Basketball: A Love Story by Jackie MacMullan

Basketball: A Love Story Reviews

• 
  Scott

  A thorough and nostalgic history of basketball, told mainly by weaving individual’s quotes together. The format is a little off-putting at first, but the insight from the individuals is so great, that it eventually begins to flow. I had so much nostalgia, especially reading about Magic vs Bird and Arvydas Sabonis. I also learned a lot about the early racism in the game and gambling scandals that almost derailed it.
  
  The quote that resonated with my love of basketball the most was from Charlie Scott: “Basketball meant family because basketball meant friendship. It was everything to me. It was the way I saw other people wanted to be with me. I spent my life as a loner, and basketball brought me a group of guys that I could be with at all times. Basketball was my survival.”
• 
  P

  I have never been a fan of longform "oral histories" online. It's a format where they gather the opinions of a varied field of experts on a topic, and quote them and order it to sound like a conversation among old heads. I always knew it had its value... but it never appealed to me.
  
  This is an oral history of the NBA.
  
  And it's great.
  
  I am not sure there was a single chapter I didn't love.
  
  Additionally, I've read a number of books on basketball and basketball's history, and I still somehow learned quite a bit.
  
  This is a must read for any basketball fan. And a great gift, especially with the holidays approaching.
  
  9.5/10 (0.5 removed because there is WAY too much Bill Simmons in this book -- he's a tool)
• 
  Brian

  Just a fun, love infused, interview based book.
  If you’re a junkie, there’s enough here.
  If you’re a fan (like me), there’s a lot of little things you didn’t know that you’ll learn (and familiar stories told campifre style)
  If you’ve never thought about basketball, you’re going to appreciate the way the narrative weaves itself through the last 90 years of American history with love and a perspective you maybe haven’t seen before.
  
  Really enjoyable, easy to digest; the palate cleanser I needed.
• 
  Rives Coleman

  An absolutely stunning book with interviews with basketball s greatest players coaches writers general managers . It crossed the borders on many tough subjects and did not skirt anything in the tales. I loved every page of this book.
• 
  Matt Hill

  Reads easy, informative and interesting. The book had lots of great stories and first hand accounts from the greats.
• 
  Thomas

  My expectations for this novel were truly exceeded after reading this novel. I love basketball, so being able to read about all the stroies that my parents tell me is pretty cool. My parents always talk about Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and the Celtics team that won multiple championships in a row. It was just remarkable to read these stories and really feel what it was like from the main characters perspective's. The novel is filled with multiple stories going all the way back to the beginning of the sport. It may be confusing for some readers because the stories within the book change every chapter.
  
  One key characteristic of the book that I enjoyed was that it was set up in an interview format. For example, one of the chapters is about the Dream Team. The Dream Team was a team with all American NBA players that went to Barcelona to compete in the 1992 summer olympic games. The speakers were the members of the dream team and other important figures involved with this event. One down fall of this set up is that it isvery inconsistent and jumps around from place to place, some people might enjoy that while other might have a tough time reading it.
  
  The novel also contains multiple uses of imagery throughout the entire book. The uses of imagery that are used help to give you an idea of what happened during a specific time or event. This is a good trait that can be used to help someone understand something that they didn't see. I wasn't alive when most of the events mentioned in this novel took place. These uses of imagery help give me an idea of what happened. One story was the Mighty Macs. The mighty macs were a womens team from Immaculta College. Cathy Rush came to coach the team and lead them to a championship. The uses of imagry that were mentioned in the book helped give me a picture of what the team looked like (not physically, but skill wise). This novel makes these stories sound so amazing, that I wish I was able to see this events when they took place.
  
  The last characteristic of this novel is that the events are put in order of when they occured. The novel starts off with events that took place in the 1950's and then the events move throughout the book in chronological order ending with what the game is like in the present day. The first events that are listed were the celtics vs lakers in the 1950's (not the larry bird/magic johnson rivalry). After this the the book moves in order from this event through the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, and ending at the 2010's when the book was written. I personally thought that this was a characteristic that helped the book stand out because it doesn't stay on the same story throughout the entire book, but it does flow through time in order which I personally liked.
  
  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the sport of basketball, likes to read about nostalgic events, or likes reading about events from the past. I would guess that the people who like the sport of basketball would love to read about it, just because they love everything basketball. Another group of people would be an older group of people because they were able to see and view the events as they were happening. My parents would probably read it if they had time because it would bring back memories of them watching back when they were kids. The last group of people would just be people that like reading about stuff that happened in the past. They don't have to like the sport, but they could just enjoy reading it because it happened in past decades which they could find interesting.
  
  So to conclude this review, I believe that Basketball: A Love Story is a great book to read. This is a book that has a few great characteristics that make it such a good read.
• 
  Logan

  An epic tome and an absolute must read for any basketball fan. As someone who only watched basketball during the 90s and now since 2014 I was endlessly fascinated by the stories from eras I didn't witness. As a modern fan it brought so much context to the current culture and playstyle of the game. The oral history style of most of the book does great justice to all the interesting personalities of the game and makes sure that the story told is an honest one.
  
  I was also so pleasantly surprised by the book's focus on the history of race within basketball and the impact it had outward on the world. It also has excellent chapters on the women's game that convinced me I need to start investing more in that league.
  
  For any basketball fan I can't say enough good things about this book.
• 
  Dale Kulas

  Basketball: A Love Story is a comprehensive oral history of basketball. Not just the NBA either, but also college hoops, ABA, International and Olympics history and the WNBA. It does not cover every single year, but jumps to big moments in the history of the game from the dominance of the 60s Celtics, the rise and fall of the ABA and how it revolutionized the game, to how the '92 "Dream Team" paved the way for an influx of International players that diversified the NBA to all new levels.
  
  This is a supplementary book to the ESPN series and it compiles countless interviews from players, press, coaches and executives from nearly all generations of basketball. The list is way too long to rundown some of the key names included, but odds are if you name ten random big names in basketball history, a majority of them have interview excerpts in this book. My only nitpick is even at just over 400 pages there would have been so much more I would have loved to seen covered but the curators did a tremendous job with what they handpicked to focus on, but if anything this serves as a kick in the butt for me to subscribe to ESPN+ to watch the anthology series.
• 
  Preston Popoff

  This was a really good book. I thought I knew a good amount about basketball and NBA history, but as I read through the earlier sections (and even through the modern NBA) I was surprised by how much I was learning. Very thorough, thoughtfully nostalgic, and dramatically insightful, this collection of history was simply a joy to read. Because it was adapted from a documentary, the style of being a bunch of oral history from one person to the next took some getting used to. But once I did, I felt that the style enhanced my enjoyment of the book. Definitely recommend for anyone who is a fan of basketball.
  
  The final chapter, called "Ball is Life" focuses more on the beauty and feeling that basketball evokes rather than the history that the book had just finished going through. It reminds me a lot of the opening passage of Shea Serrano's Basketball (and Other Things) in that it helps to encapsulate so much of what I love about the sport and art that is basketball.
• 
  Mohamed Anees

  What a collection of stories (just finished my final year of residency, so took a long break from making much progress) - I first thought I wouldn't enjoy the format of this book but of course, once I got into it, it just flowed. From the stories of the early days, then the ABA days, which I hadn't known much about in detail and then as the stars that grew up with (Magic, MJ etc) and the good old days of the 90s, the Dream Team and then the present time - can't help but love this game. This was a fantastic journey and having read the end after the Warriors most recent title, was also extra special. Also, being in Southern California, when Kobe passed and then reading his accounts in this book, that really hit hard. Overall, a must read for any basketball/NBA/WNBA fan.
• 
  Corban Ford

  This is an interesting book, and one that I'm still figuring out, even after having read it. It is more of an anthology, an interesting tome of interviews form the great that were and are in the game of basketball, regardless of level or league. To be honest, I'd have preferred this written in a different format and not the same one as the TV special that airs on ESPN at the moment, but this was still a very thoughtful exploration on the game of basketball, it's history, and the love held for it by people all over the world for over 100 years.
• 
  Ben Travis

  Overall it was a very fun book to read with a lot of great anecdotes from the great basketball players from each era. The one issue I have with the book is it is tough to read in long stretches due to the way it is formatted. Being an oral history I found it difficult to keep switching points of view and sometimes would get lost with who said what, especially with the lesser known people. This book is great for short reads, a chapter or two at a time. My favorite chapters were about the point shaving scandal, ABA, and Gino vs Pat since i didn't know much about those areas of Basketball history it was fun to read through and see all of the things that i missed.
• 
  C

  A delightful oral history.
• 
  Krishna

  Stop quoting Bill Simmons when it comes to modern basketball.
• 
  Nate

  This book is a companion to ESPN's ten hour documentary of the same name but stands on it's own as an oral history of college and professional basketball. The shear volume of interview subjects in the book is staggering as is the positivity starting with athlete after athlete describing how and why they first fell in love with basketball to Magic Johnson's words that close out the book. While I would have loved a little more about woman's basketball in the book and due to her untimely illness and death Pat Summit is the only major interview subject not included it is still a stunning achievement.
• 
  Joseph Stieb

  While there are only so many ways that basketball players can say "I love basketball," this is a really entertaining and well-compiled oral history of all kinds of hoops topics. It has some of the classics (Wilt and Russell, Bird v Magic, the ABA) and then some more compelling and historically relevant thematic sections (racial integration of basketball, the rise of the women's game, the international game). The book is well-paced, and it avoids the drift and lack of structure that plagues many oral histories (like Terry Pluto's super long oral history of the ABA). Still, I can only really recommend this book for hoop junkies, whom I suppose this book is for anyway.
• 
  Mwalizadeh

  At first, I was skeptical of the writing / quoting style. But it hits a groove, and the added story lines and different perspectives come out smoothly and entertaining way. The chapters on the social, racial and gender struggles were really interesting. As well as the MJ23 and Lakers-Celtics chapters. Good stuff. This book will not make you a basketball fan. But Definitely recommend it for basketball fans.
• 
  Sam

  This was a great book - an oral history of the game. They cover a broad variety of topics from gambling to the Dream Team to the WNBA to MJ. Because you're hearing from the players and coaches directly, you can sense their love for the sport, and that translates to the reader. It's not quite as good as actually watching basketball, but since we don't have that option right now, I'll take this book!
• 
  Darryl Spicer

  For those who love basketball this is a gem of a book.
  Within the pages are gems of insights and understanding of the game, it takes you from looking at the game at a superficial level.
  
  Sure its format may not be to every one 's taste.
  But I enjoyed it