The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy by Bill Simmons

Nov 28, 2009

William Johnson rated it

Shelves: since-joining-goodreads, 2009

Reprinted from my website Secure Immaturity:

The Sports Guy (aka Bill Simmons) is an engaging, Internet personality. He previously wrote a book that was a collection of his highly successful and entertaining Internet postings regarding his beloved Red Sox. Any fan of Simmons knows that he is a rabid Boston sports fanatic, most notably the Celtics and Red Sox. If there is any weakness to his writing it is that he is insanely biased to those Boston teams. When approaching topics from a ...moreReprinted from my website Secure Immaturity:

The Sports Guy (aka Bill Simmons) is an engaging, Internet personality. He previously wrote a book that was a collection of his highly successful and entertaining Internet postings regarding his beloved Red Sox. Any fan of Simmons knows that he is a rabid Boston sports fanatic, most notably the Celtics and Red Sox. If there is any weakness to his writing it is that he is insanely biased to those Boston teams. When approaching topics from a fan perspective (like the love of the game (MLB or NBA) or fan experiences) then Simmons is top notch but when it comes to overall analysis that involves perspective and objectivity, the bias comes out and makes his opinions seem less relevant.

The sad thing about The Book of Basketball is that it is Simmons gargantuan attempt at putting the NBA in perspective by ranking the all-time greatest teams and players for most of its length. When Simmons focuses on fan experiences or the love of the game he excels. The book starts out this way and is highly engaging. The prologue may be about his beloved Celtics but it describes his attendance at games, his joy at watching some of the greatest players play and sharing those experiences with his father. The next chapter focuses on ‘The Secret’, a concept Isiah Thomas explained to him about winning. Since the concept is something Simmons and the reader can remember and has (or currently is) witnessed/witnessing, the concept and portrayal in the book is equally as engaging as the opening, heart felt prologue.

The problem is the ‘objective’ analysis sections. A majority of the book is a breakdown of the 96 greatest players of all time (separated into five levels, the top being the Pantheon). This is all fine and dandy until you realize almost every Celtic ever known is on this list. I can’t particularly argue with it (as my friend and SI contributor Tony points out ‘they did dominate basketball for multiple decades) but while the Celtic players get almost heavenly like bios, other players come under scrutiny and ‘but they had this problem’. . .kind of analysis that makes you wonder if you are reading a ‘Greatest’ list or a ‘Great but. . .’ list. The nastiest trick is that Simmons pretends to be unbiased by placing his beloved Larry Bird as #5 all time behind hypothetical rival Magic Johnson (#4) and real enemy Kareem Abdul Jabbar (#3). He even references, verbatim, ’see, I’m not a homer. . .I put Magic 4th!’. But then he puts Bill Russell as #2. Despite the dominance of the man (and a respect I equally share with the author) there is no way the dude is #2 all time! Simmons even spends hundreds of pages describing how pre-merger NBA players wouldn’t stand a chance against post-merger NBA players. . .so how could Russell, a player from the 60s who had virtually no competition at his position and faced fewer (and less talented) teams be placed so high? Because he’s a Celtic damn it. . .that’s why.

The worst offender is the Greatest Teams section which is also heavily dominated by Celtics teams. I’m not saying Celtics teams from different eras don’t deserve credit but placing the 1986 Boston Celtics over the 1996 Chicago Bulls as the greatest team of all time is just plain blasphemy. And I’d like to say Simmons uses great research to back up his decision but when the only thing he can come up with is ‘the Bulls struggled in the playoffs’ (they went 15-3) and ‘the Sonics, with no bench, won 67 that year. . .that season was a joke’, I’m not really buying the argument. He derides the players on the bench (Luc Longley, Jud Beuchler, etc) as not holding a candle to Bostons’ Hall of Famers. Duh? Those ‘losers’ on the bench won 72 games and defended their title two more times. The ‘86 Celtics won 60-odd games and didn’t even defend the title the following year (which he chalks up to injuries and Len Bias’ death. Great piled it on the dead guy! Plus he says injuries are part of the game in one section but uses it as his major defense in this section). Something tells me the Bulls won more with less and did it better. Keep in mind. . .I’m an Orlando Magic fan. I got swept in the ‘96 Eastern Finals by that Bulls team.

This kind of writing suits the Internet but not a 700 page book meant to be the end-all be-all of basketball info. I picked this book up looking for excellent analysis and unbiased opinions: looked like I picked the wrong guy. Since Simmons is an Internet writer first with a gimmick (the fan’s perspective) I gave him a pass. But over 400 pages of ‘objective’ analysis is pushing it. The book does have a ‘you’ve worn out your welcome’ feel to it. The four hundred mark would have been fine but this book gets old after you start entering the 600 page area. Simmons is known for his humorous footnotes and pop culture references but they also overdue there welcome. While I enjoyed the experience overall, I think it would have behooved the Internet writer to make his first foray into book writing be less gargantuan and interested mainly in his gimmick/expertise. I never could trust Simmons for objectivity before and I certainly can’t trust him now.

This is a hard one to recommend. If Simmons’ ESPN articles are PG/PG-13 then this book is Rated R. There is some foul language, an unbelievable amount of dick jokes and the ability to rip apart anyone he wants without input from his web hosts and employers. Simmons spends one chapter comparing Bill Russell (Celtic) and Wilt Chamberlain. The goal, in the beginning of the chapter, was to compare why Russell was a better winner and player then Wilt despite statistics to the contrary. Instead it ends up being how much of an asshole Wilt was and how bad of a person he was. In the end I felt bad for Wilt even if some of the things he did were pretty assholeish (new word). This is not objective writing. . .this is ‘academic’ bashing.

I admire the amount of work that went into the book but despite the 700 pages it does feel like it is missing something (besides credibility and objectivity). I feel that for a book its size it should have more to it then just a bunch of lists and random analysis. I also feel that the book should have been a)edited better (there are myriad amounts of typos towards the end which proved the book was being rushed) and b)released later. To release a book after the 2009 Playoffs (the transcripts were written before or during the Playoffs) where major arguments (especially about Kobe and Dwight Howard; The Lakers and Orlando Magic) are made is asking for trouble. The book’s release date made some of the book instantly obsolete. And why not just change all of the transcript? Simmons adds an epilogue focusing on the ‘09 Finals and a few footnotes showing how the transcript was made false by the Playoffs. Why? Just change a paragraph here or there. Ugh. . .it was frustrating and doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Oh well. . .you get a decent book here. But when you sit down and lug around a 700 page book I want a large amount of quality, not a large amount of mediocrity. Enjoy at your own risk if you are a fan of basketball or of a specific team. If you are a fan of the Boston Celtics then this is God’s gift to you.(less)

like 8 likes

· see review

Jul 20, 2011

Jesse rated it

a lot of great basketball history almost ruined by two things: 1) a sometimes sickening love for the boston celtics and 2) finding david fosters wallace's style in a book about basketball (replete, with made-up proper noun titles, exuberant friendly narrative voice and a scholarly knowledge mixed with bawdy asides and metaphors, oh - and the dead giveaway - footnotes (not that dfw has a total claim to footnotes, but simmons uses them in almost the exact same way)... but other than these two thin...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Dec 27, 2011

David Lomax rated it

So I read this book during the basketball lockout to keep me company. And I finished just as the strike ended. I didn't buy this book as a hardcover even though I know a lot of people who raved about it. But when I flipped through it in the store, I just couldn't get myself to pay for it because the writer is such a die hard Celtics fan.

When it came out in paperback, and was updated to incorporate the Lakers winning the championship (yeah, you guessed it, I'm a Lakers fan) I saw that t...moreSo I read this book during the basketball lockout to keep me company. And I finished just as the strike ended. I didn't buy this book as a hardcover even though I know a lot of people who raved about it. But when I flipped through it in the store, I just couldn't get myself to pay for it because the writer is such a die hard Celtics fan.

When it came out in paperback, and was updated to incorporate the Lakers winning the championship (yeah, you guessed it, I'm a Lakers fan) I saw that the writer took that into account and it was what got me to buy it.

I'm glad I waited to read this version because obviously his opinions are updated with the recent success of the Lakers, but also there's a lot of info that's been updated (with footnotes that are clearly marked as "updated" footnotes - I would have hated to have been this guy's editor!) which adds to his opinions, even changes some (in the case of Kobe).

Look Simmons has a ton of insight that not just a long love of the game has given him. Like any expert who has insight one of the requirements has to be an obsessive attraction to the subject matter and there is no question Simmons has that. And he is an entertaining writer. Yes, many of his pop culture references will probably be dated in less than a decade, but as he points out in the book, so will the appreciation we have for the athletes we so admire... then forget after they retire.

And Celtic and Laker rivalry aside, Simmons tried to be fair when he needed to be. He rags on Kareem throughout the book... except when he breaks down his standing in the player greats section. He sets aside the jabs and writes a very clear headed, balanced assessment of his game, ranking him number 3 of alltime. No Laker/Kareem fan can really ask for better treatment than that. On other Lakers he is also insightful. His chapter on Magic is very smart as Simmons is able to put Johnson in the proper perspective not only as a great player, but someone that changed the sport... and even transcended it with his personal life. His writing throughout the book on Wilt Chamberlain seems accurate enough, but will come off as harsh to his supporters. Too bad the big guy is not alive to have his say (wonder if Simmons planned it that way!). His chapter on Jerry West was really interesting, something I wasn't sure I felt captured the vibe of the player and the franchise he played for (and where I thought one of the places Simmon's bias for the Celtics showed through). But now that I've read West's book, I had to reassess Simmon's take -- it is very consistent with the way West himself saw his own playing days!

The problem I had with the book is obvious. As a fan of the Celtics I believe the writer gives too much credit to players like Russell and Bird and even Hondo. Look all three were great players, and two of the three changed the sport, but I have a problem with Bird being ranked 5th (again to his credit, Simmons ranks Magic 4th) when arguably one of the things that Bird lacked was defense. Obviously a fantastic shooter and passer and a great teammate... but not a great defender. He was obviously... a winner and that's why I concede Bird certainly belongs in the top ten with his offensive prowess. Again, I believe that if Simmons is going to rank Bird 4th he got it right with putting magic ahead of him. Magic was a better all around player and he could change his game to fit whatever personnel and style his teammates were capable of playing. Russell is another matter entirely. He is ranked 2nd. Should he be that high? Perhaps, but still Russell dominated as a player playing on a string of great teams in a very talent light league. I don't put Chamberlain as high for exactly the same reason (and more, which Simmons goes into relentlessly).

The other place the bias shows is the ranking of the greatest teams of all time. He has the 72 lakers at 9th. I watched every game that year and I can tell you, that team was amazing. Way better than they come off on paper. I tell people, this team was so good... Elgin Baylor started on the team at the beginning of the year... and retired. But the real egregious mistake is ranking the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers as 5th all time. As Simmons points out, this team had injuries throughout the season, but come March, and then throughout the playoffs, they were unbeatable... and I mean that almost literally. They came within one game of sweeping the entire playoffs. I got to believe that may never happen again. And you want to know something, I still don't think the above covers how awesome this team was. Again, saw every game and there was no question the Lakers were going to win it all... no one was even close.

So who does Simmons rank higher: the 89 Pistons (please!!!); 87 Lakers (I agree that team is in the running) the 96 Bulls (despite their W-L record, I believe they are a bit overrated, but yes I will acknowledge they are certainly in the top 5; and... wait for it... the 1986 Celtics. C'mon... really... seriously??? Simmons actually says that the 86 celtics would have "swollowed up" the 2001 lakers. Only in Simmon's dreams. First off, I think the 87 Lakers were better, and so were the 96 bulls.

So, as you can see, I had some problems. And I focused on these problems in this review... but it takes nothing away from what Bill Simmons achieved with this book (which I certainly hope he continues to update like Bill James once did with the Baseball Abstract). In fact this book is hands down the best book ever written on capturing the sport's greatness, and all over newcomers will probably be compared to this as the first and final test. This book was so insightful... that the last year Phil Jackson coached the Lakers he handed out a few copies to chosen players he knew were hoping to be students of the game.

(less)

like

· see review

Oct 29, 2011

Courtney Johnston rated it

Shelves: borrowed

I figure I read about half this book, and I understood maybe a third of what I did read, and I've retained perhaps 10 percent of what I did read (in fact, I believe this is what I learned: basketball is a game that, at the professional level, rewards individuals for playing selfishly, and thus endangers team success; the NBA had a long spell when players were coked out of their skulls; the NBA was deeply racist for its first few decades; Michael Jordon is indisputably the greatest basketball pla...moreI figure I read about half this book, and I understood maybe a third of what I did read, and I've retained perhaps 10 percent of what I did read (in fact, I believe this is what I learned: basketball is a game that, at the professional level, rewards individuals for playing selfishly, and thus endangers team success; the NBA had a long spell when players were coked out of their skulls; the NBA was deeply racist for its first few decades; Michael Jordon is indisputably the greatest basketball player ever*).

I came to the book via a Twitter call for recommendations for a follow-up to Moneyball. THIS BOOK IS NOTHING LIKE MONEYBALL. Moneyball is in the Gladwellian tradition - 'The Book of Basketball' has a foreword by Gladwell. There the similarities end. Well, they're both about sport, obviously, but one is a case-study and one is an absurdly detailed, deeply subjective encyclopedia and love letter to a life-long obsession.

Despite not reading it all and understanding less, I still enjoyed the book. Simmons is great company, even if you don't understand what he's on about - you can imagine sitting in a booth with him, ordering another beer, and just enjoying the delivery of the rant, regardless of how much you grokked the content.

I was sucked into Simmons' love for the game from the first few pages, when Simmons talks about his dad buying a season ticket for the Celtics in 1973 and starting to take his son along to games:

By the time I turned six, you can guess what happened: I considered myself a member of the Boston Celtics. That spawned my racial identity crisis in first grade (fully described in my Red Sox book) when I gave myself the Muslim name "Jabaal Abdul-Simmons". I didn't know any better. I wanted to play for the Celtics and most NBA playered were black. Besides, I had more in common with them - my favourite sport was black, my favourite player (Charlie Scott) was black, my favourite comedians (Flip Williams, Jimmie Walker, and Redd Foxx) were black, most of my favourite TV shows (Sanford and Son, The Jefferson, Good Times, The Mod Squad) starred blacks, and I even made my mother take me to Roxbury in 1975 to see Keith Wilkes' one and only movie, 'Cornbread, Earl and Me. It pissed me off that I was white. So I made my first-grade teacher call me "Jabaal", wrote "Jabaal" on my homework and tests, coloured my own face in drawings, and that was that.

The 'white guy writing about a black game' aspect of the book is actually fascinating - Simmons puts the potential uncomfortableness front and centre, and then blows it away. That might be my favourite aspect of the book (well, that, and the frequent references to William Goldman, because I mean, come on - what more can you ask for?).

About 600 pages in, I asked myself whether I would have persevered for so long in a book about a sport I actually know something about. The answer is 'probably not' - the NBA is sufficiently exotic to me that I could have been reading a tome of the same length and passion about WoW. Will I go in for more basketball? Also probably not. But as a dip-into-another-world experience, this was perfectly enjoyable.

*'Indisputable' here meaning I wouldn't want to dispute this with Bill Simmons.(less)

like

· see review

Oct 12, 2011

Ricardo Aguirre rated it

Second to Peter King, Bill Simmons is one of my favorite sports writers, as he provides a neat outlook to the world of sports. A self-proclaimed basketball connoisseur, Simmons tackles the history of basketball in this mammoth of a book. There's A LOT of information to take in from this, as Simmons gives his insights on what was and what should be of the NBA, notably his notion of transforming the Hall of Fame into a "Pantheon" system where players are ranked by tiers.

The w...more

like

· see review

Jul 29, 2011

Ben rated it

Shelves: nonfiction

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of Simmons. Sure he's not the "best" sportswriter (my personal favorite is ESPN's Phil Ball, who covers the Spanish soccer league, La Liga) but it is easy to chuckle while reading his columns and appreciate how he weaves pop culture into his columns. His new fabulous Grantland website is also something that should be applauded.

While I enjoyed parts of this book, the problems I see with it are as follows:
1) length (750 pages) 2) part...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jul 29, 2011

Derek rated it

Shelves: sports, pop-culture

The Sports Guy is known for his willingness to authoritatively state his opinions in an entertaining manner featuring his parenthetical prowess, command of pop cultural metaphor, crazed zeal for his subject matter, seemingly endless encyclopedic dissertation of facts, and personal connection to the material and the reader. His 700-page tome features all of these Simmons standby techniques, as well as his signature voice, punctuated by his overactive love of footnotes and casually vulgar interjec...more

like 1 like

· see review

May 14, 2011

Bradley rated it

· review of another edition

Disclosure: I regularly listen to Bill Simmons B.S. Report podcasts and I usually read his columns on espn.com thus I'm a fan of his work.

That being said, I was somewhat disappointed with TBOB. Overall it was very insightful, but parts of it were a little tiresome. I found myself skimming certain portions - especially if they dealt with players that played in the NBA during the 50s and 60s. Other than a few interesting tidbits about the history of the NBA (evolution of the shot clo...more

like 1 like

· see review

Apr 28, 2011

Dalton Unruh added it

this is not the book i read but there was a different one but the book i read was pretty good because i like the lakers and there was a lot a pages on the lakers and it talked about on how kobe Bryant used to be number 8 but now he is number 24 and he still plays for the lakers and they talked about all the old players like magic johnson,larry bird, Micheal Jordan but i really loved this book and this is probably the best book that i have read about sports in a long time but there was really any...more

like

· see review

Apr 25, 2011

Ian Nadeau rated it

Phew! Just finished this massive tome (it's so big it stopped a bullet on ESPN's Sports Nation)-- totally worth it! Unfortunately, because of his penchant for writing about pop culture almost as much as he writes about sports (and for the 'unforgiveable' sin of actually being funny), Simmons is often overlooked when people think of the nationâs top sportswriters and his insights are similarly underrated. But, in my humble opinion, thereâs no doubt that the man is the greatest sportswriter ...morePhew! Just finished this massive tome (it's so big it stopped a bullet on ESPN's Sports Nation)-- totally worth it! Unfortunately, because of his penchant for writing about pop culture almost as much as he writes about sports (and for the 'unforgiveable' sin of actually being funny), Simmons is often overlooked when people think of the nationâs top sportswriters and his insights are similarly underrated. But, in my humble opinion, thereâs no doubt that the man is the greatest sportswriter alive today. Without peer.

Not only are his columns engaging, humorous, and thought-provoking, but heâs also been among the very smartest sports writers, finding a perfect mix of traditional what-do-your-eyes-tell-you perspective with advanced statistics / metrics, as well as forward-thinking philosophies and a historical perspective / knowledge thatâs second to none.

The Book of Basketball is a fantastic example of this. Simmons guides fans through the history of the NBA and the different evolutions of the league that must be considered in order to view players, history, and statistics in their proper context. Youâll find out how racism affected the late-50s and 60s (and beyond), why Oscar Robertsonâs triple-double season wasnât as impressive as it seems on its face, how cocaine loomed large in the late 70s, and how over-expansion watered down everything.

Using this context, Simmons guides you through his hypothetical reconstruction of the Basketball Hall of Fame (including moving it from Springfield, MA to Indiana -- the home of Hoosiers and Larry Bird): a five-tiered pyramid with the top level consisting of the greatest 12 players of all time (The Pantheon).

Youâll also walk through each and every MVP winner and find out which ones were controversial, which were right on, and which were absolute highway robbery. He tackles all the major What-Ifâs in NBA history. He weighs in on the best NBA team of all time and what would be the ultimate all-time team (picking specific years of individual players to make the ultimate 12-man roster).

You'll also learn The Secret to the game of basketballâ¦a lesson that's as applicable here as it is for business, friends, family, and life.

This book is perfect for long-time fans who will probably fall into two groups: 1) those who love it, and 2) those who are going to rant and rave about nitpicking 87 vs. 86 or 58 vs. 59 (not to mention, Wilt vs. Russell, Barkley vs. Malone, and Bird vs. Magic).

Itâs also the perfect gift for old fans who don't follow todayâs game; how does Jerry West fare against todayâs players? The Big O? Bernard King? Cousy, Hondo and the other great Celtics?

And itâs the perfect gift for new fans who want to learn more about the gameâs history; where does Kobe rank against the all-time greats? If LeBron got hit by a bus tomorrow, how do we view his career historically? What about Duncan and Garnett, or even Chris Paul or Dwight Howard?

This book gives you that context.

Getting back to where I started: it's a super-long book, but worth the time. For many, that's not an issue. For others, know that itâs structured in a way where you can absorb it piece by piece and will keep going back to it. You wonât lose your interest. And, at the end, youâll be happy you read it.(less)

like

· see review

Feb 25, 2011

Tony rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: awesome-books

What would possess me, a person who's interest in basketball never went beyond an admiration of Magic Johnson and a unfounded love for Dr. J and the 76ers, to read a 700 page book about the sport? Not even a history of the sport, nope, just a huge book about the NBA, why would I even remotely want to read this?

A couple of factor's worked in it's favor here. My relatively newly found love for sports (that would make 15 year old Tony stab me with a lightsaber). A desperate yearn to r...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jan 03, 2011

Matt rated it

Shelves: law-books

Ok this book was much larger than I ever thought it would be (700 pages), but was probably the quickest i ever got through 700 pages. Bill Simmons is a new-age sports journalist that avoids contact with the athletes themselves and writes from a fan's perspective using only common sense and his own observation to come to his conclusions. He also mixes in a heavy dose of popular culture references in his sports writing which makes him accesible to a wide range of fans and is probably one of the mo...more

like

· see review

Apr 12, 2010

Paul Mcleod rated it

When Chuck Klosterman and, of all intellectual giants, Bill Walton can destroy the theoretical foundation of your 700-page book's analysis in ten pages worth of cameos...well, it's probably asking too much for you to admit that you wasted the last two years of your life and start over from scratch, but that's probably what you should do. The Book of Basketball works alright as entertainment, though the expanded license for dick jokes fails to enhance Simmons' humor much, but as a work of analysi...moreWhen Chuck Klosterman and, of all intellectual giants, Bill Walton can destroy the theoretical foundation of your 700-page book's analysis in ten pages worth of cameos...well, it's probably asking too much for you to admit that you wasted the last two years of your life and start over from scratch, but that's probably what you should do. The Book of Basketball works alright as entertainment, though the expanded license for dick jokes fails to enhance Simmons' humor much, but as a work of analysis, it's a complete waste. In what field besides sports could someone claim to be an expert on a widely discussed subject without even attempting to engage the latest rigorous research devoted to it? Wait, Sarah Palin, don't answer that.

Most every potentially interesting position Simmons takes depends on just-so stories or special pleading or just plain circular logic. The Bill Russell vs Wilt Chamberlain chapter has been widely deplored, and rightfully so. I became viscerally angry as I read it. Most of the player-ranking section is less maddening, but the bit at the end in which Simmons ranks the top teams in NBA history sets our teeth to gritting once more. A more accurate and less risible version would've been called "Top NBA teams that Bill Simmons enjoyed watching or, having not been alive to see them, enjoys the idea of watching." Not a very interesting list, sure, but at least it would have been honestly labelled.

Nothing is as dumb as the Isiah Thomas / "The Secret" story, though (no, not that Secret. It's a different Secret that applies only to the NBA). He'd teased the story in his column for years, and I was fully prepared to have my mind blown. And then it turns out to be a fairly uneventful conversation between three minor celebrities about the fake almost-fight that two of them had, which culminates in the earth-rending revelation that BASKETBALL IS A TEAM SPORT. I could see how, if you were Bill Simmons, this whole episode might have seemed a bit surreal, but to a third party it's not that astonishing at all.

Or at least Simmons lacks the ability, even though he strains, to convey the surreality and astonishment to we the reading third parties. And that's the main problem: Bill Simmons is at best a competent writer. He's agreeably conversational for the most part, and he has excellent comic timing (although if you've read many of his columns you can anticipate his rhythms as they unfold by now), but eliciting emotional responses is beyond him and has always been. So is producing prose that is a pleasure to read just for its construction (a rare gift, sure, but one that Klosterman possesses so obviously that his one-page passage makes the text around it seem little but a vast ashen wasteland). Simmons knows this, and apologizes for it frequently, but the best apology would have been to abstain from mediocrity in the first place.(less)

like 4 likes

· see review

Mar 29, 2010

Blog on Books rated it

With the NCAA March Madness in full effect, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at one of the definitive books on basketball. And while Bill Simmons’ new brick is based on the NBA, the seasonal fanaticism of both worlds is equally intense.

Simmons has spent his life absorbing all things NBA from his childhood as a Boston Celtics fanatic (when Simmons was just five, his dad chose Celtics season tickets over a new motorcycle for his own birthday gift – which got young Simm...moreWith the NCAA March Madness in full effect, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at one of the definitive books on basketball. And while Bill Simmons’ new brick is based on the NBA, the seasonal fanaticism of both worlds is equally intense.

Simmons has spent his life absorbing all things NBA from his childhood as a Boston Celtics fanatic (when Simmons was just five, his dad chose Celtics season tickets over a new motorcycle for his own birthday gift – which got young Simmons on the path of early b-ball fandom) to his role as the ‘Sports Guy’ for ESPN.com. Now all those years of study have come together in the 715 page ‘The Book of Basketball.’
While there have been a number of books on the sport (though not nearly as many as the statistical analyser’s supreme sport of baseball) nowhere is there a book that disintermediates and reconstructs basketball legends, teams and statistics quite the way Simmons tears it apart. (“What if Memphis landed Lebron James instead of Cleveland?” “What if Len Bias hadn’t OD’d?” etc, etc…) Or as Simmons rightly contends, basketball is not a sport that can be properly judged by statistics alone.

The centerpiece of this book is Simmons re-configuration of the Basketball Hall of Fame. He evaluates its list of inductees and then reassembles them based on his four tiered ‘pyramid’ of ranking 96 players according to skills, stats and levels (and a few ‘what-ifs.’) In doing so, Simmons indulges everything from imaginary match-ups, a slew of little-known or largely forgotten facts, (like the Lakers emergency plane landing in a cornfield in 1960) a wide-array of bustable myths as well as looking at player’s performances through the unfiltered lens of history.

Simmons knowledge of the game is at an all time high – even with games played before he was born – which, Malcolm Gladwell in his brilliant introduction, credits to being able to review games in a room with five TV monitors and still getting away with calling it your ‘office.’ (Do we detect a tinge of jealousy here?)
On top of it all, Simmons, who also served as a writer on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, punctuates his analysis with a more than ample degree of humor (some of it just plain riotous) that few sports books ever embrace (Do not skip the footnotes – they are filled with phat gems.)

While the details of this book are far too voluminous to recount here, suffice to say, if you or someone near you qualifies as a basketball fanatic, this book is so packed with stories, histories, analysis and reconsiderations of everything NBA, you will be hard-pressed to consider yourself an authority without it. In a word: awesome.(less)

like

· see review

Feb 13, 2010

Daniel rated it

Recommends it for: sports fans, history buffs, Celtics fans

In the interest of complete disclosure, I have to say that I am one of the biggest fans of the NBA that you will find. I have been since about 1980 and I have a lot of useless basketball trivia floating around in my head. That said, I have nothing on Bill Simmons (though I would love to chat with him about it some day).

If you are a casual fan of the sport, this book is probably not for you except maybe for use as a sports reference book or some great bathroom fodder. It reads sort o...more

like 1 like

· see review

Feb 06, 2010

Nate Williams rated it

I was hoping for a more concise opinion on what makes basketball great, but this book was mostly entertaining, pretty informative, and definitely comprehensive, if you like professional basketball. I didn't realize the book would leave out the last 10 years of basketball.

I loved the descriptions on what makes basketball players and teams great, and what makes basketball great. And I learned about a lot of stars that influenced the game but were great in the days before I was born or ...more

like

· see review

Jan 28, 2010

Nick rated it

I am a fan of Bill Simmons' columns and podcasts. I also read his earlier book on the Boston Redsox.

Compared to his other work, this book was just a grind. I didn't read it so much as cross it off my todo list. At 700 pages, it is long, but I actually didn't notice myself watching the page number too much. It was more that the different rankings and lists just seem to go on forever. I also don't think the book turned out this way due to a lack of effort on Simmons' part. It just see...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jan 10, 2010

Hilary rated it

I have to confess that finishing this book felt like something of a chore. At 700 pages, you really have to love basketball, or Bill Simmons - or both - to get through it. I like basketball a lot, but I can't pretend to have followed it very closely, historically. The Book of Baseball would have been an easier read for me, because I already know more about the main characters. I started this months ago and plugged away, plugged away, finally devoting the better part of a weekend to finishing...moreI have to confess that finishing this book felt like something of a chore. At 700 pages, you really have to love basketball, or Bill Simmons - or both - to get through it. I like basketball a lot, but I can't pretend to have followed it very closely, historically. The Book of Baseball would have been an easier read for me, because I already know more about the main characters. I started this months ago and plugged away, plugged away, finally devoting the better part of a weekend to finishing it. I told myself, "You bought this book, now read it!"

And why did I buy it? I do love Bill Simmons. Or, at least, I did. I think I need a little break from him, for the time being. His writing is much better suited to (relatively) pithy internet columns. In this book, he makes too many jokes about his forthcoming Pulitzer for any of them to be very funny. And enough jokes about the inevitable publication of "The Second Book of Basketball" to make me nervous. I need a two-week vacation from any sentence beginning "The Mount Rushmore of [obscure pop culture reference:] would have to include...."

But he IS entertaining, and that's why I stuck with it. I definitely learned a lot about a sport of whose history I was fairly ignorant. The huge middle section of the book is devoted to the ranking - and detailed analysis - of the players Simmons deems the 96 greatest of all time. Ninety-six! (He's leaving room for four more to emerge in the modern era.) He starts with #96 and works his way up, so it was somewhere in the eighties that I lost steam and gave up for a while. However amusingly written, it is really hard to read pages and pages about Arvydas Sabonis and Cliff Hagan if you knew next to nothing about them, going into it. But once I renewed my commitment to finish the damn thing, his countdown grew more and more interesting, as we entered the territory of players with whom I was more familiar. A statistical comparison of Bailey Howell and Bobby Dandrige is tough going for me, but by the time I reached Simmons' Top 30 I was much more interested.

Here's the thing, though: Simmons ends his book by assembling - with the previous 650 pages as evidence - The Greatest Team of All Time. He's not just picking the twelve greatest players, of course, but the twelve who would best function together, complementing each other and assuring victory. And guess what? He picks all post-merger players. Going back to his Top 96 ranking, he included Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson and Moses Malone in his Top 12 "Pantheon" - but none of these merit inclusion on his Greatest Team Ever roster. Not even on the bench. The reason is obvious: we aren't confident that their game would translate to the modern era. I understand that, and I even agree. But what, then, is the point of ranking those top 96 all on one scale, if we're admittedly judging them on completely different criteria? And, since this list takes up 300+ pages, the obvious next question is: What is the point of this goddamn book?

Simmons finally comes close to offering an answer, in his epilogue: he visits Bill Walton at his San Diego home and, in the course of their conversation, Walton jokes about being known to later generations as "Luke's dad." Simmons is enraged, but his motivation for writing this book comes into clearer focus for me, as the reader. He just wants us to know and appreciate these guys. I don't know how many people will make it through the whole thing, but I appreciate what he's trying to do: pay homage to a sport's history, and to the men who helped it evolve.

Ultimately, I'd say that Simmons failed to convince me that lists like these - the bread and butter of his NBA columns - are anything less than wildly arbitrary. He does, however, provide a terrific reading list of the NBA-related books mentioned throughout his own, and once I finally feel the need to pick up a basketball book again, there are several on there I definitely want to check out. Just give me a couple of months.(less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Jan 01, 2010

Man Ching rated it

Shelves: ebook, ereader, sports, stanza

I read Bill Simmons’s The Book of Basketball. I enjoyed his book, as it is a fun survey of NBA history. The book isn’t just a numbers game or just breaking down plays. It includes enough human interest elements that it should appeal to a casual fan or diffident parties (like me; I can count the number of basketball games I’ve seen – TV or live – on both hands.) Simmons does a fantastic job of conveying his love of basketball. For me, he really brought different basketball eras to life, inserting...moreI read Bill Simmons’s The Book of Basketball. I enjoyed his book, as it is a fun survey of NBA history. The book isn’t just a numbers game or just breaking down plays. It includes enough human interest elements that it should appeal to a casual fan or diffident parties (like me; I can count the number of basketball games I’ve seen – TV or live – on both hands.) Simmons does a fantastic job of conveying his love of basketball. For me, he really brought different basketball eras to life, inserting comments from players, coaches, and sportswriters. He also seems fairly astute in breaking down plays and describing the flow of the game.

Yes, I bought the book because I think Bill Simmons’s writing. If you enjoy his blog, you will find that same breezy conversation style here. The man has a gift for dropping pop culture references and making it germane to his arguments. But what I like most is that he is earnest in trying to understand and to make his readers appreciate the people who play a game for a living.

His segment on Elgin Baylor was moving, in showing how racism affected this one man; in some ways, it was probably more effective than if he just talked in general terms about the 1960’s. His whole book works because it stays at the personal level. Even in his discussion of teams and individual players, he takes pains to discuss how this person was and is regarded by his peers and teammates.

In this way, I think Simmons did a fantastic job of making a case that basketball can contain as much historical perspective as baseball. This is something that should not have to be argued. Baseball has a lock on “the generational game by which history can be measured” status. What seems important is that there are human elements that make it accessible between generations: things like fathers taking their sons to the games, talking about the games and players, the excitement of watching breathtaking physical acts that expand how one views the human condition, and the joy and agony of championship wins and losses. While baseball’s slow pace lends itself to the way history moves one (periods where nothing seems to happen punctuated by drama), it doesn’t mean other things happen in a vacuum. Style of play, the way the players are treated, and the composition of the player demographic all reflect the times. These games can be a reflection of society, and one can see the influence of racial injustice in something as mundane as box scores as integration occurred.

Simmons blend basketball performance, its history, and its social environment of basketball effectively, some examples could be found in his discussion of Dr. J, Russell, Baylor, Kareem, and Jordan. In discussing why there probably won’t be another Michael Jordan (or Hakeem, or Kevin McHale), he takes inventive routes. Most of his points relate to societal/basketball environment pressures. Players are drafted sooner, the high pay scale for draft picks lower motivation to prove their worth, and perhaps society itself would actively discourage players from behaving as competitively as Jordan did. I suppose it’s interesting, but I’m not sure if that matters so much if the player is perceived to be an excellent player. Regardless, it seems to me that Simmons has been thinking about these things for some time. And I found it fun to read his take on basketball.

And I liked this book because it gives the lie to the weird view that someone who hasn’t done something cannot make reasonable, intelligent statements about it. Simmons wasn’t a professional basketball player, but he certainly uses every resource available to absorb the history and characters populating the game. He read a fair bit, he watched and rewatched games, he talked to players, he talked to people who covered basketball and he watched some more. And he isn’t afraid to raise issues that occur to readers; you’ll see what I mean when you read his footnotes.

The book (and his podcast) confirms my opinion of Simmons as the smart friend who’d be a blast to have (one who bleeds Celtics green, watches sports for a living, and must keep up with Hollywood gossip, gambles, and pop culture because it gives him ammunition for columns).

***

There are some issues with the book, mainly in how statistical analysis of basketball is portrayed. I should be upfront and say that these issues did not detract from his arguments (for reasons that will be clear later), but I wish he would reconcile eyeball and statistical information. And because I’ve decided one focus of this blog should be how non-scientists deal with science (and scientists), I thought I should offer some thoughts on some of these issues.

If you wish to continue reading, you can go to http://notimetoread.wordpress.com/2010/0...(less)

like

· see review

Dec 18, 2009

Jake rated it

Here's the problem with being a huge fan of a prolific columnist: When you've read every single word a guy has squeaked out for 7-plus years, you start to know all his (or her, I suppose) jokes, all their beats and all their tendencies. You lose the element of surprise.

So when it was announced that The Sports Guys new basketball book was more than 700 pages, I cringed. Not sure if I could take that many pages of Karate Kid jokes and Celtics handjobs. My infatuation with the guy has d...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Dec 14, 2009

Joe rated it

Wow. Simmons' masterpiece. An exhaustive and very readable book about the NBA. Extremely thoroughly researched, he ranks the 96 top players in NBA history, giving a slightly nonsensical explanation of why he chose the number 96. The ranking is the centerpiece of his new vision for the basketball hall of fame--a vision which would almost certainly make it the greatest of all sporting halls of fame. Even if you disagree with his arguments, you cannot disagree with the level of his research. ...more

like

· see review

Dec 12, 2009

Brett rated it

Ok, so I'm a huge Bill Simmons fan, between his columns and his podcast. I'm a decent NBA fan, following it from afar during the season and closer during the playoffs. I much prefer the NFL. However, a book about basketball now and in the past is probably more interesting than just about any other sport, and having Simmons do the work makes is much more interesting than just about anything else.

The premise is this: how do teams and players over the past 50 years of the NBA really ...more

like

· see review

Dec 05, 2009

Andrew rated it

It's incredibly entertaining at best, infuriating and a drunken digression at others. Simmons views himself as an expert, and that comes through on every page - whether in his decision that John Stockton played in era of "inflated assists" or his condemnation of the last twenty minutes of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. He's just not that smart, frankly. In both cases, he makes specious claims and then moves on to more specious claims or backs them up with statistics that are supposed to be ta...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Nov 18, 2009

Jan rated it

This highly entertaining book is many things: a fan's love letter to his favorite sport (and the players and teams who made it so), an attempt to place professional basketball in the cultural (and racial) landscape of twentieth century America, and an attempt to settle arguments about what matters on the basketball court.

Bill Simmons is successful on the first two counts, but is tenuous on the third. The first is the emotion of the fan's experience; there are passages that sent shiv...moreThis highly entertaining book is many things: a fan's love letter to his favorite sport (and the players and teams who made it so), an attempt to place professional basketball in the cultural (and racial) landscape of twentieth century America, and an attempt to settle arguments about what matters on the basketball court.

Bill Simmons is successful on the first two counts, but is tenuous on the third. The first is the emotion of the fan's experience; there are passages that sent shivers down my spine, particularly about the nearly indescribable feeling of watching someone like Michael Jordan or Larry Bird walk into a packed basketball stadium with very little doubt as to who would win the game in the end. The second refers to both the author's facility with pop culture references and analogies, which provoke genuine laughter page after page, but also the league's impact on the American consciousness as it has evolved since the 1950's.

Simmons provides insights into players' psychology and experience, mainly to try to explain the Secret of basketball, which is that team play and unselfishness trump ball-hogging and stats in a sport which often seems to revolve around individual excellence. Can we really say that a player like Wilt Chamberlain was great when he often obsessed over reaching various statistical milestones rather than willing his team to win at all costs? What if his teammates considered him a pain to play with, and being around him often made the game more difficult?

On an emotional level, all of these arguments make great sense, which to me invalidates the central structure of the book, which is a comprehensive ranking of the greatest NBA players from 1-96 (in addition to the best teams). As Simmons says himself, there have been maybe fifteen players who have understood the Secret. That's it. An ordered ranking of these players seems like splitting hairs, and it distracts from the central pleasure of the Book of Basketball: a steady stream of great anecdotes about inhuman talents, flashy dunkers, the kinds of men who couldn't bear anything but winning, and those who could never quite push themselves to lift the veil.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 09, 2009

David rated it

Excellent book. I wasn't familiar with this guy but plan to start checking out his column on the web. A true NBA mega-fanatic of about the same age as me, biased toward the Celtics (he names '86 Celtics ahead of '96 Bulls as best team ever, which I agree with but which I suspect would be a minority view), so a lot of his comments/analyses are simpatico.

700 pages with about 1000 footnotes might seem like a bit much, but his 96 thru 1 countdowns of best players ever, 20 through 1 of ...more

like

· see review

Nov 08, 2009

Patrick rated it

You need to have your YouTube page up and running when you're reading this so you can check out all the references Simmons makes. From the Hawks celebrating when Larry Bird makes an impossible shot against them to Gabe Kaplan in Battle of the Network Stars, you'll be marveling at the twin towers of sports and pop culture that Simmons knows so very, very well.

Simmons entertains and instructs like no other sports columnist today. Whether making pronouncements or asides, raising or sett...more

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 09, 2011

Michael Nahmias rated it

This book is entertaining. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants an entertaining book about basketball. However, if someone wants an objective, encyclopedic account on the history of the sport, well... it would be for the best that I steer them elsewhere. Simmons writes from the fan experience, which makes sense because he is a basketball fan (or addict, to be more accurate). When he discusses players, games or eras, he simply cannot provide all the minute insights that a player wo...more

like

· see review

Apr 08, 2010

Dkmoorhead rated it

Picture the following scenario...your favorite blogger or web columnist decides essentially take a year off from blogging, only the keep writing about the one subject they truly know anything about. Only instead of writing about a bunch of other stuff too, they focus on that one thing and go vertical on you, writing more expansively about the history of that subject and not just what's happening today. Also, they can swear and openly discuss porn.

Now imagine that what came out of tha...more

like

· see review

Dec 03, 2011

Joyce added it

In the midst of one of the NBA's periodic dry spells, the long-time fan finds comfort and refreshment by going to the well of the past every so often. Bill Simmons's book is perfect for someone from Gen X like me, who lived through the great era of the sport stretching from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Michael Jordan. I sort of wonder how relevant the meat of this book -- Simmons' list of the greatest players of pro basketball -- would seem to younger fans who maybe have never even seen video of Moses...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jan 06, 2011

Stephen rated it

· review of another edition

Bill Simmons is "The Sports Guy" from espn.com. I first started reading his columns in the early 2000s when Page 2 had a great line up of Ralph Wiley (who wrote beautifully about baseball), The Sports Guy, Gregg Easterbrook (very smart), and Hunter S. Thompson (yes Gonzo who would write an occasional piece). He was just one writer amongst those guys, but he was somehow more adept at the new media and became one of the most popular sports writers of the 2000's. He had a similar backg...more

like

· see review

title link	preview: The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy
avg rating	preview: The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy Goodreads rating: 4.03 (3104 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4452257-the-book-of-basketball?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320424763m/4452257.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4452257-the-book-of-basketball?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy by Bill Simmons[/url]

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

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (3)

Genres

Readers Also Enjoyed

Books by Bill Simmons

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Book of Baske...

Quotes from The Book of Basketball...

Groups That Shelved The Book of Baske...