A review by clabepeterson
Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby

inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

This is an incredibly in depth dive into one of the most seminal sports figures ever — to the point where it feels closer to the deconstruction of a mythic figure than a biography of a basketball player. Lazenby succeeds at providing a balanced, fair view on Jordan’s life and career, giving proper time to his greatness while never stooping to worship at his altar — pointing out his flaws in joint with his successes. It’s also all done with some remarkable prose at certain points, a rarity for the genre of sports biography. In the beginning and end of the book especially is where this shines — in both the step by step analysis of a Jordan dunk and the call back to the words of Jordan’s father at the book’s conclusion. Treating sports as something that is worthy of grand, elevated prose is something that I love to see, and Lazenby does it very well. The one area where I was slightly disappointed in this book was in some of its pacing — while I greatly appreciated the depth in which this section went, I felt that Jordan’s rise to the NBA was given potentially more time than needed, which was felt even more when compared to how little time Jordan’s Wizards and Bobcats tenures got. I’m not sure why this was, but the fact that the man who is synonymous with winning and competitiveness fielded the worst team in the history of the NBA is a story well worth telling in my opinion. I’m not going to dock too much for it considering that the book came out pretty close to that point in Jordan’s career, but something I felt was lacking nonetheless. Either way, this was still a joy to read, and was remarkably well written and researched. If you have any interest in Jordan as a basketball player, a public figure, or as a phenomenon — this should be on your “to-read” list.