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Review
"This is a fascinating and funny book, a fly-on-the-ball account of what life is really like in the NBA. McCallum writes about basketball the way only a few have ever played it: with a grace and insight that change the way you look at the game. My one complaint: The book, like the season it describes, ends too soon."

-- Steve Rushin, Sports Illustrated

"No team on the NBA map runs like the Suns or has fun like the Suns. And I can't think of another NBA team that would grant this kind of behind-the-scenes access to a scribe. If you like watching the Suns play -- and how can you not? -- you'll love reading the untold stories from the inside from Basketball Hall of Famer Jack McCallum."

-- Marc Stein, NBA columnist and analyst, ESPN.com and ESPN

"Seven Seconds or Less is a fascinating inside look at the NBA by one of the all-time great basketball writers. Jack McCallum makes you feel like you're part of the Phoenix Suns and their remarkable season. A Hall of Fame book by a Hall of Fame writer. I absolutely loved it!"

-- Mike Breen, ABC/ESPN broadcaster

Product Description
In Seven Seconds or Less, Sports Illustrated's chief NBA writer, Jack McCallum, gets in the paint with the Phoenix Suns and takes a season-long look at the NBA's most exciting and controversial team.

A few weeks before the 2005-2006 NBA training camps began, Jack McCallum called the Phoenix Suns ace director of public relations to propose a story idea for Sports Illustrated. He would spend the preseason with the team as an "assistant coach" and then write a story about his experiences. He was quickly granted access, and while his role as "assistant coach" lasted only through the preseason, McCallum stayed on with the team throughout their amazing 2005-2006 season. McCallum was looking for real inside access and he certainly got it. He spent the season in the locker room and in the coaches' meetings, learning what makes this wildly popular, innovative, and international assemblage of talented players and brilliant coaches tick.

For years, NBA basketball was marked by a plodding, dull-as-dishwater style of play -- that was until coach Mike D'Antoni, point guard Steve Nash, and the high-flying Phoenix Suns set the league on fire with their old-school, run-and-gun approach to offense. Along the way they won back legions of disillusioned fans and demonstrated the virtues of team play to a league preoccupied with one-on-one theatrics.

In Seven Seconds or Less, McCallum describes his year trying to keep up with the fast-breaking Suns on and off the court. He takes readers inside the heads of Nash, the team's mercurial floor general; the maverick D'Antoni; and dozens of others who make up the close-knit Suns family. On the court, there's excitement as the Suns overcome a rash of injuries to once again battle for a conference title. Off the court, controversy rages as the team endures a major front-office change in midseason. Throughout it all, the team continues to bedevil opponents and challenge the status quo with their throwback style.

In the spirit of Buzz Bissinger's Three Nights in August and John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink, Seven Seconds or Less is an in-depth look at one of the greatest shows in sports.

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