
- Good | | | $4.89 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.89 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.90 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.90 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $4.94 | Used
- Mint | | | $4.95 | Used
- Mint | | | $5.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $5.90 | Used
- Good | | | $5.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Acceptable | | | $6.00 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $6.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $7.00 | Used
- Good | | | $7.24 | Used
- Good | | | $7.50 | Used
- Mint | | | $7.64 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Good | | | $7.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $8.00 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $8.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $9.28 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.29 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.49 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.57 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $9.60 | Used
- Mint | | | $9.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $9.99 | Used
- Mint | | | $10.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $10.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.95 | Used
- Good | | | $10.95 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.95 | Used
- Good | | | $10.97 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Good | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $10.98 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $11.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $11.50 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $11.57 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $11.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- Mint | | | $11.99 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $12.00 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $12.20 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $12.55 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $14.65 | Used
- Good | | | $14.99 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $14.99 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $15.00 | Used
- Good | | | $15.50 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $15.95 This item is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | Used
- VeryGood | | | $15.95 | Used
- Good | | | $17.58 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $17.80 | Used
- Good | | | $17.95 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $18.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $18.38 | Used
- Mint | | | $18.50 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $18.95 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $19.00 | Used
- Mint | | | $19.79 | Used
- Mint | | | $21.00 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $36.03 | Used
- VeryGood | | | $36.37 | Used
- Mint | |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 219 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
107 of 123 found the following review helpful:
 Fantastic read, absurd amount of informationOct 27, 2009
By Charbel Eid
I need to preface this by saying that I've been reading Bill Simmons for over 8 years now, before the fame, before the podcasts and almost frightening fan following.I've seen him mature from the old Boston Sports Guy to this all-media presence now, and in the process, his writing has greatly improved. The culmination of such an improvement is this wonderful book, "The Book of Basketball".
I managed to get an early copy of this book, and spent the next 48 hours plowing through it as fast as I could. It's very clear that Simmons put everything he had into the book. There aren't a lot of loose words around. Even the genitalia jokes are well-constructed. Yes, it's pretty good.
The basis of this book is determining who mattered in the NBA. Which teams, players, coaches, etc. played the biggest role in getting us to where we are today, in shaping our perception of what it takes to win in the NBA, and how we remember different players and events. It's very interesting to see him go back into the 60s and 70s and try to write about Walton, Russell, and Chamberlain and how they were perceived then, and try to get to see what forces created and changed that perception. This is ultimately what the book is all about. It reads almost like a history of the NBA, in a very easy-to-read style.
My personal favorites are his ABA pieces. Not nearly enough has been written about this crazy league, and Simmons did a very good job looking at just how things broke down, at what could have been, and how the ABA led to many fundamental changes in the NBA itself.
Finally, this is definitely a book for the NBA junkie. It's comic style and easy-to-read writing style does make it accessible to those with only mild-to-intermediate interest in the NBA, but at its core, it's for the junkies who want to fill up with as much NBA knowledge as possible. It's a great book, and for its price (as of October 27, 2009), a great deal.
71 of 83 found the following review helpful:
buy the dead tree edition instead of the Kindle editionOct 28, 2009
By Christopher J. Pellerito
(10/28) Still working my way through it, but here are my impressions so far:
(1) Buy the dead tree version even if you have a Kindle. Simmons buries an absurd amount of information in the footnotes, a lot more than just citations. They're set up as endnotes at the end of each chapter, which is awkward for Kindle users. The footnotes are almost like one of those extra audio tracks in a DVD where the director provides running commentary on a film; for better or worse, you're missing out on a lot if you skip the footnotes. Why he thought this was a good way to write a book is beyond me. But you're going to want to read the footnotes.
(2) if you bet "under 1.5" as the first chapter in which an NBA moment is compared to a scene in Shawshank Redemption, you covered.
(3) if this book had an MPAA rating, it would be rated R. He says things that he could never get away with in his ESPN columns. For example, he refers to going off birth control as "pulling the goalie" and calls the Hawks' selection of Marvin Williams in the 2005 draft (instead of Chris Paul or Deron Williams) "an Aretha Franklin sized mistake."
(4) I've probably read half a dozen different "Wilt or Russell?" articles over the years, and Simmons' handling of the debate is probably the best one.
Will update in coming days.
Update (11/3): Man Reads Entire Book of Basketball -- And Lives!
If the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is the '86 Celtics of sports history books -- a timeless classic that could succeed in any era -- then TBOB is the '79 Sonics: a championship team but not one that will be remembered forever, and one that could probably only have won a championship in its own time. Why does TBOB fall short of the absolute pinnacle? Is it because of the salty language? (No; recall that James' entry on Don Mattingly in the Abstract is "100% ballplayer, 0% bulls&%$.") Is it because Simmons can barely contain his disdain for players like Kareem and Laimbeer? (Again, no; James can barely contain his disdain for Rogers Hornsby, Dick Allen, Maury Wills, etc.) Is it the fact that the book contains some post-consumer content (e.g. the entry on Pete Maravich is basically lifted directly from an [...] column he wrote about Pistol a few years back?) Again, James recycled old material for the Abstract, so that's not it. Ultimately it's the endless barrage of throwaway pop culture references that is going to make this book feel dated quickly (people might still remember Teen Wolf or Rocky IV in ten years, but is anybody going to care about Keeping Up With the Kardashians in 2019?)
All told, this book has freakish athleticism, jumpability, length, and tremendous upside.
58 of 69 found the following review helpful:
 3.5 stars. Would have been twice as good at half the length.Nov 11, 2009
By Hubcap
If you know who the Sports Guy is, then you know what this book is like. I enjoyed it well enough, but by the end it got a bit tiresome. I've got no problem with 700-page books, but I can do without a 700-page book that recycles the same gags over and over and over (and over) again.
The positive side is that it's a fun ride and an easy read; there's a ton of info about the NBA and players who should be remembered; and Simmons' love of the game leaps off of the page.
The negative side is that there's a lot of padding, a lot of opinion presented as fact, and a whole lot of pseudo-statistics that are less convincing the more you think about them.* Editors are your friends, Simmons. You don't use the verb "sauntered" twice in three pages. The game is Bid Whist, not Bid Wist. You can't use your own "Trade Value" columns as independent evidence to support your own opinions. And "infinitely better" does not mean the same thing as "a lot better."
If Simmons had taken his best 400 pages this would have been a really great book. But he didn't. But if you like Simmons you'll like this. Buy it and read it like he recommends: dip into it for 50 pages, then walk away for a while. Because it's kind of like eating Halloween candy - enjoyable at the moment, but if you do it for too long you get sick of it.
*(My favorite is the table comparing performances for two guards from ages 22 through 24. Except for Allen Iverson he makes the "executive decision" to show ages 23-25 because AI "spent five months in jail and missed his senior year in high school." Yeah...that's not really how stats work. You can't just toss the numbers you don't like and pick the ones that support your argument. Well, obviously you CAN, but that's cherry-picking, not statistics.)
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
For better of worse, reads like a typical Simmons column...Dec 09, 2009
By G. Panchapakesan
I've been reading Simmons on [...] for some time now. His columns have often provided me comic relief during a taxing work day or a grueling law school class. However, his columns are just that -- brief and instant gratification. The problem with this book is that it reads like a series of hundreds of mini-Simmons columns. At times, his grasp of the subject matter and eloquence in describing it shines through (for instance -- the Wilt v. Russell debate, his childhood Celtics memories, and his excerpt on Elgin Baylor), but more often than not, any given passage of the book reads like a shoddily put together column. The book is replete with cocaine and porn jokes, as well as references to obscure movies that only a limited cohort of his readers can comprehend. Furthermore, it is altogether too clear when Simmons is discussing an era or player that is foreign to his own experience. Take his section on the history of the NBA: it literally reads like a summary of 5-10 books that other people have written -- Simmons' only contribution to this section is, well, typical Simmons-column language (i.e., "X player ACTUALLY didn't do that, but wouldn't it be crazy if he did??"). Additionally, the book is unfortunately filled with several typos (numbers, years, improper tenses) -- I myself noticed nearly 10. All that being said, I think it's worth a read -- any dedicated NBA fan can certainly appreciate portions of the book. Just know going in that a significant portion of the book is terribly biased -- at times it just seems like Simmons is way in over his head.
41 of 51 found the following review helpful:
 Informative but poorly writtenNov 12, 2009
By B. Kim
I have been reading Bill Simmons work since his Sports Guy website (about 9 years now) and have always been a huge fan. I've seen a decline in his writing in recent years, but I always assumed that was because ESPN was "holding him back", however I think this book pretty much solidifies his writing for me.
This book could have been something different. He could have written from his perspective as a viewer watching all those Celtics game as a young kid or focus on an era. Instead, he tried to write about everything about basketball. He could write a 10 part series and still wouldn't be enough.
Bill also references a lot of books that influenced him. You figure he would have at least attempted to write a book instead of just a 700-page ESPN column. This was probably my biggest gripe. There was no attempt whatsoever and along with those endless footnotes, it completely ruins the flow of reading a book. Part of me believes Bill wrote it this way because that is how he got to this point in the first place. Why try to write like someone else? I feel like Bill is smart enough to make some attempt and put a good piece of literature together.
The way I see this book is like Hollywood adapting a novel into a movie. They'll have to strip a lot of details and parts in a book and cram it into a 2 hour film. This works brilliantly sometimes, but many times, it doesn't work. This book to me is the Hollywood version of a book.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to see him grow from a self-made website to #1 on NYTimes best seller and I will continue to read his columns, listen to his podcasts, and read his tweets. He's entertaining and I think that is part of the problem with this book. I am just trying to give my unbiased opinion on the book. I've learned a lot about the history of basketball from this book and I've learned a lot from Bill, not just in sports, but as a thinker - I just wish he could have written it better.
See all 219 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
![The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King Theatrical Editions) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510Q6BAhTVL._SL75_.jpg "The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King Theatrical Editions) [Blu-ray]")
