Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players
3.7 | 21 ratings
Price: 21.75
Last update: 12-15-2025
Product details
- ASIN : B0F53687HY
- Publisher : Penguin Press
- Publication date : November 4, 2025
- Language : English
- Print length : 400 pages
- ISBN-13 : 979-8217060702
- Item Weight : 1.53 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.48 x 1.27 x 9.53 inches
- Best Sellers Rank:#557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Rugby (Books)
- Basketball Coaching (Books)
- Basketball Biographies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:4.04.0 out of 5 stars(16)
Top reviews from the United States
- SpringbokInterested read, I wanted it to keep goingAlthough they frequently stray from the topic (noted player) there remembrances are intriguing
- NBA LOGOGood factual and statistical referenceGood book with plenty of facts and stats of the NBA’s Greatest Players of All-time.
Another great book with a lot more information is the 2022 book: “NBA’s 50 Greatest Basketball Players of All-Time 75th Anniversary Edition.” Both of these books are similar but NBA’s 50 Greatest has a lot more fact and stats including a mini biography (high school, college and pros) for each player. It also has a 10-page Hall of Fame chart, 3 charts of over 800 entries for: Player Awards, Honors, & Accolades, a listing of NBA Nicknames, Greatest Players in NBA history by Position, Greatest NBA Duos, Trios, Backcourt Duos & Frontcourt Duos, Greatest Clutch Shooters, Greatest Defenders, All-NBA First Team Teammates, and Dream Team Rosters (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020), Greatest Foreign Born, Greatest European Players & Greatest Coaches, Greatest Teams of All-time, NBA’s Most Infuential Teams of All-time, and a 6-page chart for Greatest Players for Every Franchise and an NBA Number Retirement chart. - Education ExpertDisgraceful, lazy effortThis is exactly the type of book that I normally love. I love basketball. I love discussions of players. I like Phil Jackson a great deal. I generally like all journalists. I so anticipated this being good that I bought 1 book for myself and another for a close friend.
But this might be the laziest effort of a sports book that the writers could create. Sam Smith and Phil Jackson seemed to just have their conversations transcribed. No editing. Even more infuriating, half the time when discussing a player they will go on a tangent that has nothing to do with the player they are discussing.
Here’s an example for anyone who can look at the hard cover: Check out the Patrick Ewing section.
Phil Jackson does not discuss Ewing at all. Jackson’s first comment relates to whether John Starks should have been substituted for during Game 7 against the Rockets. His next comments relates to the Bulls; Hubie Brown, the Kentucky Colonels, Dennis Rodman and Bernard King. He never mentions Ewing. Insane.
In discussing Pete Maravich, Phil Jackson mentions that he went on a trip to play basketball with Maravich and some American team. That would have been an interesting discussion. Instead, the next discussion is about smoking cigarettes in China and Smith’s adopted Chinese daughter.
The chapter on Earl Monroe should have been great since Jackson played with him. Instead, there is a tangential discussion about other players who were drafted around the same time.
In the chapter on John Stockton, Smith brings up Steve Kerr. Then Jackson and Smith talk about Steve Kerr for the bulk of the chapter.
One chapter after another - titled with the Players’ Name - and then followed with tangents about whatever Jackson and Smith felt like discussing.
In most chapters there is almost no analysis about the player and his place in history.
It’s like listening to two old guys talk about basketball… ok that’s what it is… but for a book… I would have preferred WRITING. Each chapter has a brief written overview which provides context for the casual fan and old news for the real fans. What follows in most every chapter: Jackson-Smith have superficial discussions of the player and then go to their own idiosyncratic memory lane and babble about whatever comes to mind. I realize that “conversational” is in the title. But buyer beware: It seems that they spent a couple hours together to discuss 75 players in what amounts to a Podcast transcription.
As a reviewer, I would only write about a genre that I enjoy/know a great deal about.
While I couldn’t expect this book to be like Bill Simmons’ masterpiece, I also didn’t think it would be like a transcript of two guys at a bar riffing about the subject.
For a basketball fan, the subject is generally so enjoyable that it's a passable read. But the lack of effort put in is infuriating. - Jim COne of the best basketball books written!Written by Sam Smith (long time Chicago Bull journalist and NBA historian) and legendary coach Phil Jackson, this is a book about a a history of NBA basketball as told in stories of the games greatest players. This book has so much information ranging from which all-stars were afraid to shoot at crunch time(!!!), who was afraid of other NBA players (!!), to who Michael Jordan least liked to play and the coaching adjustments Phil Jackson would make to win games and how he would try to create a sense of team. So much cool information!
The book starts out slowly covering players who played in the 1960s but once it gets into the 1970s and the book gets into a groove talking about what made players like Nate "Tiny Archibald and Earl the Pearl Monroe great. Reading the book, you just want the stories to keep rolling out.
The book has about 30 carefully chosen pictures of NBA greats and they are carefully chosen to capture the essence of that player - looking at the picture of Elgin Baylor about to throw a dunk down way above the rim -wow - you can instantly see why is is one of the games all time greats!
Along with the Bob Simmons book of basketball I think this is one of the two best NBA books to read. This book occasionally has issues as you are not quite sure of what Phil and Sam are talking about, and for many players you want more conversation. But in the end you want the book to keep going as the stories are so fun and the book has opened the curtain to aspects of the game you know is happening but are rarely shared, and that makes the game so much more interesting as a result.