Customer Reviews

Foul Lines: A Pro Basketball Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

this is a great BOOK! I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. I was a fan of Jacks "unfinished business" thus I bought this book and i was blown away. This book does for the basketball world what "get shorty" did for hollywood, a satire wth heart and soul.

Entertaining trip with an NBA team. Predictable with no twists or turns, but the authors kept it moving. A real fun read. If this is "dead-on" as Bill Walton says in the cover blurb, then the NBA life is just as good and bad (and as R-rated) as you imagine it to be. A couple minor irritations:

- As another reviewer says, the authors use unnecessarily obscure words. Sample: "... Kwaanzii would be ushered to center court, in mufti, and panegyrized by Padgett..." This is in the same paragraph where they use the word "redolent".

- The lingo and feel of the religious player is so thoroughly wrong that it makes you wonder what else is phony. Fortunately, this player's lines are few.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. I wish there were more like it.

Jon Wertheim (SI's finest talent) and Jack McCallum really nail the drama that is modern day sports. This book is both laugh-out-loud funny, and thought provoking. I kept thinking of Robert Altman's "Nashville" while reading it, as it takes a large arena (professional sports), a varied cast, and a compelling story, and manages to weave something very special. Definitely a must read for any NBA fans, but also highly recomended to anyone who enjoys a good tale of well defined characters making their way through extreme (though all-too-true) situations.

I bought this book because I love the NBA, covered it for a few years and enjoy reading even fictional accounts of it . As others have mentioned, this book starts off agonizingly slow, and never seemed to pick up for me. The word choice was also difficult to ignore. I think you'd be better off with MVP: A Novel. I read about a book or two a week, and this was one of a few that I simply stopped reading after about 50 pages.

The description of the thinly disguised NBF is lamentably (for an old basketball fan) on the money. Clearly written with an insider's knowledge and, apparently, no fear of David Stern. Read it and weep!

This was a really quick read that was funny cover to cover. It got the NBA satire down to a T. The bratty billionaire owners, the arrogant young players, the way Stern spins everything positive even though half the players are criminals. Some great specific jokes about A.C. Green, Doug Christie, and Stu Scott (names changed of course). It's also well-written and has compelling characters that make it a joy to read. I highly recommend this book to any NBA/sports fan, and even to readers with little interest in sports.

I picked up this book with trepidation, given its pro sports basis, on the recommendation of a friend. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a good story, well-written with a good page-turner quality to it. I recommend it without reservation.

Being an ex-sportswriter, I typically stay away from sports novels. But in this case, I'm glad I didn't. Wertheim and McCallum detail the NBA lifestyle with aplomb, a true insider's look. And everything from the plot to the character development keeps you entertained. Highly recommended.

Foul Lines is not just a book for NBA fans. This book was smart and funny. The characters were entertaining. The book gives a cynical look into the guts of the NBA and the stroy is so strong you can't stop reading even if you know nothing about basketball. I'd reccomend Foul Lines to anybody who enjoys a clever and intellagent novel.

As a former NBA agent, I know first-hand about the dark, sad, funny, and human--underbelly of professional sports and the NBA. "Foul Lines" made me laugh so hard, the flight attendant had to ask if I was o.k.

In current events, James Fey is suffering the wrath of an angry flip-flopping Harpo and an army of literary purists for presenting fiction as fact while shattering the hopes of feel-good readers into a million little pieces. McCallum & Wertheim have accomplished the opposite; presenting this entertaining and hilarious book (Foul Lines) as a fictional glimpse into the NBA--when in truth, it's a transparent veil thinly disguising the truth and reality of today's NBA.

Oprah should invite Jack McCallum and L. Jon Wertheim on her show to balance the universe, and to expose this wonderful book to an audience equal in size to its literary merit.

Steve Woods