| 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
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Seller: BRILANTI BOOKS
Rating:  164 reviews
Sales Rank: 947
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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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
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 164
 SIMMONS! July 8, 2010
taylorford88
Greatest sports book I have ever read. The book follows the same writing style of his columns. Gives detailed info into the best players, teams, rivalries, and what it takes to win in the NBA. Must Read!
Buy this book if youre a basketball fan... especially if youre a Simmons fan June 30, 2010
great book that tells the game very well. simmons puts his twists on things and gives his hilarious opinions on much of the game, including his hatred for vince carter & wilt. great read.
Must Read for the Basketball Fan June 15, 2010
Joshua Nelson (Kent, WA, US)
Bill Simmons is a Basketball fan first, and a basketball writer second. That's how it should be. With that said, he doesn't let his fanhood get in the way of his writing.(too much) Even as a Celtics fan myself, I cant' deny there being a slight Celtics bias. A few guys are a little too high on the list but as are a few Lakers guys. Simmons says himself that he values role players on a championship team better than stars on non playoff teams, which is how it should be, but a few times these types of guys were just a little to high on this list.
The majority of this book is a countdown list of the 96 players who would be in Simmons' version of the basketball hall of fame. These types of books are usually barely readable, but Simmons pulls it off beautifuly. He actually has something interesting to say about all of these players instead of the usual stats with opinions stated as fact. While no two people agree on who the top players are and whos better than who, I never found myself wanting to move a player on his list more than a couple spots which speaks to his quality explanations as much as his quality opinions.
If I have to find something negative, I would say he goes a little to far with the "what if's" but I can't pretend I haven't done the same. Its what fans do.
 Nice But Flawed June 15, 2010
Andrew Chase
This is a nice book for bathroom reading I think. I'm not a person who reads like that, so I read it front to over a week or so.
Basically, It's not a complete work. It's a collection of different things, most prominently: A story of the evolution of the game, a case for what makes teams and individuals successful in basketball, then a very long list of the players then teams he considers the greatest in basketball.
I found the earlier parts much more enjoyable than the rankings portions. Also, a pretty prominent annoyance was his EXTENSIVE use of footnotes. Is he trying to write the "Pale Fire" o basketball journalism? I don't know, but for a piece of light reading it's annoying as hell to have 2-5 footnotes on every single page, at least for me. I read a lot of classical literature filled with footnotes and never found them annoying, but in this book there are tons of inane footnotes that I think represent a failed adaptation at the very funny dialogue he so masterfully creates on his podcast.
Overall, it's a decent book. I think maybe for fans of Simmons from his podcast who are not big basketball fans (this is where I'm coming from), wait for the paperback or skip it, and don't feel like you're missing fireworks if you skip over some pretty large portions of it.
send all typo mistakes in book to bookofbasketball@aol.com May 31, 2010
Sandra M. Caywood
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you read this book in parts or sections it's a lot more enjoyable than reading the whole thing straight through; it's not meant to be a novel but more a large collection of uncut columns.
You either like Bill Simmons' writing style or you don't, this book is pretty much like his columns except more swearing, drug and porn references.
Most footnotes are mostly useful though slightly disjointed. If you want this book to be more flowing you can skip most footnotes. They usually contain a joke, a mini-story or stats but you don't have to read the footnotes to enjoy this book.
Although he is heavily biased towards the Celtics it's usually not to bad except when he talks about the '86 Celtics team or Celtics role players like Havlicek or Cousy.
The hall of fame pyramid idea is pretty good but 96 players is overdoing it, (top 50 would've been much better) and in the stats listed you'll notice some mistakes like, listing 3 people as the 2nd best player on the '78 Bullets team or listing Michael Jordan as having played 16 years and gotton 16 All-star selections instead of the 15 years and 14 All-star selections he actually got.
The major downside to this book is tho countless typos you can find throughout although he does mention most mistakes on the website [...] The mistakes aren't bad enough to ruin the book but they are enough that most people can find some easily.
Bottom line: read both positive and negative reviews plus some of Bill Simmons ESPN columns so you know what you're getting into before buying this book. The book is worth buying overall.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 164
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