Customer Reviews

Just Ballin': The Chaotic Rise of the New York Knicks

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been a Knicks fan for many years, and, as many others, went through a whirlwind of emotions during last season's crazy ride to the finals. Just Ballin' gave me the behind the scenes story of that ride in amazing detail -- from locker room conversations to vignettes about the players' home and family lives. What I liked best about Just Ballin' is that it not only gave me great insider information into the players themselves -- what it was like to be Allan Houston, Patrick Ewing or Latrell Sprewell during those crazy months -- but also went into the political pressures that were the backdrop of the season -- the rift between Ernie Grunfeld and Jeff van Gundy, and Dave Checkett's role as mastermind of the team. A definite must read for any Knicks fan, old or new!

Knicks fans from any era, this is a great read for you. And though I am not a NY fan, I still found the book filled with interesting, behind-the-scenes tidbits I had not read anywhere else. If you're just an NBA fan, you will enjoy this book, too. Lots of new information, and for you Knicks' fans, a definitive chronicle of an almost-championship season, complete with all the potholes and blemishes. "Just Ballin" provides an accurate, inside look into the New York Knicks' lockerroom, complete with head coach Jeff Van Gundy's motivational acronyms and general manager Dave Checketts' True New York Confession. If I had not already read the book, it would be on my Christmas list.

I liked the book. It told me a lot about the Knicks and the background politics that I didn't know. But I wanted more history about the Pat Riley days. It's not just about last season. There's a lot of unbelievable stuff leading up to the Knicks getting Sprewell. It could have been better if it had gone back into the team over the last 10 years or so, because there's so much stuff from the Riley era. Overall, the narrative holds up and the authors give some good insight about the reality of NBA life.

I'm not a huge Knicks fan, but I really got into the whole story about the team. It also told me lots of inside tidbits about the NBA that I didn't know. I couldn't believe what Michael Jordan said to Jeff Van Gundy in Chapter 3. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan, but it was a wild read.

As a lifelong Knicks fan, I got caught up in the emotional roller coaster that was the 1999-2000 season. Since the beginning when I was heartbroken to see Starks and Oakley gone to the final game against the Spurs, I would pick up the paper to read on anything new about the Knicks. Just Ballin' fills in all the little holes and answers alot of the questions fans will have about the infamous Camby - Oakley trade, how Spree fit with the team, LJ's leadership role, etc. And although I knew about half of these stories, I felt that the authors did a good job showing the evolution of the time and the pressure they felt. This book is great for any Knicks fan or anyone just interested in learning how the modern NBA operates.

This book is a great gift to an avid sports fan. I read it cover to cover in a day.

I read Bill Bradley's 'Life on the Run' about 20 years ago and had sworn off sports books since. This current group of Knicks did nothing to make me want to start reading again, but I got the book as a gift and after reading several pages became mesmerized by all the characters on the team. They're not my beloved Knicks from the Seventies, but this book really helped me to understand what the current NBA player is all about. It wasn't always flattering, and I liked that. I'd recommend this book for any old fogey like me who has trouble relating to the new guys.

This book is a good read, but I could not help feeling disappointed at what might have been. Except for the opening scene where the Knick brass is interviewing Sprewell in his living room in Milwaukee and another where Dave Checketts fires Ernie Grunfeld in a Westchester restaurant, the book is no more than a compendium of the writers' regular columns. There is little insight into the characters' motivations or the reasons why the season went from tragedy to glory and ended with disappointment. The season and the team were rich with intrigue and complex characters, yet the book remains surprisingly bland. The book is poorly written. It never rises above a simple retelling of the facts of the season. In fact the narrative gets lost because the writers settled for a sequential review told from the point of view of outsiders. As a fan of the Knicks, I came away with the feeling of déjà vu. I heard it all before. The writers covered the team for an entire season but the book bears little evidence of that fact. I hope this is not the definitive book on the Knicks improbable run to the NBA championship series. For those readers that did not live and die with the 1998-1999 New York Knicks as I did, the book will be an interesting read. But you will be left wanting more.

A great read for any Knicks fan. Mike Wise and Frank Isola give the reader an intimate look at the New York Knicks. As I was reading the book I felt like I was given an in depth look at each of the players and coaches that made up the team. The book is really like watching a soap opera, nothing but drama between players and coaches(John Starks and Don Nelson), General Manager and Coach (Ernie Grunfeld and Jeff Van Gundy),player and analyst(Larry Johnson and Bill Walton)Player and fans (Patrick Ewing and the fans of NY).If you are a Knicks fan or NBA fan for that matter, Just Ballin is a book I certainly recommend.

After reading this book, what can you really say except, WOW! I'm not a Knicks fan at all, but it's amazing how they took all their inner problems and used them to make the most improbable chase to the NBA title ever in '99. Of course I witnessed some of their heroics on national TV, whether it was Allan Houston's lucky bounce that ended Miami's season, or Larry Johnson's dramatic four-point play that killed Indiana's spirit in the conference finals, or Latrell Sprewell's incredible scoring run in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Spurs, it was all amazing. But even then, I knew that with Patrick Ewing's injury they wouldn't win the title, because of the Twin Towers problem in the Finals, and it proved too much as the Knicks ran out of gas.