The book of basketball : the NBA according to the sports guy /
Bill Simmons.
- New York : Ballantine/ESPN Books, 2010.
- xiii, 734 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Newly updated with fresh takes on Lebron, Kobe, The Celtics and more.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [705]-706) and index.
The secret -- Russell, then Wilt -- How the hell did we get here? -- The what-if game -- Most valuable chapter -- The Hall of Fame pyramid -- The pyramid: level 1 -- The pyramod: level 2 -- The pyramid: level 3 -- The pyramid: level 4 -- The pyramid: pantheon -- The legend of Keyser söze -- The wine cellar -- Life after the secret.
Bill Simmons, the wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining hoops addict known to millions as ESPN.com's Sports Guy, has written the definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA. From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens -and then closes, once and for all- every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons's one-of-a-kind five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball. Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The book of basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.