This is an excellent book. It is well-researched and covers a wide range of NBA history. I am glad Simmons did not overlook history from the pre-Magic/Bird era. Basketball history is all too often treated as if it began in 1980 and "really" began during the Jordan era.

The book starts with recounting his experiences watching games at the old Boston Garden as a child. This serves to explain why he developed a lifelong love for the game of basketball. In it he recounts some great Celtics moments, the thrill of watching a historic sports moment occur in person. The first chapter does a good job in setting the table for the rest of the book.

The second chapter recounts an interesting encounter with Isiah Thomas. During it Simmons discovers "The Secret." This becomes a recurring theme throughout the book. The basic concept is being willing to sacrifice individual glory and stats for the sake of the team and winning. Players who adhered to it, are spoken of highly in the book. Those who did not are heavily criticized.

The third chapter compares Wilt and Russell. Simmons completely demolishes Wilt and some common myths surrounding him. I have watched basketball since I was 10 and I was shocked to hear how selfish Wilt was. Wilt and Russell were total opposites. All Wilt cared about was stats; all Russell cared about was winning. Wilt vs. Russell, aside from being one of the classic basketball debate topics, serves as the prime study of the value of "The Secret."

Simmons then recounts the early history of the NBA and ABA. He does a good job of discussing the shaky state of basketball at the time.

The weakest section of the book is the MVP section. That said, it is still very good. In it he discusses several close MVP races and gives his take on who he believes should have won and why. The best thing about this section is it explains who was important in a given year and gives some background on what happened in a given year. This was especially illuminating regarding the older eras of basketball. Why do I believe it was the weakest part of the book? Every season there are three or four players with strong cases for being MVP. In my opinion, you cannot really have a "wrong" MVP choice since there is never a player with a far better case than the other candidates. It is the MVP award, not the best player award.

The best portion of the book is the Hall of Fame section. In it he argues for a new Hall of Fame shaped like a pyramid. The new HOF would have five levels to distinguish between various levels of players with a cutoff guy serving as the measuring stick for inclusion at the next level. His proposal also includes recognizing pioneers, key role players, and comets (players who were on track to be Hall of Famers but did not make it due to injury or other reasons). 96 players made his HOF and he does an excellent job giving a feel for who each player was, how he played, and why he is important to basketball history. My only problem with it is he does not explain why he decided to rank players where he did. I don't expect him to give us an in-depth explanation of why a player was 58th and another 45th but when it came to the top five I believe he should have given better explanations of his reasoning (especially keeping Shaq out of the top ten. Citing his laziness does not suffice. He had top five impact and a top five career despite it.) He explained why he had Magic over Bird, Jordan over Russell but he never explained why Kareem was third, not first or second, why Magic was behind Kareem, etc. This section would have been an A plus if he did this. Still, it is a very good A minus.

He closes the book with sections on the best teams in history and then created a hypothetical "all-time" team of greats. These chapters are good and he provides his reasoning for ranking a team where he did.

The book is chock full of pop culture references and footnotes. Many of the footnotes contain valuable information, some don't but some of those are worth reading for a humorous pop culture reference. The text itself has many pop culture references. Again, some are hilarious and some miss the mark. What do you expect? This is a book by Bill Simmons, not a Harvard professor.

All in all this is an excellent, quick read (so don't be daunted by its length) that all basketball fans should read.