<u>:07 Seconds or Left-</u>Background: The foundation of this book is that a writer for SI decides to ask the Phoenix Suns if he could be an "assistant coach" for the Suns during training camp. That role basically meant he'd spend a lot of time with the coaches, given total access of all the facilities and meetings, rode on the busses and planes, hung out with coaches and players at the restaurants and when they generally were just laying around, etc... It went well, he wrote an article in SI, and then he was asked to make a book out of it. So he went back to Mike D'Antoni and asked if he could stay the season, and Mike was absolutely fine with it. The book starts off with the post-game meeting after the Suns lost to Dallas in game 6 of the WCF. It sets a great mood for the book. The rest of the bookis all about the playoffs, with chapters inbetween some of the games to bring up an important part of the season for the team/a certain player, which usually was set up as some kind of prologue for the next game in the playoffs. Throughout the book you get FANTASTIC descriptions of the meeting, each player, each coach, and it gives a great perspective of just what it's like behind the scenes for the very fun and laid backPhoenix Suns. He gives you tons of quotes from the players talking to him or talking to other players, and a lot of very funny moments and such between players and coaches. He paints a picture of each player, including their background, and allowed what he, and others, generally thought about a certain player. He takes you through the games very descriptively, describes the emotions the players felt at all the major moments (Raja being the most interesting during the Lakers series), and even gives you a lot of detail about things like the coaches complaints to the league office, bi*ching to refs, etc... Overall, this is an awesome book. Very easy to read, not complicated whatsoever, format is reader-friendly, and it's simply a laid back book with a lot of light hearted comical relief. It gives a picture perfect idea of what it's like to be a person behind the scenes with the Suns, whether in a crunch moment or when they are just hanging around and joking. He shows all the up's and down's the team faced throughout the season/playoffs. The author does so in such a way that it is very unique to other books with similar plots, which makes it very interesting.9/10<u>The Jordan Rules:</u> Background: The Jordan Rules, an NY Times best seller and award winning book, is infamous in the basketball industry. It is arguably the most popular and known basketball book ever released, and it's shock value is the major reason for that. It has a similar basis as the prior book; an author gets a lot of behind-the scenes access, although to what extent is never mentioned. The book basically is a chronicle of the Bulls first run to a championship in the '90-'91 season, with their post game celebration of their Finals elimination game/Jordan's first retirement as the prologue. Unlike :07 Seconds or Left, the author doesn't try to bring you backstage or give you a perspective of what a team is like behind the scenes, but rather just states what happenned during the season through the eyes of the players and coaches. Throughout the book, the main aspect is Michael Jordan. Whether it be his VERY cruel criticism of other players, coaches or manangement (most of the time it is hilarious, but still very cruel) or the other players or whoever firing back in Jordan's face/behind his back. It focuses on Jordan's severe lack of trust in his teammates, coaching staff (specifically with the triangle as he felt it was intentionally put in to limit him) or manangement (he absolutely hated Krause, demanding to be traded, demanding others to be traded, calling him names and repeating them to his teammates so they'd all disrespect him, etc..). It is interesting to see his attitude not really change until midway through the playoffs, and the team come together in the process. Of course Jordan isn't the only one who is talked about indepth. Every other player is given a few pages to get to know their background, and throughout the book we hear about their frustration with Jordan, manangement's inability to resign them to a better contract/wanting them traded (specifically Pippen, who threatened several holdouts), and also coaching staff with pushing them too hard or giving them no playing time (Horace Grant most notably went off on Jackson in a playoff game because he felt he was too hard on him). Overall, The Jordan Rules is a tad bit long (nearly 400 pages) and not quite as easy to read as :07 Seconds or Left. It is not lighthearted, but offers a really good picture of the team which had severe problems that didn't really come together until the playoffs. The format is confusing at the beginning, but that is acceptable. It goes very in depth with pretty much every player and the team's problems, and while the focus is mainly on Jordan, the author gives great detail of the other players/coaches as well. It is a very serious book, but the things Jordan says to his teammates are priceless (you can find many of the quotes in the MJ vs Kobe thread in the player comparisons forum). But the 2 best quotes in the book are by Wilt Chamberlain and Charles Barkley:Wilt- When asked by a fan, "How's the weather up there, Wilt?" Wilt responded, "It's raining," and then proceeded to spit on the fan.Barkley- "Hey Ed," he yelled at Rush (ref). "I hope you've got some Vaseline. I know you're planning to F*ck us, so maybe you'll at least make it feel better."8.5/10
Nice! good reviews, I myself have read The Jordan Rules and I pretty much agree on what you said about the book, good stuff.
haha I read the entire Jordan Rules 4 times the last time I was in jail in 10 days. It is a VERY GOOD book.
I've read it, as well. I loved how Sam Smith went behind the scenes in this book, capturing everything that went around Michael Jordan as a player, Bulls practices, Phil Jackson, etc.
I loved :07 Seconds or less. It was interesting getting a behind the scenes look of my favorite team.
