2024 the best nba teams of all time review

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The gritty, no-holds-barred account of the 1987 NBA season, a thrilling year of fierce battles and off-the-court drama between Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and Michael Jordan—from New York Times bestselling author Rich Cohen.

“Plug in to a world where rivalries really mattered.”—Bob Ryan, sports columnist emeritus, The Boston Globe

AN ESQUIRE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Four historic teams. Four legendary players. One unforgettable season.

The 1980s were a transformative decade for the NBA. Since its founding in 1946, the league had evolved from a bruising, earthbound game of mostly nameless, underpaid players to one in which athletes became household names for their thrilling, physics-defying play. The 1987–88 season was the peak of that golden era, a year of incredible drama that featured a pantheon of superstars in their prime—the most future Hall of Famers competing at one time in any given season—battling for the title, and for their respective legacies.

In When the Game Was War, bestselling author Rich Cohen tells the story of this incredible season through the four teams, and the four players, who dominated it: Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers, Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons, and a young Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls. From rural Indiana to the South Side of Chicago, suburban North Carolina to rust-belt Michigan, Cohen explores the diverse journeys each of these iconic players took before arriving on the big stage. Drawing from dozens of interviews with NBA insiders, Cohen brings to vivid life some of the most colorful characters of the era—like Bill Laimbeer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Danny Ainge, and Charles Oakley—who fought like hell to help these stars succeed. 

For anyone who longs to understand how the NBA came to be the cultural juggernaut it is today—and to relive the magic and turmoil of those pivotal years—When the Game Was War brilliantly recasts one unforgettable season and the four transcendent players who were at the center of it all.

From the Publisher

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BP5Y5BX1
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House (September 5, 2023)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 5, 2023
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2803 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 267 pages
Reviewer: Helen S
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Must Read.
Review: This book is cool, brilliant, funny, alive, very human, and just plain thrilling. No one writes about sports the way this author does. The book is about basketball. But like all the best sports writing—all the best writing—it’s really about character. It's about what you're willing to do, to make yourself do, when everything is on the line. If actual non-locker-room life stuff being on the line is accretive. It's sort of on the line a little bit every afternoon across a multi-decadal scale. Sports, especially the playoffs, especially the playoffs in the year(s) the writer covers, everything is on the line every night. Here's the kind of moment I mean: "The Forum got quiet—it was the kind of uncanny silence only a crowd can make.”That's the thrill of it. ( Who else but this author could make you feel a thing like that?) And Cohen is able to get the magic and drama of that across: of Isiah Thomas, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, finding out just what it is they have inside themselves. What kind of engine, how much mileage, how much drive. It makes you consider what you might—or might not—have inside yourself. You walk on the court with these players, stagger back into the locker room, celebration or hurting; you see how they became the people they are. (I loved Larry Byrd's story: very, very different from what I imagined. I hear "midwest" and think like haylofts and grain silos. Larry Byrd is like the diner-back-alley Midwest, the Elmore Leonard Midwest; his rivalrous friendship with Magic is one of the book's most magical effects.)He brings to life famous games and famous fights. He writes about Isiah Thomas setting a post-season record playing on a bum ankle. "He moved like a supermarket cart with a punk wheel." Going back into the game, finding it himself to dominate: it's a Luke Skywalker scene, a John Wayne scene. "Isiah became a symbol in those twelve minutes, an embodiment of everything that a person who wants to live ecstatically should be. He played with fury and joy. He loved his teammates and his opponents—you could see it in every move."Fury and joy. The book is written with fury and joy.Who else could produce a book like this? It's a brilliant story being lived by these superheroes: we learn from both their cape selves and the alter egos. And in both guises, Cohen relates, they are versions of us. It’s us out there, learning how much we can take, and how much we can give.Also, the story about Chuck Nevitt—one of the most famous "twelfth men” in the game—is just about the funnest, funniest thing I've read this year.

Reviewer: Robert V. Bethurem
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Easy read
Review: Fun book. Fast, easy read.

Reviewer: SportsChump
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fantastic Read!!
Review: Best book I've read about basketball in a while. Poetically written, a throwback. Didn't want the book to end just as I didn't want that era of basketball to end. A great read for any fan of the NBA of that time.

Reviewer: Franklin Curtismore
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The book brought a lot of great memories back!
Review: I was in my early 20's and living in Detroit from 1984 through 1990 when the NBA was at peak fandom in my opinion. The Jordan and Shaq 90's are a very close second, but there were so many great teams during that time like the TrailBlazers, Sixers and Knicks who played the game very differently; today teams are focused on the 3 and there is less focus on the big men.The book gives you a great insight into how much these teams disliked each other, and tbh I had no idea Larry Bird was a legendary trash talker. If you were over the age of 16 and watched the NBA in the late 80's, your amygdala will flood you with really fantastic memories while reading, throughout the book. Many of the memories I had forgotten about and really enjoyed stepping back in time.Honestly, I'm not a huge reader but I am a huge Detroit sports fan and my eldest son got me a copy of the book for Father's Day. When the Game Was War kept me riveted and really made me miss those days of professional basketball, when the game was war and it was must-see TV. If you were a fan of the NBA in the "gold days" of the NBA, or are a historian of the game, you'll love this gem, highly recommended.

Reviewer: Maira
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Seems based on the HBO series
Review: I lived through the Laker side of this story through the 80s I agree with the general premise of the book, which states that the 87-88 season was the greatest year the NBA has ever seen. Saying that, I'm a little perturbed by some of the facts I've read so far. In the Magic Johnson section of the player profiles, the author claims that Magic and Norm Nixon actually claim to blows and that Nixon was traded because they weren't cohesive enough. Is going to the finals three out of four years with that guard tandem cohesive enough? Magic and Norm played amazingly well together in 80 when they won a title, 82 where they won ANOTHER title (people forget they had one the most potent fast breaks ever) and lost in the finals in 83 when Nixon was playing hurt. Norm Nixon and Magic were incredible teammates and that's not taking anything away from Byron Scott, but the Lake show wins another title in 84 if Nixon is the teammate. It blows me away that the author would cite that horrible HBO series as a reference because everyone knows that it wasn't factual and they took liberties with how they portrayed Jerry West, Magic, Norm Nixon and Bird. So far, not loving this book as much as I wanted to. I'm not giving up but it better get more factual. I didn't dish out my money to read a version of the now cancelled HBO series!

Reviewer: kelly a sherwood
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: 6 stars from a Gen Xer
Review: I was maybe a year or two younger than the author. This was a great read and brought back some great memories. Maybe I’m old but I think back to how much more invested I was in the NBA. Being at a bar watching Chicago play Utah in the finals and hanging on every point.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: love basketball
Review: very good book

Reviewer: Anthony I Giacobbe Jr
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: great story
Review: This book excellently captures a great time in the NBA. The author nailed it perfectly. Loaded with the stars of the 80s and to come in the 90s. Great story.

Reviewer: Tyler Keay
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I'm not a basketball fan and this book hooked me from the start and puts you right in the action. I had no idea who won the championship in 1988 which made it even better to read. Highly recommended for any sports fan.

Reviewer: Kai Göing
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: What you will take away from this book depends a great deal on what you already know or remember about the astonishing 1987–88 NBA season. If you have watched "The Last Dance," "Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers" and "30 for 30: Bad Boys," Cohen's competently written account will offer fairly little that's new. However, if you are unfamiliar with those documentaries and just have vague memories of that season, "When the Game Was War" will turn out to be a pleasant read which rightly argues that Isiah Thomas -- in spite of his many personal flaws and questionable decisions -- must not be forgotten as one of the greatest players the game has ever seen. In other words, your mileage may vary.