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A review by jeremychiasson
The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy by Bill Simmons
4.0
A sprawling, indulgent, flawed, beautiful, informative, entertaining book on basketball. There are parts in this book that make me roll my eyes, and yet I always find myself opening it at random and reading until the end of the chapter. This book is very re-readable, and yet also painfully dated.
What has aged the worst: The extremely outdated pop culture references, excessive footnotes, and cringeworthy "witty" asides. Gen X writing is so referential and perishable.
Bill Simmons writes jokes with the confidence and efficiency of Westbrook shooting for 3.
What has aged the best: The questions and concepts Bill devises are fascinating to consider (Wine Cellar Team, The Pyramid, the weight of MVP trophies, etc.) Bill is an all-time sports conversationalist, even if he isn't an all-time sports writer.
I know it doesn't sound like it based on this review, but I really enjoyed the book and will continue to refer to it in the future.
What has aged the worst: The extremely outdated pop culture references, excessive footnotes, and cringeworthy "witty" asides. Gen X writing is so referential and perishable.
Bill Simmons writes jokes with the confidence and efficiency of Westbrook shooting for 3.
What has aged the best: The questions and concepts Bill devises are fascinating to consider (Wine Cellar Team, The Pyramid, the weight of MVP trophies, etc.) Bill is an all-time sports conversationalist, even if he isn't an all-time sports writer.
I know it doesn't sound like it based on this review, but I really enjoyed the book and will continue to refer to it in the future.