By Bob Wallace
The Book of Basketball by “The Sports Guy” Bill Simmons should be read by every professional basketball player, coach, both college and pro, any other aspiring basketball player, or any one who represents one or the other. In a little over 700 pages, Simmons explains the “The Secret,” or the understanding of what it takes to not only be a great player but a great winner. He details what makes Larry Bird, Bill Russell (there is an admitted and unmistakable Celtics bias), Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan rank 5, 2, 4 and 1 respectively in his “Pyramid Pantheon” of the NBA’s greatest, and he does it with statistics, anecdotes and humor.
The book is opinionated and very long, but for the basketball aficionado it is a great and informative read. As mentioned above, there is a definite Celtic bias as he ranks the 1986 Celtics’ team the greatest of all time and he is a little harsh, for my taste, on his number 3 ranked player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who he calls a ninny. But the book is insightful and funny. He ranks NBA players from 96 (Tom Chambers) to 1 (obviously, Michael Jordan) and bases his rankings on statistics, impact on the game and winning. His detailed analysis of the difference between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell is spot on and despite his dislike for Kareem recognizes his extended greatness. He appreciates Moses Malone’s (#13) rebounding dominance, Jerry West’s clutch ability and refuses to yet crown Lebron James (#20) over great players from the past like John Havileck (#14), Elgin Baylor (#15) or Julius Erving (#16). He gives proper, if in my opinion, under-rated respect to Oscar Robertson (#10) and his discussion of the difference between West (#9) and the Big O is compelling even if in your rankings you would switch the numbers.
The book, however, is more than just an encyclopedia of basketball history and statistics. Simmons is not afraid to deal with the subject of race in both a serious and humorous way. He does not back away from the perceived if not real quota system or the racial biases people bring into one’s evaluation of a player’s ability. He does not minimize the impact of racism and the treatment each suffered on the psyche or personalities of Baylor, Russell, Robertson or Jabbar, and he does not ignore how race may have figured into certain MVP decisions.
But what made this book truly special was Simmons’ sense of humor and use of footnotes. There are too many footnotes, but to really enjoy the book and not miss some very keen observations you need to read them all. If not, you will miss such gems as his explanation of the “Tipping Point Friend” (p. 261, footnote 62), which is illuminating about human behavior even if only remotely related to basketball; or where he compares Malone’s beat down of Jabbar in the 1981 playoffs with a Good Will Hunting scene (p. 539, fn 2).
If you are a follower of Simmons’ “The Sports Guy” columns or his newly launched website Grantland you will not be surprised that this book is very funny and you will catch yourself chuckling often. He is irreverent and his observation and comparison skills uncanny. For instance when he is talking about the wonderful career of JoJo White (#95), and writes “Two things stood out other than his playoff heroics and overwhelming evidence that he may have knocked up Esther Rolle to create David Ortiz”, how can you not laugh at that prospect.
I am not saying that this book is the great American novel, but for those of us in the sports world this book provides an understanding of what it takes to be a great player and winner.
Bob Wallace has spent the last 30 years as a front office executive for three NFL Franchises. The outgoing President of the Sports Lawyers Association has entered private practice focusing on sports, business consultation and mediations. A graduate of Yale and Georgetown University Law Center, he can be reached at bwallacelaw@earthlink.net
