Breaking the Rules: A Season with Sport's Most Colorful Team : Charles Barkley's Phoenix Suns [Hardcover]

Mike Tulumello (Author), Dave Cruz (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

Inside look at the Phoenix Suns discussing the personal clashes between players, changing of coaches during the season and the controversial trade of Charles Barkley after the team's dissapointing playoff performance.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 299 pages
• Publisher: Longstreet Pr (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563522691
• ISBN-13: 978-1563522697
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,002,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars outrageous!, September 11, 1997

By 

Brian Maitland (Vancouver, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking the Rules: A Season with Sport's Most Colorful Team : Charles Barkley's Phoenix Suns (Hardcover)

If you really want the inside dope on how the Suns screwed up their championship hopes, read this book. It certainly paints Charles Barkley in a bad light, but then again he is not alone in the failure of the Suns to win the whole thing. So the book does do justice to not just explaining Sir Charles's last season w. Phx., but also the whole Barkley era in Phx. As a big Barkley fan, it gave me pause for thought as to whether he has what it takes to win it all. No doubt he's a Hall of Fame player, a great jokester, but his dedication to winning it all seems lacking. Still he has given the game a whole lot more than most. For that I am grateful and the book does show him warts and all to be one of the true characters of sports. And these days we need guys like him to make sports fun! Highly recommended even if you hate Sir Charles.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly the Jordan Rules, January 21, 2006

By 

Joseph J. Compitello (Trenton, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking the Rules: A Season with Sport's Most Colorful Team : Charles Barkley's Phoenix Suns (Hardcover)

If you're looking for an inside the lockerroom, behind the scenes style book about the Phoenix Suns, then this really isn't what you want. This book, I assume, is a direct fallout from the famous Sam Smith Jordan Rules book, because it is quite evident that Tulumello is not traveling with the team or with the club anymore than a normal reporter. That does not make this book a bad book, but rather not as intimate as many Suns fans would have hoped.

I am a Phoenix Suns fan and a huge Kevin Johnson fan. First of all, the author mentions KJ's performance during the 94-95 Houston series at least a dozen times, yet not once does he mention the Hakeem dunk rated as the 4th best of all on NBA Shootaround this year. So, obviously his credibility is shot to me.
On a serious note, I was hoping to see a personal side of KJ, or at least have some glimpse into what made him tick. Not only do I not come away with that, I don't get that intimacy with ANYONE on the team.

The author uses public comments and quotations frequently throughout the piece, not a bad thing. But because we don't have a second look at the personas of these players, it in turn produces one dimensional cardboard characters. No one outside Colangelo, the players and coaches are looked at at length, which reinforces the notion of distance between the players and the reader.
Here is what the book is, right or wrong, good or bad. This book is more or less a running diary of the times and tribulations of the Suns during the 95-96 season. You get background on the playing careers of Barkley, KJ, Majerle, Hot Rod Williams, Danny Manning along with the professional histories of Colangelo, Fitzsimmons, and Westphal. The remainder of the book contemplates the inevitable exit of Barkley and mentions one amusing Barkley prank, but more or less is simly a recap of every game the Suns played.
I could easily have seen this book being printed as an insert in the Arizona Republic recapping the season because of the bland, dry, and stock fashion the material is presented. So, if you're looking to relive the old times of the Suns, great book. If you're looking for the Jordan Rules about the Suns, this isn't what you are looking for.