- The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons
As far as a generation of aspiring sports journalists is concerned, Bill Simmons has the dream job.
He is paid to spout his opinions about sports. His research seems to consist of watching a lot of games, although, when pressed, he’ll acknowledge that he’s a veritable doctoral candidate regarding the examination of tapes of players he’s too young to have seen.
In The Book of Basketball, the role of woman is played by angry and distracting girlfriend or wife, stripper, or eye candy…never by athlete. But at his best, Simmons is thoughtful and provocative. He’s certainly opinionated, but few sportswriters back up their opinions so exhaustively.
The people who hang on every word of his ESPN.com work will love The Book of Basketball, as will anyone with a voracious appetite for basketball stats and an endless capacity for arguments about which players and teams were better than various other players and teams, and why.
That was a great topic and interview. Why can’t you stream the audio so I can send it to a friend.
I missed this too (hopefully my mom heard it) and then saw it mentioned on espn.com. I think a lot of people who read espn.com and don’t listen to NPR regularly would like a chance to hear this.
Sorry it wasn’t immediately available, but the audio is streaming now. Enjoy!
As soon as I heard this piece, I went straight to amazon and ordered it for my 38-year-old son for Christmas, who still plays in a league. His dad had indoctrinated him in basketball almost from birth, and now is getting regular reviews as the son makes his way thru the book–the part about Danny Ainge contriving to best an old free-throw record, and Simmons’ list of the top 96 basketball players of all time have stimulated some quality father-son bonding. As the mom who bought the book, it has made my heart sing.