The Franchise by Cameron Stauth - The Franchise follows Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, Bill Laimbeer, Chuck Daly, and the Bad Boy Pistons team. More specifically, the book follows “Trader” Jack McCloskey, the mastermind GM behind the Bad Boy success who later would become (in)famous in Minnesota for drafting Christian Laettner, JR Rider, and Donyell Marshall. During his three years in Minnesota, the Wolves went 56-190. But that’s neither here nor there.

The Franchise is the story of the 1988-1989 Pistons. In the 1988 Finals, the Pistons were one call and/or one basket away from a championship in game 6. Unfortunately for Pistons fans, the Lakers won game six and closed them out in game 7 for their fourth championship of the 80s. Sick of being “the bridesmaid”, the Pistons set their sights on finally going out and getting the championship. There never has been a team like the Detroit Pistons before and really hasn’t since. In the past, every team has had a dominant force in the middle. The Pistons were built around star (but not super-duper-star) point guard Isiah Thomas. Joe Dumars was a solid defender who could score. Bill Laimbeer was the most hated player in the league for his antics, but he could step out and hit open jumpers and rebound. Dennis Rodman was just coming into his own as a defender and rebounder. One of the best scorers in NBA history – Adrian Dantley (which is one of the coolest names to say out loud… try it once) – was traded for Mark Aguirre during the season because of worries about team chemistry. Rick Mahorn provided laughs, rebounding, and a bit of a thuggish reputation.

If you’re a basketball fan, this is one of the first “follow a team for a full season and tell the behind the scenes story” type of book a la the modern “7 Seconds or Less.” Being more of a Bulls fan than a Pistons fan, I still found the story interesting. I’d definitely recommend this book to b-ball fans especially those who were around in the late-80s.

Shooting Stars by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger - The LeBron James high school story – as told by LeBron himself. I was really excited to get this book. The guy responsible for Friday Night Lights helping to write a story about my favorite current basketball player… how could this possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, I felt like this book just didn’t quite measure up. Maybe it’s because I read a bunch of great basketball books right around the same time, but this one didn’t give us the true behind the scenes story but more like “…here’s about 80% of the story, but I won’t get into the details.” Those of you who have seen the ESPN movie “Season on a Brink” starring Tom Callahan Sr. as Bobby Knight and also read the great John Feinstein book may be able to relate. The book is a solid 9-10. It gives you a lot of insight behind the motivations of Knight and the reaction of his players, media, and fans. The movie just kind of gives you big Tom Sr. yelling a lot but it misses out on all of the details.

In his defense, I feel like if I had to write a book about my high school playing days, I’d probably feel like I wasn’t telling the whole story either. A lot of the day-to-day details that make a book like “The Franchise” or “7 Seconds or Less” great are recorded “in the now” rather than four to six years after the fact.

There are some interesting stories in here. “The Hummer” incident doesn’t get that much attention here, but the throwback jersey incident and subsequent suspension get quite a bit of attention. I’m glad I read the book, but I do feel like I don’t know LeBron James any better than I did before. I was looking a little bit for how did you go from a typical 10-year old to possibly the best sophomore in high school history. Instead, we get tidbits from him talking about teammates getting bigger and (paraphrasing here) “Oh by the way… I was turning into quite a player, too.” I always felt like the Jordan we thought we knew is completely different than the real Michael Jordan once some behind the scenes stories came out. I feel the same here… LeBron is painting a somewhat idealized painting of himself and his team here, but at no point during the book did I feel like I was reading the authentic story of why LeBron is who he is today. Maybe worth checking out from a library if you need a basketball fix, but overall, it’s a disappointing story.

Art of a Beautiful Game by Chris Ballard - I feel like this book is going a little under the radar. In the past 10 years, I’d say the only basketball books that have really made a rumble in the media are Jack McCallum’s “7 Seconds or Less” and Bill Simmons’ “The Book of Basketball.” This book easily should be mentioned among the best books ever written about basketball. In case you are skimming this, let me highlight one word so it stands out. This book easily should be mentioned among the best books ever written about basketball. Much was made of the article Michael Lewis (author of Money Ball and current box office hit “The Blind Side”) wrote about Shane Battier. Ballard’s writing about Shane is hands down more in-depth and much more interesting to the everyday basketball fan.

I also have to confess. After reading the first chapter of the book… I’m a Kobe fan. No lie. Brent Hanson (aka the biggest Kobe Hater for the past 13 years) has taken a huge interest in Kobe. I’ve heard 13 years of Kobe stories, but not once have I seen anything as good as what Ballard captured in the book. I’ll actually put it out here – we NEED Ballard to write the definitive Kobe Bryant biography when it’s all said and done. If you aren’t sure whether or not you need to read this book, I challenge you to head to Barnes and Noble and read the first chapter about Kobe. Then set the book down and walk away. I guarantee that you won’t be able to do it.

What makes “Art of a Beautiful Game” different is that instead of asking what I have come to call “stupid reporter questions”, it addresses actual basketball. Confused… here’s a dumb example how I can explain the difference:
Stupid Reporter Question: With 7 seconds on the clock, what were you thinking? (Obvious cliché athlete answer is going to be “look for my shot,” “look for my teammate”, “look at what the defense is giving us”, etc.)
The Art of Basketball would ask a question more like “I noticed that you forced Brandon Roy left all night. What was the reasoning behind that?” Or… asking a three point specialist “You sat on the bench for 47 minutes and came in to knock down the game winning shot cold… how do you prepare yourself to come in cold and still be able to find your shot.” See the difference?

Anyway, if you are a fan of basketball and you don’t buy this book, you are doing yourself a huge disservice. I bet anything that I will re-read this book within the next six months. It’s that good.

The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith - Part of me is glad that I didn’t read this book as an 8th grader. It probably would’ve been kind of defeating to me finding out my hero was… well, a bit of an egocentric butthole. It probably been the real life equivalent to finding Superman was really just Clark Kent. Looking back on things, in 1990, here’s a list of who probably were my favorite athletes and what’s went wrong in the past 20 years:
Kirby Puckett – accused of dragging a woman into a bathroom, completely let himself go, and ultimately died at an extremely young age.
Michael Jordan – There’s the gambling. $168 million divorce settlement. Messed up the Wizards. The embarrassing hall of fame speech.
Magic Johnson – actually, other than contracting HIV, he’s been one of the most normal of the athletes on the list. Who’d have guessed almost 20 years ago that one of the first high profile athletes to contract this “killer” disease was going to be one of the most normal. Hulk Hogan – Steroids. Hanging around entirely too long. An embarrassing reality show. Hollywood Hogan. Again, hanging around entirely too long. The apparently suicidal thoughts.
Ultimate Warrior - The webpage. Changing his legal name to “Warrior.” The videos. Maybe the nuttiest guy on the list (that’s saying a ton).
Jose Canseco – Steroids. Ridiculous (although seemingly accurate) tell-all book. A more embarrassing book by his ex-wife. Boxing Danny Bonaduce and Via Sikahema. Fighting Hong Man Choi. The baseball in the face homerun. Hanging on entirely too long.
Mike Tyson – This was the scariest dude alive. I think anyone under the age of 22 completely forgets this. Now, he’s a compete joke. In 1990, he was scarier than anyone alive.
Lawrence Taylor – Drugs and alcohol. Three marriages. Seems to have somewhat put his life together. Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Barry Sanders – seemingly normal.

Long story, but basically, all of my favorite athletes as a kid turned out to be just chock full of demons. I could expand this list to celebrities and musicians (1990 – think MC Hammer, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Axl Rose, Mariah Carey, Vanilla Ice, and Motley Crue were all big around this time).

Back to the Jordan Rules. The book became infamous in 1993 when it came out because it painted Jordan in a little less than the squeaky clean light that we were accustomed to seeing him in. That being said, I still can appreciate Michael Jordan “The Competitor” even if Michael Jordan “The Human Being” is a bit disappointing. It was interesting to see “pre-championship” Phil Jackson and how he’s seemingly changed. I also really enjoyed Horace Grant, Scottie Pippen, and some of the minor players (Hodges, Paxon, and especially Bill Cartwright). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s hard to go wrong with a “follow a team for a full season” book. There are so many interesting stories. In fact, I’ve many times thought that a book about a season of the high school basketball team that I coach could be really interesting. Of course, there is a bit of disappointment from looking behind the curtain. There is a famous saying by Otto von Bismark “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” I’d imagine that the same could be said about professional sports.

In the end, this is one of my favorite books that I’ve ever read. I’m a lifetime b-ball fan. The Chicago Bulls are the team of my childhood and my favorite team of all-time. I loved watching Michael in the half-court and Scottie run the break. If you were a Bulls fan back in the day (and by the way, who wasn’t?!?), do yourself a favor and pick up the paperback copy for a couple bucks. Find a sunny beach or chair by the fire and allow yourself a good 4-5 hours.