Product Description
Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Jerry West, Bob Huggins, Joe Alexander, Rod Hundley, Alex Ruoff, Frank Young, Kevin Pittsnogle, Gale Catlett, Mike Gansey, Devin Ebanks, Jarrett Brown, Fred Schaus, Petar Arsić, Rod Thorn, Jay Jacobs, D'or Fischer, Johannes Herber, John Flowers, Jarmon Durisseau-Collins, Marcus Goree, Jonnie West, Marshall Glenn, Fred Graham, Jerome Anderson, Ron Williams, Deniz Kılıçlı, Wayne Yearwood, Mark Workman, Gordon Malone, Ed Beach, Lowes Moore, Bobby Smith. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Selected by Los Angeles Lakers Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch" for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation; "The Logo" in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek" after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome. Wests NBA career was highly successful. Playing the guard position as a professional, he was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team 14 times, and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star game in 1972, the same year that he won his single NBA championship ring. He is the all-time NBA record holder of points-averaged during a playoffs series...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=331363 ... Read more

Product Description
When in 1969 the NBA sought an emblem for the league, one man was chosen above all as the icon of his sport: Jerry West. Silhouetted in white against a red-and-blue backdrop, West’s signature gait and left-handed dribble are still the NBA logo, seen on merchandise around the world.

    In this marvelous book—the first biography of the basketball legend—award-winning reporter and author Roland Lazenby traces Jerry West’s brilliant career from the coalfields near Cabin Creek, West Virginia, to the bare-knuckled pre-expansion era of the NBA, from the Lakers’ Riley-Magic-Kareem Showtime era to Jackson–Kobe–Shaq teams of the early twenty-first century, and beyond.

But fame was not all glory.

Called “Mr. Clutch,” West was an incomparable talent—flawless on defense, possessing unmatched court vision, and the perfect jumper, unstoppable when the game was on the line. Beloved and respected by fans and fellow players alike, West was the centerpiece of Lakers teams that starred such players as Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, and he went on to nine NBA Finals. Yet in losing eight of those series, including six in a row to the detested Boston Celtics, West became as famous for his failures as for his triumphs. And that notoriety cast long shadows over West’s life on and off the court. 
 
Yet as the author discovered through scores of exclusive interviews with West’s teammates, colleagues, and family members, West channeled the frustration of his darkest moments into a driving force that propelled his years as an executive. And in this capacity, the success that often eluded West on the court has enabled him to reach out to successive generations of players to enrich and shape the sport in immeasurable ways.

Though sometimes overshadowed by flashier peers on the court, Jerry West nevertheless stands out as the heart and soul of a league that, in fifty years, has metamorphosed from a regional sideshow into a global phenomenon. And in Jerry West, Roland Lazenby provides the ultimate story of a man who has done more to shape basketball than anyone on the planet. 
  ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A Different Kind of Book
This book is different than the average sports book you'll read - some reviewers have commented on the excess coverage on West's beginnings and yes, while it is a tad extensive - almost half the book covers his life thru college - it is refreshing, too.Far too many sports books have too many game summaries but you don't learn much about the person - if you're reading this, you know who Jerry West is and don't want to bother with trivial game descriptions - a few game summaries are okay but a book with too many is tiresome reading.And speaking about you know who Jerry West is, why do so many reviewers try to give you his life story, like we don't know who he is?? - if you're reading all these reviews, then you obviously know who Jerry West is and it's tiresome reading to slog thru those kinds of reviews - I mean, we know who Jerry West is, just tell us about the book.

A Disappointment
I too was a huge West fan who wore his number through high school and practiced in the mud on my dirt court just like he did. I was eager to read the book after reading the rave review from Tim Rutten in the LA Times.

I was disappointed. The nearly 80 pages at the outset, covering the plight of West's relatives going back several generations, seem endless, and are told at the snail's pace of a West Virginian's dialect. If only Lazenby had directed his considerable research hours into more interesting and pertinent topics, such as West's career after retiring as a player -- which gets a shallow and perfunctory 30 pages at the end of the book. What comes in between, West's playing career, will be no news to anyone who has read Bill Libby's excellent bio of thirty years ago and followed West's career with even moderate interest in newspapers and periodicals.

I felt the author got lost in the West Virginia roots he shares with his subject (and, tellingly, with Tim Rutten), then ran out of time, steam or both before his deadline.After the slow opening, the whole book feels rushed: as another reviewer noted, it is sloppily edited, with typos, errors, narrative confusion, and inconsistencies in abundance.

Clearly, judging by the overwhelmingly positive reviews here, your mileage may vary.

Should be on every basketball fan's "must read" list
Biographer Roland Lazenby describes Los Angeles Lakers great Jerry West as "the most influential figure in the history of American basketball."Lazenby takes on the task of trying to explain the "mystery that is Jerry West."

Lazenby was told that to understand West, he needed to understand West Virginia, where West was born and raised and played for the University of West Virginia.Lazenby spends the first 75 pages, detailing the history of West Virginia, exploring West's ancestry and interviewing many of his family members, relatives and boyhood friends.While this does help to explain West, I'm afraid it's about 50 pages too long for many readers.

But, by the time you finish this nearly 400-page biography, you'll have completely forgotten about the book's slow start.

Lazenby achieves his goal of explaining the mystery of Jerry West.Jerry's mother was a perfectionist, who was a loner and shy.Jerry, who had little relationship with his abusive father, took after his mother.He was also deeply affected by the death of his older brother in the Korean War.

West was never able to enjoy his accomplishments.Nothing he ever did was good enough.Instead, he settled for disappointment, harsh criticism or perceived slights by others. He would go through long periods of depression when he wasn't playing well.He was extremely competitive, had more heart than any other player, obsessed with winning and driven to greatness.He was humble, shy and reserved.

Lazenby says West's rise to the top of basketball was "absolutely improbable."West was physically frail through high school, college and much of his NBA career.As an NBA rookie he was 6-foot-3 and 172 pounds.Coach Bill Sharman called West, known as Mr. Clutch, "the tallest 6-foot-3 player ever." Sharman also felt West was "probably the greatest defensive guard ever."

Lazenby gives a good account of West's high school and college basketball careers, particularly the rivalry between West and Oscar Robertson of the University of Cincinnati to be considered the best college player in the nation. The book is equally divided between West's pre-NBA years and NBA career.

West's heroics and heartbreaks in the NBA, losing year after year to the Boston Celtics for the championship, are well chronicled.West and the Lakers finally won a championship in 1972, beating the New York Knicks.Lazenby points out that if West had scored a total of 10 more points in five games, he would have had an NCAA title and four NBA titles.

After his playing days, West served three unhappy years as the Lakers coach and then became their successful general manager.

This is an insightful biography about one of the NBA's greatest players ever.It should be on every basketball fan's "must-read" list.

A "Clutch" writing
The best sports biography I ever read from the historical periods leading up to Jerrys birth to the present day. I could almost hear Chick Hearn describing the activities of the court action moving from "left to right on your radio dial".

Jerry Lee (age 72)

OBNOXIOUS EDITING/WRITING HABIT RESURFACES
This is the second book I've bought by Mr Lazenby.I'll have to look again who his editors are, but in both books there are several instances wheresentences, paragraphs, even a series of pages are repeated VERBATIMfrom another section in the book.This is not an instance of an author telling an anecdote two different ways, in two different places in the book.It is an instanceof someone copying and pasting the same text and inserting it later in the book as filler to make the book appear larger.This gets obnoxious because you find yourself stumbling across the same 3-5 pages you read 60 pages ago, and having to flip through the next 3-5 pages wondering where the narrative picks back up with new material.I don't know why an author and publisher would allow this to occur.It was something that happened frequently in Lazenby's book on Kobe, and I just came across the first few instances of it in the West book, butlike a sucker, it's the topic of his books that reel me in--not the writing or editing.Most of us who consider books like this are so interested in the Lakers that we don't really care how well written the books are...... Anyways, just thought you should know. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

It was a reminder of how much great basketball I missed in my youth
In 1973, I paid very little attention to professional basketball, major league baseball and the University of Iowa Hawkeye football and basketball teams were where my sports attention was focused. The professional basketball game was also different back then, the national fan interest was not as intense, and it was a very rare occasion when the conversation anywhere shifted to professional basketball. Nevertheless, I was aware of the stars of the pro game at this time, largely due to the college play of Pete Maravich.
His on-court antics while in college were amazing and all of the kids I played basketball with tried to duplicate his dazzle. When he went to the pros, we all followed his career, watching him on television whenever possible. While he was unable to perform in the same manner he did in college, watching the pro games introduced me to the players chronicled in this book.
Therefore, this recapitulation of the 1973 season was a look back into my youth and reading this book reminded me of hours of playing basketball and all of us trying to hot-dog on the court. It was fun then and it was fun now to look back to a time when pro basketball was a secondary interest in my life. From this book, it is clear that I missed a lot because I paid little attention to the truly great players featured here.

It was a reminder of how much great basketball I missed in my youth
In 1973, I paid very little attention to professional basketball, major league baseball and the University of Iowa Hawkeye football and basketball teams were where my sports attention was focused. The professional basketball game was also different back then, the national fan interest was not as intense, and it was a very rare occasion when the conversation anywhere shifted to professional basketball. Nevertheless, I was aware of the stars of the pro game at this time, largely due to the college play of Pete Maravich.
His on-court antics while in college were amazing and all of the kids I played basketball with tried to duplicate his dazzle. When he went to the pros, we all followed his career, watching him on television whenever possible. While he was unable to perform in the same manner he did in college, watching the pro games introduced me to the players chronicled in this book.
Therefore, this recapitulation of the 1973 season was a look back into my youth and reading this book reminded me of hours of playing basketball and all of us trying to hot-dog on the court. It was fun then and it was fun now to look back to a time when pro basketball was a secondary interest in my life. From this book, it is clear that I missed a lot because I paid little attention to the truly great players featured here.

It was a reminder of how much great basketball I missed in my youth
In 1973, I paid very little attention to professional basketball, major league baseball and the University of Iowa Hawkeye football and basketball teams were where my sports attention was focused. The professional basketball game was also different back then, the national fan interest was not as intense, and it was a very rare occasion when the conversation anywhere shifted to professional basketball. Nevertheless, I was aware of the stars of the pro game at this time, largely due to the college play of Pete Maravich.
His on-court antics while in college were amazing and all of the kids I played basketball with tried to duplicate his dazzle. When he went to the pros, we all followed his career, watching him on television whenever possible. While he was unable to perform in the same manner he did in college, watching the pro games introduced me to the players chronicled in this book.
Therefore, this recapitulation of the 1973 season was a look back into my youth and reading this book reminded me of hours of playing basketball and all of us trying to hot-dog on the court. It was fun then and it was fun now to look back to a time when pro basketball was a secondary interest in my life. From this book, it is clear that I missed a lot because I paid little attention to the truly great players featured here.
... Read more

Product Description
Authoritative, informative, and entertaining, Wilt is the first standard biography about this American legend—the unique and unforgettable Wilt Chamberlain. One of the 20th century’s greatest and most controversial athletes, Wilt also had an intensely private side that the author uncovers through years of interviews with the people closest to Wilt up until the time of his death in 1999. This groundbreaking work successfully captures Wilt Chamberlain the man, while also closely examining the better-known myths that surrounded him throughout his life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

In this case, you gotta love Goliath.
I often have and still here how people talk about Michael Jordan being the greatest of all-time, but Wilt was the one who changed the rules of the game. He was so dominant that they had to make it where you couldn't even be in the lane for 3 seconds. Plus, you couldn't touch the ball while it was on the cylinder of the rim. Now how dominant is that. Besides, this man scored a 100 points in a game and averaged 50.4 points that same season. Unfortunately, Wilt didn't always have the personnel around him to beat the Celtics. This book is a must have for any aficionado of sports. May the "Big Dipper" rest in peace.

Wilt!
Robert Cherry takes anecdotes from famous and regular people whose lives' intertwined with Wilt Chamberlain, and mixes them in with his narrative summary of the legend's life and statistics to form a biography that entertains while never sensationalizing.Anyone interested in the NBA or college basketball is going to find this book to be a captivating read.

Highly recommended, but be aware that the one thing the book lacks is a statistical record of Wilt's collegiate and NBA career.

Somebody does love GOLIATH
Wilt Chamberlain once said "Nobody loves Goliath. I'm here to say that after reading "Wilt, Larger than Life" I refute that. The book gave an indepth look at not only Wilt the basketball icon, but Wilt the person. It explored relationships he established outside of basketball and how he maintained those frendships until his untimely death. After reading the book I also had more appreciation for Wilt the basketball player. I feel that not only was he one of the greatest players of all time, but he met and exceeded all of the expectations that were placed on him when he very well could and was in some cases viewed as a freak of nature.

I loved this book
At the risk of sounding redundant.This book was great and gives a lot of insight into a very fascinating individual.Personally I could have done with less information on what exactly happened in the quarters of key basketball games and more on the other things that Wilt did throughout his life.However this was still a good purchase, worthwhile read, and I am very greatful for the author to have taken the time and effort to write this book.

Wilts buddy Bob Kashey
Great book. I loved every page except page 155. That Bob Kashey character can't be real.I know a Bob Kashey that hangs out at Chile's in Lake Mary, Florida and this can't be him although he keeps insisting it is. In any case, it is a great book, well worth the investment. ... Read more

Product Description
When in 1969 the NBA sought an emblem for the league, one man was chosen above all as the icon of his sport: Jerry West. Silhouetted in white against a red-and-blue backdrop, West’s signature gait and left-handed dribble are still the NBA logo, seen on merchandise around the world.

    In this marvelous book—the first biography of the basketball legend—award-winning reporter and author Roland Lazenby traces Jerry West’s brilliant career from the coalfields near Cabin Creek, West Virginia, to the bare-knuckled pre-expansion era of the NBA, from the Lakers’ Riley-Magic-Kareem Showtime era to Jackson–Kobe–Shaq teams of the early twenty-first century, and beyond.

But fame was not all glory.

Called “Mr. Clutch,” West was an incomparable talent—flawless on defense, possessing unmatched court vision, and the perfect jumper, unstoppable when the game was on the line. Beloved and respected by fans and fellow players alike, West was the centerpiece of Lakers teams that starred such players as Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, and he went on to nine NBA Finals. Yet in losing eight of those series, including six in a row to the detested Boston Celtics, West became as famous for his failures as for his triumphs. And that notoriety cast long shadows over West’s life on and off the court. 
 
Yet as the author discovered through scores of exclusive interviews with West’s teammates, colleagues, and family members, West channeled the frustration of his darkest moments into a driving force that propelled his years as an executive. And in this capacity, the success that often eluded West on the court has enabled him to reach out to successive generations of players to enrich and shape the sport in immeasurable ways.

Though sometimes overshadowed by flashier peers on the court, Jerry West nevertheless stands out as the heart and soul of a league that, in fifty years, has metamorphosed from a regional sideshow into a global phenomenon. And in Jerry West, Roland Lazenby provides the ultimate story of a man who has done more to shape basketball than anyone on the planet. 
 


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Product Description
Big Men Who Shook the NBA includes compelling and surprisingly frank profiles of the twenty-five best NBA centers ever. Each player's greatest games, moments and achievements are captured in four-color photos, detailed anecdotes and statistical support. The men who couldn't be stopped combine for a book that can't be put down. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Revisionist Basketball History, Nice Color Photos
This book has some very nice pictures, colorful ones from the 1970's and the ABA (defunct American Basketball Association).That is where any praise for this work will end.The rankings of the top five centers or so Jabbar, Russell, Chamberlain (not necessarily in this order) are reasonable. There are however, some signficant misteps that would call into question this author's familiarity with the history of pro basketball over the past 35 years.For example, Artis Gilmore is rated at the bottom of the 25 featured pivotmen.Bill Lambier, Bill Walton, and others are ranked above Gilmore.OK, charitably this could called a subjective "eye of the beholder" matter.But he also characterizes Gilmore as an outside shooting threat from 16 feet and beyond and weak on defense besides blocked shots.These inaccuracies call into question any type of credibility the author would have.I fear that it is this type of inaccurate, revisionist history that could be keeping Artis Gilmore out of the Basketball Hall of Fame.Gilmore is the game's all time most successful field goal shooter, top 25 in scoring, top 10 rebounds, blocked shots, games and minutes played.The author should devote some text to the farce of Gilmore's absence from Springfield. ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Terry Dischinger, Jānis Krūmiņš, Darrall Imhoff, Walt Bellamy, Lindsay Gaze, Bob Boozer, Teófilo Cruz, Carlos Badion, Gennadi Volnov, Viktor Zubkov, Wlamir Marques, Amaury Pasos, Adrian Smith, Sandro Gamba, Edgardo Ocampo, Maigonis Valdmanis, Valdis Muižnieks, Carlos Domingos Massoni, Algodão, Narciso Bernardo, Alfonso Marquez, Jay Arnette, Héctor Costa, Burdette Haldorson, Sergio Matto, Eduardo Schall Jatyr, Antonio Salvador Sucar, Lester Lane, Carlos Blixen, Nelson Chelle, Raúl Mera, Allen Kelley. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Selected by Los Angeles Lakers Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch" for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation; "The Logo" in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek" after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome. Wests NBA career was highly successful. Playing the guard position as a professional, he was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team 14 times, and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star game in 1972, the same year that he won his single NBA champio...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=331363 ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: John Paxson, Jerry West, Red Auerbach, Pat Riley, Kevin Mchale, Don Nelson, Elgin Baylor, Danny Ainge, Jerry Krause, Steve Kerr, Joe Dumars, Mike Dunleavy, Sr., Bryan Colangelo, Ernie Grunfeld, Danny Ferry, Dan Issel, Kiki Vandeweghe, Wayne Embry, Rob Babcock, Donnie Nelson, Mitch Kupchak, Kevin Pritchard, Otis Smith, M. L. Carr, Stan Kasten, Jeff Bower, Geoff Petrie, Larry Harris, Chris Wallace, Rick Sund, Rod Thorn, Donnie Walsh, Rod Higgins, Jim Lynam, Ed Stefanski, David Kahn, Mark Warkentien, Sam Presti, Dick Vertlieb, R. C. Buford, Larry Riley, Billy King, Gar Forman, Randy Pfund, John Hammond, Kevin O'connor, David Morway, Jim Stack, Zollie Volchok. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 234. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Selected by Los Angeles Lakers Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch" for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation; "The Logo" in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek" after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome. Wests NBA career was highly successful. Playing the guard position as a professional, he was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=331363 ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 536 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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Brief biographies stressing the careers of basketball stars Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Oscar Robertson. ... Read more

Product Description
No one, not the Charlie Finley's A's of the '70s, or the "Bronx Zoo" Yankees of the '80s, or the Michael Jordan-Dennis Rodman Bulls of the '90s was ever as wacky as the current version of the Los Angeles Lakers, coming down the stretch of another season with their star-studded fan base waiting breathlessly to see if they win their fourth title in five years or finally realize their potential for self-destruction and blow themselves all over the landscape. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

AN OK READ
THIS IS ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS. THE BOOK GIVES US A LOOK AT MANY OF THE PLAYERS, COACHES AND OWNERS WHO HELPED MAKE THIS ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FRANCHISE IN RECENT HISTORY. SOME OF THE STORIES ARE VERY INTERESTING AND WELL WRITTEN. BUT SOME ARE JUST SAME OLD SAME OLD. I LIKED READING ABOUT ELGIN BAYLOR, WILT AND JERRY WEST OF THE EARLY 70'S TEAMS AND THE LAKERS OF THE 80'S WITH MAGIC AND KAREEM. BUT WHEN IT CAME TO THE LAKERS OF THE 2000'S IT WAS THE SAME OLD STUFF. IF YOU LIKE THE LAKERS THEN IT IS WORTH A LOOK.

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes...
I enjoyed some of the inside stuff, but the number of errors is staggering. The most egregious can be found on Page 32, where we have the following line -- "It (the season) was further disrupted by the punch Kermit Alexander threw that caved in Rudy Tomjanovich's face as the Lakers dropped to 45-37."

Kermit Alexander? As even casual fans know, it was Kermit Washington who threw the punch that almost killed Tomjanovich. While you may wink at the many, many errors -- both factual and typographical -- in this book, one of this magnitude is impossible to excuse.

Deceptive title
The book cover makes one think this is about the Shaq-Kobe feud - and it covers it - but it mostly goes over the history of the organization from it's days in Minneapolis to their eventual move to Los Angeles.I came off thinking Heisler was originally writing a book just about the Lakers history but rushed it out to meet the Kobe-Shaq headlines.It's a good read for a Lakers fan or die-hard NBA fans.If you're looking for anything in-depth about Laker figures such as Kobe, Shaq, or Magic Johnson, I would advise you to look elsewhere but if you want an overview of the Lakers' successful history, this is your book.

Great Book... but not really.
I found that the stories Mark Heisler has in this book are fantastic.He obviously knows the Lakers.I love the Lakers, and so I loved this book.Or did I?As a researcher, he's top-notch.As a sports writer, again top-notch.But in book form?Someone should have stopped him.His remarkable ability to run-on sentences and under-punctuate is beyond distracting.And the typos... hundreds, no lie.Triumph Publishing should really be ashamed of itself.That having been said, I did enjoy the read in spite of the author's shortcomings and the lack of an editor.This probably has more to do with the Lakers themselves than anything else.

only in Hollywood
this Book is a trip but then again watching the Lakers&following them all of these years what else would you expect? all kinds of Drama on&Off the Court.I bet some of the Actors&Actress,Directors,etc... went to the old Forum&Now Staples to get some script ideas from.Greed,Sex,Drama,heroic performances,battle for Control&Power,etc.. this Book takes you directly there&More.what a Cast these Lakers have always been? the Book will keep your interest. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Jerry West, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Rudy Tomjanovich, Joe Mullaney, Del Harris, Kurt Rambis, Paul Westhead, Bill Sharman, Randy Pfund. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 78. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Selected by Los Angeles Lakers Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch" for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation; "The Logo" in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek" after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome. Wests NBA career was highly successful. Playing the guard position as a professional, he was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team 14 times, and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star game in 1972, the same year that he won his single NBA championship ring. He is the all-time NBA record holder of points-averaged during a playoffs series (46.3) and, as a testament to his two-way play, a member of the first four NBA All-Defensive Teams which were introduced when he was 32 years old. Having played in nine NBA Finals, he is also the only player in NBA history to have won the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award despite being on the losing t...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=331363 ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Jerry West, Rudy Tomjanovich. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 31. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Selected by Los Angeles Lakers Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include "Mr. Clutch" for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation; "The Logo" in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek" after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning Most Valuable Player honors despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome. Wests NBA career was highly successful. Playing the guard position as a professional, he was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team 14 times, and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star game in 1972, the same year that he won his single NBA championship ring. He is the all-time NBA record holder of points-averaged during a playoffs series (46.3) and, as a testament to his two-way play, a member of the first four NBA All-Defensive Teams which were introduced when he was 32 years old. Having played in nine NBA Finals, he is also the only player in NBA history to have won the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award despite being on the losing team (1969). West was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980 and voted as one of the 50...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=331363 ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Notable Sports Figures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2573 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Takes a close look at the people in sports who have captured attention because of success on the playing field, or controversy off the playing field. This work features biographies on more than 600 people from around the world and throughout history who have had an impact not only on their sport, but also on the society and culture of their times. It also includes not only the record-breakers that dominated and changed their sport, but also the controversial figures that made headlines even apart from athletic events. ... Read more