The Book of Basketball

I recently finished the "first"* book of my favorite sportswriter, one Bill "The Sports Guy" Simmons. At 700 pages, it was a substantial undertaking--especially for a sports book--but it was one I enjoyed very much.

* His real first book, Now I Can Die in Peace, was a collection of his previously published columns chronicling the first Red Sox championship.

I've been reading Simmons since I was back in high school and his heavy Boston slant virtually guaranteed a relevant read every time I clicked on one of his essays. Soon enough, between his laugh-out-loud sense of humor and his conversational, relaxed style of writing, I really felt like I was reading what a friend had to say. At first, as the Red Sox were mired in heartbreaking losses, his articles were cathartic. Having someone around who could encapsulate, for example, the Aaron Boone home run, made the hurt easier to handle. Then, with the slew of Boston successes (with the occasional rough patch) his narrative on the experience became an essential part of my fandom. I developed a fierce loyalty toward him, not in that I swore by every statement he ever made (though usually I'm in the ballpark) but I never missed a column, listened to every second of every podcast*, and now, read every word in his mammoth book.

* The podcasts are especially excellent. They cover a lot of pop culture as well and he gets some fantastic guests. Favorites of mine include Chuck Klosterman, Patton Oswalt, Simmons' college friend JackO, Seth Meyers, and Chris Connelly.

Not that it was a labor; I thought the book was great. I wish my background in basketball history (pre-1980 specifically) had been stronger going in, as I basically had to take his word when it came to George Mikan or even Dave Cowens. Had it been a baseball book it would have been right in my wheel house, but as it was not, I struggled through certain sections. But, again, that's my fault and not Bill's. I loved his plan to redo the Hall of Fame according to levels (even Cooperstown should do this, I think) and I particularly liked when he assembled what he thought would be the greatest team ever (player by player) in case a group of space aliens challenged the human race (equipped with a time machine) to a game of basketball for the fate of the world.

As much as anything though, I enjoyed the book as I felt like one of my own friends had accomplished something great. I feel like Bill Simmons reciprocates the loyalty that he gets from his readers. He genuinely seems to care about them, devoting mailbags to their questions for example. In his section on Paul Pierce (the 54th best player ever by his calculations) he wrote a passage about watching Pierce evolve from a young gun full of potential into one of the game's truly great players. With a few tweaks (represented by ellipses) I felt like I may as well have written that passage about him:

"We watched that guy grow up. We watched him become a man. We believed in him...I don't mean to sound like the old man in Pretty Woman, but part of me wanted to...just tell [him], "It's hard for me to say this without sounding condescending, but I'm proud of you." We spend so much time complaining about sports and being disappointed that our favorite players never end up being who we wanted them to be, but in [his] case, he became everything we wanted him to be."

It isn't of a stretch to say I feel this way about Simmons. Everyone of his podcasts is like getting to talk to an old friend again. Like Simmons about Pierce, I felt proud that he wrote this monster book and that it became a #1 NY Times bestseller. I read him when he first got to ESPN and watched him turn into a sports-personality superstar. It was a wonderful journey and one that I hope is far from over.

Congrats, Bill.

ps - I also wanted to wish my buddy Colin, all the way over in Cambodia, a happy birthday. He is the JackO to my Sports Guy (or perhaps the other way around) and we bonded over basketball back when we were little middle schoolers, creating fake NCAA Sweet 16s and then playing one-on-one for all the games to determine the winner. Happy birthday, Colin.