THE BOOK OF
BASKETBALL THE NBA ACCORDING TO THE SPORTS GUY
BILL SIMMONS
T B A L L A N T I N E B O O K S T R A D E PA P E R B A C K S | N E W Y O R K
A 2010 Ballantine Books Bo oks and ESPN Books Trade Paperback Edition Copyright © 2009 by Bill Simmons All rights reserved. Published in the United States by ESPN Books, an imprint impr int of ESPN, Inc., New York, York, and Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. The ESPN Books name and logo lo go are registered trademarks of ESPN, Inc. Grateful acknowledgment is made to HarperCollins Publishers for permission to reprint an excerpt from The Franchise by Franchise by Cameron Stauth. Copyright © 1990 by Cameron Stauth. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Simmons, Bill. The book of basketball : the NBA according to the sports guy / Bill Simmons. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-345-52010-4 eBook ISBN 978-0-345-51311-3 1. Basketball. Basketball. 2. National National Basketball Association. I. Title. GV885.1.S46 2009 796.323.'640973—dc22 2009036006 Printed in the United States of America www.ballantinebooks.com www.espnbooks.com 246897531 Book design by Jo Anne Metsch
INTRODUCTION
You might be standing in a bookstore right now. You might be leaning against a sofa in someone’s house. You might be sitting on the john. You might be taking a bath. You might be shopping at one of those dollar stores, sitting on a beach, riding in a car, reading a free e-book preview. You might be sitting in a library or a Starbucks and wondering if the guy two chairs away is surfing porn on his iPad. You might be planning on clubbing someone to death with this thing—and really, you probably could—and wanted to read the first few pages before you did the deed. Regardless, you are thinking one of the following four things. 1. “This monstrosity monstrosity was was a no. no. 1 bestseller bestseller?? A 700-page book about about basketball ? How the hell is that possible?” 2. “I forgot Bill Simmons Simmons used used to write! Now Now he’ he’s hosting hosting that terrible terrible You’re Wrong! What a sellout.” ESPN show with Dan LeBatard, No, You’re 3. “This is the the book that that billionaire billionaire owner owner loved, so he hired hired Simmons Simmons as GM and it was a total disaster! disas ter! I think they’re still suing each other. ot her. I always wanted to read this thing. thing.”” 4. “W “Wait, ait, I already already bought the hardcov hardcover er . . . now he wants me to buy buy the paperback? Greedy bastard.” bastard.”
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
I hear you on no. 4. I do. If I couldn’t make the paperback better than the hardcover, it wasn’t worth releasing. That’s why I tightened it (cutting thirty pages of fat), fixed every factual error (all of them harmless, but still), then filled the extra space with new material and seventy new footnotes.1 I added two new “What Ifs?” Ifs?” I updated the Hall of Fame Pyramid, Py ramid, changing a few rankings (biggest winner: Dwyane Wade) and rewriting the Kobe, LeBron, Wade and Howard sections. Same number of pages, better book. And our new virtual guide (www.bookofbasketball.com) allows you to follow up on any magazine articles, games, plays, YouTube clips or anecdotes mentioned in the paperback with one exception: Greg Oden’s dong. Until the bitter end, I resisted my publisher’s demands for a finished edit. They wanted it after the 2010 Finals; I wanted to wait until LeBron made his decision. Every instinct I had told me, “Something weird is going to happen.” Something did. That’s the thing about the book of basketball—it never stops rewriting itself. After LeBron picked Miami, I realized this book will never be finished. For my own sanity, I needed to stop working on it. Five years was enough. There will never be another version. I promise. You have my word.2 Bill Simmons September 1, 2010
1. When I told Gladwell that I had spent eight weeks on my paperback, he laughed and
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Now updated with spirited new writing on the 2009-2010 season; the Lakers-Celtics final; LeBron James; Kobe Bryant; Dwayne Wade; Paul Pierce; Pierce ; Dwight Howard; and Steve Nash.
