I love to read. Everyday when I get home from my workout routine I have to make a decision: Read, play video games, or watch TV. Depending on my mood and my conscience I always try to bury myself in a book. I am about three-quarters through the Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons. I have been reading BS since the early aughts when I was still in college and he wasn't prominently featured on the front page of ESPN. His writing is witty, sometimes intelligent and insightful, and always riddled with pop references. We agree on two things (which is why I still read his articles and bought this book):
1. The NBA is awesome and a collection of the most amazing athletes on the planet and
2. Shows like the Jersey Shore and Road Rules vs. Real World are incredibly and unendingly entertaining. Every year I think it will be my last season watching these shows and every year they pull me back in with their mix of ridiculous binge drinking and physical challenges. Anyways, the BOB has proven to be very interesting even if there is a limited amount of new information in it. Simmons discusses many players I have heard of but know little about (Gervin, Frazier, Cousy, pretty much anyone pre 1989) and never misses an opportunity to plug his Celtics. The writing is not at a very high level and there are more typos than a book of this magnitude should have (on the NY Times bestseller list for months) but it is still a compelling read.
I think the thing that I most enjoy is getting into the history of a sport that is not as well known as the other major American sports. Due to a number of issues (many detailed in David Halberstam's excellent The Breaks of the Game, which happens to be the basis for everything Simmons believes regarding the NBA) the NBA was not a popular league until the early 80s. This means there are few tapes of classic players (there is no video of Wilt's 100 point game and very little tape of a young Russell) and old school games are never televised; not to mention that the tapes that do exist are never on ESPN classic. Compare this to baseball and football's well publicized and recorded histories as America's pastimes and you can understand why a basketball fan would enjoy Simmon's tome.
If you enjoy the history of basketball, reading about its players, and you do not feel the need to be challenged by a book, The Book of Basketball is right for you.
that's a lot of words and a teeny picture.
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