The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers in the Words of Those Who Lived It [Hardcover]

Roland Lazenby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2005

The first definitive oral history of the ever popular L.A. Lakers

The L.A. Lakers have long been one of the NBA's most exciting teams. In The Show, critically acclaimed sportswriter Roland Lazenby brings the story of this charismatic team to life in an unprecedented oral history, featuring such legendary players as Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, and Magic Johnson, along with current stars like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

Through in-depth interviews with players, coaches, and many other key figures, Lazenby follows the Lakers from their birthplace in 1946 Minneapolis to their eventual successes and failures in Los Angeles, using his flair for storytelling and eye for detail to show you exactly why the 14-time NBA champion Lakers are a celebrated favorite for sports fans all over America.

(20051222)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The love-'em-or-hate-'em Los Angeles Lakers and their 14 NBA championships may be the most overreported story in professional basketball, with countless books written about the team's flashy playing style and the notorious off-court activities of superstars like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Earvin "Magic" Johnson. Lazenby, having written excellent books on current Lakers coach Phil Jackson and top Lakers player Kobe Bryant, possesses tremendous insight into the team, plus the trust of players and coaches, which helps him deliver this entertaining oral history. Fans—and detractors—of today's Lakers will devour the book's second half, which presents insights into the Kareem-Magic years, especially about the women and drugs readily available to NBA players. But Lazenby also presents how the 1940s rivalry between center George Mikan and guard Jim Pollard parallels the recent rivalry between center Shaquille O'Neal and guard Bryant. Many authors have depicted the brusque, demanding nature of Jack Kent Cooke, the big-spending Lakers owner during the 1960s and early '70s, as Lazenby does, but it's refreshing to read former Laker Rod Hundley's pithy appraisal of Cooke: "He was the number one asshole that ever lived." (Jan.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* The Los Angeles Lakers--along with the Boston Celtics--represent the best in the five-decade-plus history of the National Basketball Association. Lazenby, author of many sports books including Mad Game: The NBA Education of Kobe Bryant (1999), has written an oral history of the franchise from its incarnation in Minneapolis in the early 1950s through its most recent run of championships under coach Phil Jackson and key players Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. The book is must reading for NBA fans both young and old. Most fascinating are the stories from the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the Lakers, led by Hall-of-Famers Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, reached the NBA finals five times in six years and lost each time. The anguish experienced by West--who has since become the league's most accomplished executive and general manager--over those losses is palpable. A driven individual and as fierce a competitor as the league has ever known, West nearly quit in frustration and entertained thoughts that the losses were some sort of divinely dictated personal punishment. He eventually got his championship as a player and many more as the team's general manager. Other fascinating eras include the Magic Johnson years and the Bryant-O'Neal and Jackson championships in which the attendant soap opera of clashing egos was as almost as interesting as the action on the court. The best book on pro basketball since Sam Smith's The Jordan Rules (1992). Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071430342
• ISBN-13: 978-0071430340
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I teach journalism at Virginia Tech, about 100 writing students each semester. I also do some broadcast work, calling games on a local ESPN affiliate. I have appeared in more than three dozen TV shows and and sports documentaries, including more than a dozen Sports Centuries on ESPN. I have authored or contributed to 60 books, including The NBA Encyclopedia, Total Basketball and several others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Tales from a Storied Franchise, January 27, 2006

By 

Andrew D. Knoll "Man of Leisure" (Illadel, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers in the Words of Those Who Lived It (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic and absolutely worthwhile read for any sports fan. I am primarily a hockey fan and being a transplanted Philadelphian living in Los Angeles for 20 years, I have a profound hatred for the Lakers yet I would GLADLY shell out the cover price for a book of this quaility with content of this much interest.

Many biographies and autobiographies have been produced by the Laker organization over the years. I enjoyed reading about Chamberlain (Philly's finest!), Jabbar, Magic, Jerry West, the Buss family and others indiviually. This book is a concise and comprehensive look at the whole bunch as well as many other significant figures whose contributions are not as well-chronicled.

The Lakers DVD set is considerably more expensive and insofar as telling the story of the franchise, I do not think it does the quality job Lazenby and company do here. This is really a marvelous compilation of accounts of a truly fascinating franchise that has dominated the NBA in four different eras and been highly competitive in most others.

This book should come as a gift with Laker season tickets and really is great for anyone interested in basketball or sports in general.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Slam Dunk, January 15, 2006

By 

Bob Fitzsimmons (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers in the Words of Those Who Lived It (Hardcover)

This is by far the best book on pro basketball in recent memory. If you're a fan of the NBA, not just the Lakers, you owe it to yourself to read this book. An absolutely fascinating oral history. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even For Laker Haters, February 8, 2008

By 

Howard Wexler (White Plains, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers in the Words of Those Who Lived It (Hardcover)

For some reason, sports lends itself perfectly to oral biographies, especially basketball. The Terry Pluto book about the ABA, "Loose Balls" is one of the greatest sports books ever written.

This is a delightful book, an easy read and incredibly informative. All eras of the Lakers are covered, from startup through current. There are a lot of sources from every era, many of them contradicting each other, which is great.

Jerry West is quoted throughout and that is reason enough to buy the book. He is notoriously reticent and the author deserves a huge amount of praise for getting him to open up.

Even the soap opera between Bryant, Shaq and Phil Jackson is told in a way that is readable.

Great book!!!