Customer Reviews

Character Driven: Life, Lessons, and Basketball

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
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- "Why did he (Kobe Bryant) and Fisher get along so well? It's because Fisher, at a totally different level of talent and skill, competes every bit as hard as Bryant." - Jeff Van Gundy, commentating as the Lakers clinched the 2009 NBA Championship.

Mad respect to DFish. He's one of those blue collar wearing, lunchpail toting, unassuming dudes, and he's real easy to overlook. Except that, once in a while, he'll do something sublime and make you realize, all over again, that flash is no substitute for substance. Kobe and Shaq and, hell, even Robert Horry got the lion's share of accolades (and rightly enough), but Derek Fisher's contributions can't be dismissed. Fisher was the third leading scorer in those back-to-back-to-back NBA championships for the Lakers. I forget which year it was, that he got injured and missed all those games, but I remember his coming back and shooting lights out, a suddenly improved perimeter marksman. And who can forget the 0.4 miracle toss? Certainly not the Spurs. There's a reason Kobe Bryant looks for him during crunch time.

CHARACTER DRIVEN: LIFE, LESSONS, AND BASKETBALL is Derek Fisher's autobiography, written by Derek himself with an assist from some cat named Gary Brozek. Role players usually don't end up writing memoirs; usually, that's reserved for the superstars. But Derek Fisher has things to say beyond the scope of basketball. Or, rather, what he does is tie in all the skill sets and philosophies he's learned in playing basketball and applies them to how he lives life. And, sometimes, it's vice versa. Hard work. Perseverance. Grit. A competitive drive. No fear of failure. Character. And faith. The essence of Derek Fisher.

In the game of hoops, Fish feels no pressure. Pressure is when your months-old daughter suffers cancer in the eye. Fish opens his book with a chapter devoted to this harrowing event, when his daughter Tatum was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. This, even as his then current team, the Utah Jazz, was in the midst of a playoff push. Appropriately, basketball was the furthest thing from Derek's mind. He reflects on the fear and shock experienced by him and his family, the frantic research and medical consultations, and the eventual course of treatment decided on. I watched that so-emotional televised playoff game against Golden State in which Derek showed up with 3:18 left in the game, made a key defensive play, and then hit a clutch 3. I've always cheered for Fish, even when he wasn't on the Lakers squad, and that night I cheered for him about as hard as if he'd just made a winning shot for L.A. Derek wrote this book partly as a thank you for all the support received during this trying period. Here, Derek hopes to impart the life lessons he's learned and the core values he's developed down the years. It's just one more way that this cat is giving back.

This book is ideal for those who relish reading stories about the underdog making good and for all the Derek Fisher fans out there who want a more intimate peek at the man. Derek covers a lot of ground from his childhood on, and he delves into the key, life-defining relationships in his life (most tellingly, his relationship with his father). He also goes into his basketball exploits, pre-NBA. The Lakers are in here quite a bit, naturally, even though, speaking as a lifelong Lakers fan, I wish he'd devoted even more passages to my team. And I'm kind of bummed that the 2009 championship run is only covered in the book's epilogue. Still, Fish obliges us with his thoughts on and impressions of Shaq, Phil, and Kobe. He tells several intriguing Lakers anecdotes, and this includes a very confrontational run-in with Kobe during their rookie season. This one incident may have gone a long way in establishing Derek and Kobe's deep mutual trust and respect.

CHARACTER DRIVEN is well-written and absorbing, and I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Derek himself wrote the brunt of the book. After all, dude is President of the NBA Player's Association and his major was Communications. Absolutely, he's very intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate and maybe not as reserved as you'd think. He's even cameod in TV sitcoms, just another example of Derek's willingness to break out of his shell. It's true that Derek is pugnacious and built like a bull dog. He is perceived to be slow-footed and past his prime. And yet he brings those intangibles, those championship-clinching, life-affirming intangibles. He's still an inspirational locker room leader. Still a calming influence, a feisty defender, and still very much money under pressure. He spits at pressure. Go ask the Orlando Magic about Derek Fisher.

Work hard. Be steadfast. Take a charge. Make a clutch three. Then act like you've been there before. Live life the way Derek Fisher plays basketball (or is that vice versa?), and you'll do good things. Where's my friggin' lunchpail?

Derek Fisher though not always a starter was always an integral part of four World Championships as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. He won multiple championships with Kobe and "SHAQ"... and he has also won a championship only with Kobe. Fisher has left the Lakers and played with the Golden State Warriors and with the Utah Jazz... and made his way back "home" again to the Lakers. Through the wins and the losses... through the changes in geography... and changes in teammates... one thing never changed... Derek was a class act both on and off the court. While other more famous teammates may have been the marketing face of the teams Derek was on... Derek always remained the voice of sensibility that the public at large glued their dwindling hopes to for a player that was an all around nice guy. I met Derek after a game in Boston when he was with the Lakers. It was my sons twenty-first birthday and through friends we were allowed in a special area for player's friends and family and special guests. Many of the other players ignored my son's request for an autograph... but not Derek (or Robert Horry). He was a gentleman and signed my sons Derek Fisher basketball card.

As the author tells his life story he tries very hard to serve two "masters". One is the game of basketball... and one is a little over-ambitious attempt at prophesizing that everything that is important in basketball correlates directly with everyday life off the court. As an example he goes from detailing all the hard work and concepts of playing defense in the NBA to saying: "Off the court playing defense makes a lot of sense as well. Now that I'm a parent, I'm even more conscious of protecting what's valuable to me and what's in my literal and figurative houses." After discussing the training his Father put him through as a teenager which included wearing a flak jacket while he ran... he segues to discussing being more open with his family at home: "with my kids, my wife, and in my other relationships, I want to let my guard down, let them know that THEY ARE WELCOME TO SCORE IN MY HOUSE, AND THAT I'M NOT GOING TO BLOCK THEIR SHOT AND NOT ISOLATE SO MUCH OF MY LIFE FROM THEM." The core of this book is the horrifying experience Derek and his wife Candace experienced with their daughter Tatum. She was diagnosed with retinoblastoma-a tumor of the retina. The story starts there and then flashes back to Derek's childhood in Little Rock Arkansas. He had loving parents to whom he is forever grateful... and he still doesn't comprehend their divorce and his Father quitting his job. Fisher was a high school All American... won an AAU national championship... won a state high school championship... and received a scholarship to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock... and of course the NBA career and championships that followed. Unfortunately the pure basketball segments aren't allowed to flow as fast and free like a "LAKER-SHOWTIME-FAST-BREAK* as they should... because Derek is trying so hard to inject and intertwine "life-lessons-learned". But like Derek Fisher himself... you know he means nothing but the best for all people concerned including the reading audience.

There are a number of historical/statistical mistakes in the book that should have been caught by an editor such as when the writer states: "KARL MALONE WAS ONE OF THE NBA'S GREATEST FREE THROW SHOOTERS, LEADING THE LEAGUE IN FREE THROW PERCENTAGE EIGHT TIMES IN HIS CAREER (FIVE SEASONS IN A ROW FROM 1988 TO 1993)" This is just not so! Karl Malone NEVER led the NBA in free throw percentage. And in the years the author says he did... the following players led the league: 1988 Jack Sikma 1989 Magic Johnson 1990 Larry Bird 1991 Reggie Miller 1992 Mark Price 1993 Mark Price. In fact Karl Malone's lifetime free throw percentage was 74.2% and he never even shot over 80% in any given season. He also stated that the Lakers drafted him in round twenty-four. There is no twenty-fourth round in the NBA draft. He was the twenty-fourth pick in the first round. He said that in the first game of the 1999-2000 playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers that ""SHAQ" was a monster, scoring 41 points on 14-of-25 shooting and making 13 of 27 field goal attempts." That should be 13 of 27 free throw attempts not field goal attempts. He says that "Bo Kimble, in one of the most moving acts of sportsmanship I can ever remember, shot every free throw in his NCAA tournament games left-handed in memory of Hank." (Gathers). That is totally incorrect. Kimble DID NOT SHOOT EVERY FREE THROW LEFT-HANDED... HE SHOT THE *FIRST* FREE THROW OF EACH OF THE TOURNAMENT GAMES LEFT HANDED. Derek makes the comment: "the NBA's policies do make clear what the expectations are, and I suppose it's up to us to adjust to them, but that feels a little like putting the horse before the cart." I believe the horse IS supposed to be in front of the cart.

In summary, Derek is a wonderful, beautiful, talented individual. Throughout this book he stresses the importance of teamwork. I think Derek's team for this book should have sent in a substitute for the editor.

Character Driven demonstrates how simple people can become important in their field and role models for some. The book reads well. I hope many young men get to read it.

This is a good book. You learn mutch about how Fisher thinkings and how he came to be the man and player he is today. But there is not mutch about games, series or other players in this book and that is my favroit part so....

p.s i am a Fisher fan and love his game.

I would give this somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. As a sports biography, it definitely pales against one I just read by Andre Agassi (Open). Fisher does a nice job takling about his values, upbringing, faith, and hard work, but I was a bit perplexed by one matter. He did talk about how it was a bit of a struggle at first to marry someone with a child from a previous relationship, but only in passing did he mention that he also had a child from a former relationship. It would have been nice if he elaborated on the past relationship or at least not made such a major issue of his future wife having a child, as that struck me as a bit hypocrtical. I'm sure he is not a hypocite, but the difference between a great biography and just a so-so one (in my opinion), is the ability to be completely open, as Agassi did, but Fisher did not quite accomplish.

I've read a lot of basketball books, from players and coaches, and this is easily one of most motivational, personal and honest books I've read. I also coach youth basketball and I believe every young basketball player should read this book. Wonderful lessons about commitment: the chapter about getting to the NBA draft is inspiring. And the story about Tatum's cancer is a great life lesson in prioritization and faith. I run a non-profit ([...]) that uses basketball to help underpriviliged kids (refugees, street childrent) in developing countries and Derek's book epitomizes so much of our principles that I will make it 'required reading' for our board members and donors. As Magic says in the foreward to 'Character Driven Life', the NBA and the world needs more people like Derek Fisher in it. Well done, Fish, and keep inspiring us on and off the court!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for my copy of this interesting book. My husband is the sports fan in our family, so he grabbed this copy up and began to read immediately.

It's chock full of statistics and tidbits about the sport of basketball in general and about the Los Angeles Lakers in particular.

For a young father, Derek Fisher experienced the burden of watching his young daughter suffer from eye cancer. This is revealed in detail.

Sports fans will enjoy this one.

This book came in record time and in excellent condtion. It will be a Christmas present for my daughter-in-law. We are all great LA Champion Laker fans!! GO Lakers