The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers In The Words of Those Who Lived It (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The man waited quietly in the Detroit airport, a mix of defeat and relief on his face..." (more)
Key Phrases: triangle offense, immediate speculation, pro basketball, Jerry West, Los Angeles, New York (more...)

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: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #505,948 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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 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 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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete and easy-to-read, September 12, 2009

By	Vicente Llamas Roldan (Spain) - 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)

Great book. Complete Lakers' history with easy-to-read textual quotes of the Laker's owners, stars and rivals.