Like stumbling across Roadhouse on late-night cable: It may induce the occasional wince, but it’s nearly impossible not to...
ESPN columnist and pop-culture maven Simmons (Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN’s Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox, 2005) strives to write the definitive NBA retrospective.
Longtime fans of the wildly popular, sometimes controversial Sports Guy will find a new wrinkle in his magnum opus—an overutilized freedom to indiscriminately use expletives. Otherwise, this doorstop of a book functions as an (extremely) extended version of the author’s column: a hodgepodge of basketball minutiae, brazen but insightful and occasionally contentious declarations and 1980s movies references. Passion drips off the page like beads of sweat as the author presents topics ranging from a breakdown of why 11-time champ Bill Russell was superior to stat machine Wilt Chamberlain (his 20,000 bedroom conquests notwithstanding), to a proposal for a pyramid-shaped NBA Hall of Fame. Throughout the 700 pages, Simmons displays an impressive acuity for cogent analysis and proves himself the undisputed champion of killing jokes so many times over that they ultimately become funny again. The HOF pitch constitutes the book’s centerpiece, with stars past and present meticulously assigned to echelons of increasing prestige based on their talent and achievements. By judging players on whether or not, in his estimation, they understood “The Secret”—a desire to sacrifice personal statistics for the sake of team success and championships—Simmons sets himself up for a round of backlash from fans and players alike. However, even if readers take umbrage with his rankings or irreverence, there’s no denying that he has achieved exactly what his hypothetical HOF would set out to do—honor the league’s colorful history and pay homage to the players (some pioneers, some selfish and self-destructive, some transcendent icons) who made professional basketball a global phenomenon.
Like stumbling across Roadhouse on late-night cable: It may induce the occasional wince, but it’s nearly impossible not to get sucked in and keep coming back for more.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-345-51176-8
Page Count: 736
Publisher: ESPN Books/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2009
A sunny, refreshing season of pro basketball in the Lega Pallenestro Italiano. Depressed, recently divorced, disillusioned, and fed up with the arrogance and cynicism of American sports, Oregon sportswriter Patton jumped at the chance to spend 1992 in Italy. Based in Bologna, the 32-team Lega Pallenestro plays a 30-game schedule. The lega champion goes on to play in the European Cup tournament, but there is also a complicated system of international tournaments and playoffs. Each team is allowed two stranieri, or foreigners. Many of these are former NBA players such as Darryl ``Chocolate Thunder'' Dawkins and former Detroit Piston ``bad boy'' Rick Mahorn. Cut by the Il Messagero team (ostensibly for a locker-room tantrum, though some claim he'd become ``fat and lazy'') just a few days before Patton arrived, Mahorn was proof that NBA fringe players ``don't automatically become stars in Italy.'' (Mahorn, however, finished 1994 with the New Jersey Nets and his old coach, Chuck Daly.) While the author spends a lot of time with the Americans, he also profiles Italian stars such as il monumento nationale, 69'' Dino Meneghin, who, at 43, was playing his 27th season at pivot, center. ``Italy's greatest player,'' Meneghin led Varese to seven championships in his first ten years in the league and then won five more with the Milan team. There's also C'e solo un (the one and only) Roberto Brunamonti, slick point guard for Knorr Bologna, and his suave coach, Ettore Messina, who, when talking basket, will blithely refer to Saint Sebastian and his favorite Greek mythological heroes. Patton's descriptions of the often ineptly played games (``You see shots there's no name for'') and the boisterous, lewdly chanting crowds are a delight. Well flavored with wonderful passages on the foods, the people, the travel from village to city, and the joys and frustrations of daily life in a foreign land. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-86849-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sharp, affectionate portrait—in words and stunning photographs—of prizefighters in their milieu. Photojournalist Schulman started shooting fighters in the early 1980s, when she covered the Kid Gloves at Madison Square Garden for ABC. She has since taken her camera to the famous, grimy gyms of the boxing world from New York to San Francisco, from the Dominican Republic to Ghana—large or small, decrepit or modern, ``the smell of ancient sweat is the same.'' Her visits include the Gramercy Gym on 14th Street, where Gus D'Amato trained Floyd Patterson and Jose Torres; the Kronk Gym in Detroit, home to Thomas Hearns and Evander Holyfield; Miami's Fifth Street Gym where Angelo Dundee worked Willie Pastrano and Muhammad Ali ``entertained'' Howard Cosell; and back to New York for peeks inside Stillman's and Gleason's, where names such as Joe Louis, Rocky Graziano, Kid Gavilan, Jake LaMotta, and Roberto Duran are more than mere legend. She takes a quick look at a few of the legendary matches: Jack Dempsey vs. Gene Tunney; Ali's battles with Joe Frazier; the Duran- Sugar Ray Leonard saga; and the feisty Alexis Arguello-Aaron Pryor matchups. She offers incisive comments and profiles of dozens of fighters, from long-retired light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore to the little guys, barely 10, who box wearing gloves too large for their hands; from the great to the near-great, to those who made a career of standing up long enough to give the contenders a workout. There are success stories: Larry Holmes, Azumah Nelson, Roberto Duran. And sad stories: Leon Spinks, Aaron Pryor. There's also a touching portrait of trainer Ray Arcel, whose 20 champions over 65 years ranged from Tony Zale to the still-fighting Holmes. Boxing may or may not be ``a sport where the rewards outweigh the risks,'' but Schulman goes a long way toward putting a human— if battered—face on a profession long in disrepute. (100 b&w photos)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-55821-309-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Lyons Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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