The Perfect Team: The Best Players, Coach, and GM-Let the Debate Begin! [Hardcover]

National Basketball Association (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 2006

If you could select the greatest basketball team in history, who’d make your roster? Could an all-star center come off the bench as a backup? Do you want rebounding or scoring or both from your power forward? Should your point guard be a pure passer or a scorer who slashes to the basket? Who’d be your enforcer? Who’d be your emotional leader? Who’d be your go-to guy at crunch time? How do you even build a team—with pure talent alone or with a combination of talent and role players?

Well your speculation is over—and the debate is about to begin. In The Perfect Team, the NBA tapped into top basketball experts, rounded up the greatest players, coach, and GM from different eras of the game, and now presents its argument for basketball’s most unbeatable lineup. Period.

Each member of the team has been picked as the embodiment of a particular trait such as leadership or competitive drive, rather than simply for being best at his position. And each player tells his story, shares his ideas about “the perfect team,” and talks about what makes great basketball. With each team member covered by a different veteran sportswriter—and the NBA has also rounded up the best in that business, too—the individual player profiles are candid, thoughtful, and entertaining, covering their lives both on and off the court.

Loaded with new and sometimes controversial insights into the players, their skills, and the game itself, The Perfect Team is not just an argument for the best team of all time—it’s an anatomy of the game presented by those who love it most and play it best. Sure to be the subject of much thought and debate, this is the perfect book for all NBA fans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The National Basketball Association takes an unusual approach in creating a team of all-time greats. Instead of relying on statistics, the organization chose each player because he possesses one of 12 qualities that former NBA coach Daly says "all winning teams must possess." While this selection method leads to a few surprises—John Havilcek (who excels in "perpetual motion and hustle") and Bill Laimbeer ("intensity")—the rest of the team consists of the usual suspects, including Michael Jordan ("will to win"), Larry Bird ("confidence") and Magic Johnson ("leadership"). Each person and his defining quality gets his own chapter written by a different prominent sportswriter. The chapters brim with information that will interest fans, but many of the qualities are interchangeable among this collection of winning athletes. The book succeeds when the writers delve into the players' upbringings and college years, illuminating what went into creating the qualities they display on the court. Another highlight is the section where the athletes themselves assemble their own best teams, which will help fuel the debate about which players really are the best. Photos. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Initiate a debate over the "best ever" in any sport, and settle in for a spirited exchange of stats and opinions. And that's just among fans. Here, in this official NBA publication, the greatest players pick their all-time best teams. Here's the format: a respected basketball journalist--Sam Smith or Bob Ryan, for example--profiles an NBA great. Then the players select and discuss their personal all-time teams. Not surprisingly, most players' selections are top-heavy with their contemporaries. Celtic greats tend to pick former teammates, as do Laker luminaries. Overall, the selections--in which the players reveal that, as judges of the all-time best, they are prone to the same lack of objectivity as any fan--are less interesting than the profiles: Bob Ryan's take on Celtic great John Havlicek, for example, is a work of art, and Sam Smith's appraisal of Bill Walton conveys a true sense of Walton's reverence for the game and its history. A nice mix of substance and trivia for NBA fans. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (January 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385501463
• ISBN-13: 978-0385501460
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,517,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars the perfect review for the perfect team, September 19, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Perfect Team: The Best Players, Coach, and GM-Let the Debate Begin! (Hardcover)

The Perfect Team, by Chuck Daly is a fantastic fiction book that puts some of the best players ever to play in the national basketball association like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Allen Iverson and plays out the games. They must win the world title, but can they? The protagonist in this ook is the team because they must win the title. The antagonist is also the team because they must overcome their needs to all be the best player on a star-studed team. this story mostly takes place in Los Angelas, California at the staples center.The conflict they face would be internal because they must overcome their own selfish needs like ballhogging to win. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because it was really good and kept me reading, but got a little boring at times. The morale of this story would be through thick and thin if we combine our talents and work together we then can be unstoppable. This book is a perfect book for anyone who loves the game of basketball. It is also a pretty easy read, but it is very long. The players involved in this story are Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'neal, Wilt Chamberlin, Jason kidd, Oscar Roberston, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Pete Maravich, and Kareem Abdul-jabar. Can htye win it all? Or will to all be the number one scorer make them lose? If you want to find out read The Perfect Team.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining and informative read on basketball, March 26, 2006

By 

Bartolo Chicago "Bart Chi" (Springfield, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Perfect Team: The Best Players, Coach, and GM-Let the Debate Begin! (Hardcover)

At last a basketball book has arrived with less emphasis on stats and more emphasis toward the intangibles and flow of the game.

Team related superstars like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, a healthy Bill Walton, John Havlicek, and Bill Russell can be included on this list of the perfect T-E-A-M without argument due to their styles of play and the minimal amount of drama they contribute over a season.

Shaquille O'Neal and Michael Jordan in their respective primes both had tendencies to dominate the ball and both can be drama queens if they come across something they do not agree with. Therefore, their inclusion on this team can create disharmony on and off the court over the course of a season. Yet, due to the success of their respective teams, they should be on the team with little argument.

Oscar Robertson was truly the most efficient and fundamentally perfect mid-size guard the game has ever seen. Yet, similar to Jordan, he dominated the ball which can restrict the flow of the game and had no patience with his teammates. Also, his teams in Cincinnati had a questionable track record as well. Therefore, the Big O should not be automatically penciled in this team.

Jason Kidd is one of the greatest team-related players the game has ever seen. But his issues are strictly off-court in which he has a tendency to act like a diva with some of his teammates and coaches.

Jerry West is one of the four greatest guards who ever played the game. Yet, his abilities in the clutch are a mixed bag (like Kobe). Also, with a guy like Jordan who has similar abilities already on the team, having a guy like Jerry West is a bit of overkill.

Bill Laimbeer was a left field choice. I'm assuming the authors were suggesting him as the 12th man (e.g. Laettner on the '92 Dream Team) on this team with everyone else being first ballot HOFs.

Allen Iverson SHOULD NOT BE ON THIS LIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who should have been on the team: Bird, Magic, Jordan, Russell, healthy Walton, the Big O, Shaq, and Havlicek should remain on team. The other players who should be on list are: Tim Duncan, Walt Frazier, John Stockton, Kevin Mchale.

Tim Duncan has to be on this team with his attitude and repertoire of skills. He should take Laimbeer's place. Walt Frazier should be included due to his defensive skills and ability to play either guard position. Also he has excellent off the ball skills. Therefore he should take Iverson's place. John Stockton is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) passers who ever played the game. Plus he was a great shooter and has absolute no B.S. on or off the court. Therefore he should take Kidd's place. Kevin Mchale is one of the greatest low post players who ever lived. Plus he was a great all-around defensive player and would have no problem playing on the bench. Therefore, he should take West's place.

Other notable players to consider: Rodman, Dumars, or Pippen would be great in subordinate roles. The only one out of these three who does not have off the court issues is Dumars. Wilt or Kareem can take Shaq's place as the dominant low post presence in the middle.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book would have been better titled The Near Perfect Team, March 21, 2006

By 

Garry Flora "hoop expert" (Amarillo, Tx. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Perfect Team: The Best Players, Coach, and GM-Let the Debate Begin! (Hardcover)

This was a pretty good book, with 12 writers from around the country picking 12 players that would supposedly form the "perfect" team. Nine of the 12 choices were fairly obvious (Bird,Magic, Jordan, West, Robertson, Russell...) but three of the players were, to put it mildly, absolutely ridiculous.
The book had Bill Walton, Bill Laimbeer and Allen Iverson as members of this perfect team. The only team that would be perfect for Allen Iverson to play on would be one will 11 other guys who were happy never to have the ball in their hands. So far in his career, Iverson has accumulated exactly zero championships.
Bill Laimbeer would have been better placed as a member, no, the captain of the all-dirty players team. To have this man on this hypothetical perfect team instead of say, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who won nine championships in college and the pros, causes the book to lose a ton of credibility.
The chapter on Walton focuses on what he accomplished during his career when he was healthy...which was about ten percent of the time. To place a guy on a so-called perfect team based on what could have been is a bit absurd, I would say. Space would not permit me to start listing players who would have been better choices that the fragile Mr. Walton.