What do you think?
Rate this book
The Encyclopedia of Pro Basketball Team Histories
Providing a comprehensive history of all past and present NBA teams, a leading basketball historian focuses on franchise histories, brings hometown teams to life, and includes a survey of the careers of the twelve greatest players in NBA history.
533 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1994
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 22, 2009
This book is out of print, but you would definitely want it if you are a student of professional basketball history or if you want to be one. It's crammed with statistics, with the history of every existing NBA franchise through the 1993-94 season, and with the histories of several other American pro basketball leagues that no longer exist.
I had never heard of the author, Dr. Peter Bjarkman, and still know nothing about him; but in reading this book, you will notice he is opinionated and is iconoclastic in some of his NBA views. The main thing is, he firmly insists that Michael Jordan is not the best NBA basketball player ever, merely the most popular, and he claims that the best ever was...well, read it.
It doesn't prevent the book from being very informative, but I must also say that this is one of the worst-written nonfiction books I've ever seen, and certainly the most poorly edited I've ever seen. Spelling errors are frequent (he says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore "gloggles"!), and the writing is as melodramatic as a second-rate sports commentator's speech. Bjarkman uses phrases like "best player on the planet," "Dr. Naismith's roundball game," and "best player ever to take to the hardwood floor," and "oh how different it would have been on down Arizona way" (referring to the notorious hard luck of the Phoenix Suns franchise).
I had never heard of the author, Dr. Peter Bjarkman, and still know nothing about him; but in reading this book, you will notice he is opinionated and is iconoclastic in some of his NBA views. The main thing is, he firmly insists that Michael Jordan is not the best NBA basketball player ever, merely the most popular, and he claims that the best ever was...well, read it.
It doesn't prevent the book from being very informative, but I must also say that this is one of the worst-written nonfiction books I've ever seen, and certainly the most poorly edited I've ever seen. Spelling errors are frequent (he says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore "gloggles"!), and the writing is as melodramatic as a second-rate sports commentator's speech. Bjarkman uses phrases like "best player on the planet," "Dr. Naismith's roundball game," and "best player ever to take to the hardwood floor," and "oh how different it would have been on down Arizona way" (referring to the notorious hard luck of the Phoenix Suns franchise).
May 31, 2011
This book is great if you want to learn about all of the amazing team and players that have come through the NBA. It gives you many stats and pictures about the journey teams have taken to be called a legendary team. This book looks at some of the best players, and it talks about how that player led their team in many years of playing the game. It also talks about leagues that were created before the NBA and gives many statistics about each and every team. This book only goes to 1994 but I think that those were some of the best times of the league. The competition was much better and there were much better players for the time than there are now. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in basketball, and all who play basketball. I am still reading it and I look forward to completing it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews