The Book Of Basketball Bill Simmons Essay

“The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy” by Bill Simmons, was a book only the Sports Guy could write. Save a few hundred pages for Simmons to inform the readers on how he became the basketball and Celtics fan he is today (hint: it was his dad choosing between a motorcycle and season tickets to the Celtics), why as a child he called himself Jabaal Abdul-Simmons, footnotes galore, his hatred for Isiah Thomas and Wilt Chamberlain, and many of the greatest “What-if’s” in basketball history. Other than that, Bill Simmons uses this behemoth of a book to indulge on his version of “The Secret” of basketball, winning championships, and gives his take on how the NBA Hall of Fame should be constructed. In a pyramid style ranking with five levels Bill Simmons has who he thinks should be where, as of 2009, and each level getting smaller and smaller due to the higher standard. It all ends with the 12 best of all time, sitting atop the pyramid like kings with Michael Jordan number one. Again there was no one other than Simmons to write this book. “You could dress me red, drop in into a Crips neighborhood, tell me that I have 12 minutes to start a high-caliber NBA conversation before somebody puts a cap in my ass...and I would
I always want to know more, and “The Book of Basketball” was a perfect book to read. Was Bill Simmons right when he explained the secret? Maybe, maybe not, but it gave me a new approach on the way I see the game. Not only do I now know more about basketball’s history, but now when I ever get into debates or arguments, I now have a better repertoire to draw from and help make my claims more credible. The knowledge that I gained from Bill Simmons’ book and the secret, has impacted my life without a doubt. On a nearly day-to-day basis any talk about basketball I have, some of my opinions have been influenced by the secret and everything else that was in that 700 page