Customer Reviews

The Jordan Rules

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4 star:		(10)
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With "The Jordan Rules," Sam Smith proves why he is one of the very best sportswriters in America. The book follows Jordan and the Bulls during their first championship season (1990-1991), before Jordan established himself as the most successful NBA player (in terms of championships) since Bill Russell. What is largely forgotten today is that in his first six years in the NBA was thought of as a selfish ballplayer who would never win a championship because he was not a "team player." Enter coach Phil Jackson, who in his first year would manage to convince his star player that in order for his team to win the championship, he would need to rely more on his teammates.

Great sports books are usually the case of the right writer (Smith in this case) being in a position to cover the right story at just the right time (Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" is another example). That is certainly the case here. As a sports reporter for The Chicago Tribune, Smith had plenty of access to the team during that first championship run, and he interviewed all of the principals extensively. Fortunately, Smith pulls no punches. The book's title refers to the preferential treatment afforded to Jordan that was a constant source of irritation to his teammmates. Then-Bulls Center Bill Cartwright, for example, is memorably qoted as saying that Jordan is, "Maybe the greatest athelete ever to play any sport...He's just not a basketball player."

Overall, "The Jordan Rules" is that rare sports book that transcends the particular sport it covers and can be enjoyed by any sports fan.

This is one of the great books that I had a hard time putting down. Sam Smith plays with our intrigue and wins out, enticing us to keep reading as we ask, "Did Isaiah Thomas really say that?" or "How did the Bulls stand together when at least half the team was demanding trades in 1991?"


We see them as if we were a part of the team.

*Hopson weeping after the 1991 title due to a fleeting feeling of comradely.
* Michael Jordan's off-the-court feud with Isaiah Thomas.
*Pippen demanding to be traded due to contract negotiations.
* Jerry "Crums" Krause being ridiculed publicly by Jordan and his brown-nosing cronies.
* Alliances forged through empathetic teammates who viewed the team's other pockets of faction with distrusting, and sometimes vengeful eyes.
* Cliff Levingston's constant butt-kissing of "His Airness".
* Horace Grant physically standing up to Jordan in practice and bragging about it later.
* Scottie Pippen's inward fear of Dennis Rodman.
* Phil Jackson's craving to buy a gun after a private meeting with a then-psychotic Scott Williams.
* The Pistons' mental control of B.J. Armstrong, Scottie Pippen, and others.
* Stacey King and Michael Jordan's verbal wars.
* Literal fist fights between certain players in practice.
* Jordan's constant campaign to assume control of the team's decision-making processes and how Phil Jackson combated his egocentric, and often enigmatic star.

A priviledged look into the makings of one of sports' greatest teams ever, and a eye-opening look into the makings of sports' greatest hero.

Michael Jordan has transcended from the ranks of a mere athlete to a cultural icon. Between the shoes and clothing line, all the commercials, the image, the accolades, the title of ultimate champion, one can sometimes forget that before he won his first title in 1991, people viewed Mr. Jordan in a different light. He was looked at a tremendous scorer, but not a winner. People questioned whether he would tone down his scoring and become more of a team player in order to breakthrough and win a title. The name of the book comes from the Detroit Piston's rules against playing Jordan. Sam Smith was a beat reporter for the Bulls and his insights into the innerworkings of the team during their first title run in 1990-91 are revealing and entertaining. Though his views of Mr. Jordan sometimes cast him in a less than favorable light (in reading the book you get the feeling that Mr. Smith is not a big Jordan fan), what he does show is that Mr. Jordan had an intense desire to be the best at everything he does. It is this intensity that made him the greatest ever. Every fan of Michael Jordan or fan of the game of basketball should read this book as it is an interesting chapter in the career of the best ever to lace up the sneakers.

This book covers the 1st Chicago Bulls championship season and is thoroughly enjoyable. This book does not focus on facts and figures and details of games. It is all about the interaction of the players, the coach and management. I did not want to put this book down. You will likely have heard many of the stories and you may not be overly surprised by many other stories in the book. But, you will not be bored and will be thoroughly entertained. In addition, I think you will be very surprised at many of the stories that were covered 20 years ago. Don't be afraid to buy this book. You'll be glad you did!

a great sports book. I loved it

Michael Jordan has always been portrayed as picture perfect. This book slowly tears at that image until what you have is a very human man. Many people see this as an attack on Jordan and others think it depicts his airness as an arrogant S.O.B. but the truth of the matter is it brings him down to earth. He may not be the high flying super hero everyone makes him out to be, but it doesn't make him the anti hero. He is a man with faults like everyone. This book is special in that respect ... it dared to bring an icon down from its pedestal

This is the seminal, breakthrough book in terms of understanding Michael Jordan. It laid out the terrain for all the Bulls books that followed, including my own, Blood On The Horns.

If you like sports, basketball, MJ, you will love this book. Sam Smith had the opportunity to get behind the scenes with Michael, other players, management, and others in the Bulls organization. This allows us to be behind the scenes and see what is really going on.

Yeah, you learn about Michael's bad habits and some nastiness, but overall you find out what a great man he really is. Highly recommended.

We can look back now and it is almost humorous that in his first six years in the league it was widely claimed that Micheal Jordan would never win a championship due to his high scoring, lack of a "supporting cast" as Jordan called them, and a selfish unwillingness to give up the ball. This book details the Bulls first of SIX championship runs with Jordan.

It is a character study of a whole team and it's management not merely Jordan from whom the book gets its title. "The Jordan Rules" have a double meaning. On one hand it was a particular defense that the Pistons used to contain Jordan and beat the Bulls during games and on the other hand it refers to the unilateral preferential treatment that Jordan received and that his teammates resented.

It should be noted that the year this book covers was Phil Jackson's first year as the coach of the Bulls and he implemented the triangle offense to try to include more players. Jackson is also demonstrated to use his psychology on many of his players to get them to play at a higher level and to often sway them into doing what is best for the team.

This covers Jordan mania, the entire season both on the court and off, and it also does a pretty good job of giving you insights into the rest of the Bulls players (Pippen, Grant, Armstrong, Cartwright, etc) and how most of them were miserable that season and the individual issues that they each faced.

This is still a fantastic sports book and it is now a piece of history considering all of the titles the Bulls were to win it its wake. I recommend this book for any sports fan, not just basketball fans.

Kevin W. Mattingly
Harrisburg Times.

This revealing narrative takes us inside the Chicago Bull's locker room during their initial 1990-1991 NBA championship season. Sportswriter Stan Smith gives readers a birds-eye view of the players, team dissension, the leadership of Coach Phil Jackson, even the political and religious beliefs of several key figures. Naturally, much focus falls on superstar Michael Jordan, who by 1991 was a national and international icon. An ultra-competitive player, Jordan's skills so surpassed those of most of his teammates that he often became frustrated and tried to do too much by himself. Some teammates resented Jordan's selfish play and preferential "star" treatment. Still, if Jordan wasn't real popular, his teammates didn't disdain him either, and with Jackson's prodding he played enough team ball to lead the Bulls to six NBA titles from 1991-1998. Of course, it helped that he had a superstar teammate in Scottie Pippen, along with capable journeymen such as Horace Grant, Bill Cartwright, John Paxson, etc. Ironically, "the Jordan rules" refers to the defensive style of play used by the rival Detroit Pistons against the Bulls.

After this book came out as the Bulls played in Washington, TV cameras repeatedly showed a fan just behind their bench taunting Jordan and Pippen by sternly reading aloud from this book. The fan had a reputation for heckling, but all he accomplished was to make Jordan and Pippen laugh uproariously.