Customer Reviews

Top of the World: The Inside Story of the Boston Celtics' Amazing One-Year Turnaround to Become NBA Champions

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Peter May's "Top of the World" relives the Celtics' drive to their first NBA championship in 22 years and their seventeenth overall. May tells the story of how the 2008 Celtics were assembled and paints a brief background sketch of coach Doc Rivers and of each of the key members of the title squad. The author takes the reader through the highlights of the team's 66-16 regular season and describes Boston's playoff conquests of the Hawks, Cavaliers, Pistons, and Lakers.

The book's only drawback was the fact that it contained a half-dozen or so factual errors concerning scores or years, and it also falsely asserted on page 219 that the Lakers were playing in the L.A. Sports Arena, not the Forum, in 1969. While the book was good overall, it seemed that no one proofread it. Still, it will be eagerly devoured by any Celtic fan, and May himself must be as pleased as anyone that the title of one of his earlier books, The Last Banner, is now obsolete.

Top of the World provides a great insight into the 2008 Celtics' championship season. You get to know the players and their backgrounds better. The book is well written, easy to read, sustains interest, and hits the important issues. It is a great companion to the DVDs of the playoffs and the team. Highly recommended for true Celtic fans.

Rather than simply retell the details of specific games of the season, Peter May offers rare insight into the on and off-court orchestration of a championship season. From ownership to management to coaches to the players themselves - a near complete change from major loser to NBA champion - and here's how it was done in only one season !! It also is a great story of how maximum effort and selfless team play in basketball can produce a champion with obvious parallels for life. Any true sports fan - not only Boston fans - will find this a memorable and rewarding read and one that celebrates teamwork over the ever so prevalent "me-first" attitude in sports today.

For any Celtics fan, this is a great read. To see that the acquisition of Allen and Garnett was equal parts persistence, plan, and luck gives any Celtics fan hope that another championship is within reach with the current ownership and management. Thanks to Peter May for delivering!

OK, let me start with the obvious that you will most likely enjoy this book if you're a Boston Celtics fan and/or enjoyed their championship story last season. Peter May does a very good job at telling the backgrounds behind all the key Celtic players from the Big 3 to Coach Rivers and the lesser known characters, even some opponents. I would recommend this book to any Boston sports fan or Celtics fan who wants a permanent record of what a great season 2007/08 was for fans as the Celtics captured championship number 17.

As a big Boston Celtics fan, I was disappointed with Peter May's account of their 2007-08 championship run and their one-year transformation from the 2nd worst team in the NBA to title holder. It is short and easy-to-read, but much of it reads like a bunch of newspaper game stories strung together. There is little to no insight into what made the quickly-assembled team successful or how the personal relationships/chemistry of the team was formed. There are some good background accounts of the personalities that made up the team, but most of the book is a just-the-facts retelling of the season, with a few interesting anecdotes sprinkled in. May's writing is quite bland, and the concluding chapter on the Finals falls flat and feels rushed. The book was released with a quick turnaround and you can tell. Overall, the book does not match the great subject material it chronicles.

Living through a world championship season as a fan and re-living it can be quite different animals. Unless the chronicler reviewing the season - in this case that of the 2007-08 basketball season - hits the high notes and low notes correctly, the whole experience can come off as flat.

May does more than hit the notes. This book is a road map to the championship of the National Basketball Association, an amazing inter-weaving of diverse paths that led through high schools and colleges, off the streets and into the arenas of the pro level. In the transitory world of the NBA, where rosters are overturned on a regular basis as much as 50%, this story shows how all the right pieces fell into all the right places in time to bring a championship to Boston.

I found this book to an enjoyable quick read. I really liked the background the book gives you on the key Celtics players. I found Kendrick Perkins early life to be very interesting. Also, who almost became the Celtics assistant coach. Being a Celtics fan living in Boston and watching all the games I found the pages devoted to reliving the playoffs and finals a bit too soon for me but again I expected that when I bought the book. If you want to learn more about all the hard work it took to get the Celtics back on top this book is a great way to do that.

From the basement of the Eastern Conference and a backseat to the much-loved Red Sox, the Celtics meteoric rise to dominance in 2008 represents a classic moment in Boston sports history. If you have followed the Celtics at all in recent history, you've read pieces by Peter May and know that no one else has been closer to the team or the action. This book is great; very well-written and well-researched, providing fantastic insight into the team and its coach on and off the court. Championship DVDs are all well and good to relive the games, but it's nice to be able to read the backstory on an incredible season. Here's to another championship in 2009!

A fantastic insight on the most incredible (even for fans!) turnaround case study in basketball! It truly shows how chemistry and commitment can work wonders! I would recommend it for management case studies on team effort and performance. Besides, having lived it from far away and after a sleepless night in the cold to buy the sought-after tickets of their Rome match with the Raptors, it was great to read how all that contributed to the fantastic and breathtaking ride to the Championship! A must-read for Celtics fans and team builders/facilitators!