The Book of Basketball

The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

He is paid to spout his opinions about sports. His research seems to consist of watching a lot of games, although, when pressed, he’ll acknowledge that he’s a veritable doctoral candidate regarding the examination of tapes of players he’s too young to have seen.

In The Book of Basketball, the role of woman is played by angry and distracting girlfriend or wife, stripper, or eye candy…never by athlete. But at his best, Simmons is thoughtful and provocative. He’s certainly opinionated, but few sportswriters back up their opinions so exhaustively.

The people who hang on every word of his ESPN.com work will love The Book of Basketball, as will anyone with a voracious appetite for basketball stats and an endless capacity for arguments about which players and teams were better than various other players and teams, and why.