Customer Reviews

Unfinished Business: On and Off the Court With the 1990-91 Boston Celtics

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Right up there with Halberstam's "The Breaks of the Game". A terrific read by a writer whom I wish would have produced more work in the following years. McCallum does a terrific job for SI today, but it's books like this that leave me wanting more from him.

For any Celtics fan of the Bird Era, this book opens doors that would have otherwise have stayed closed: we get to see the biting yet inclusive humor of the aging C's, especially McHale, as well as the overall intelligence of the team that produced a slew of future NBA coaches and GM's. This was a team to be admired and maybe even loved, despite their lack of a championship.

McCallum provides a full range of background into the minutia of modern day sports and the NBA circa 1991. By chronicling a storied NBA franchise, with 3 of the all-time players still revelant, you can see exactly how athletes live in their own special world and how personalities can alter events.

I read this back in the day. Basketball books have been a whole lot of miss and very little hit over the years. This wasn't a hugely successful commercial project because the Celtics weren't winning big by the time Jack wrote this. That's the only reason it wasn't a hit. Otherwise, it's a fun read. Every bit as perceptive about the early 90s as 007 is about fun and gun in the Suns. And the characters are larger. Those old Celtics will light up the horizon in basketball lit for years to come. Bird, McHale, Chief, and the rest fighting against the dying of the light. Sweet words about a sweet team and a sweet game.

Roland Lazenby
author of The Show

After the Boston Celtics suffered a surprising first-round playoff exit at the hands of the New York Knicks in 1990, the team came to the realization that it was time to make significant changes if the team hoped credibly to compete for one more title before the retirements of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish. In "Unfinished Business," Jack McCallum tracked the Celtics' attempt to rebound in 1990-91, from the draft and the hiring of Dave Gavitt in the summer through the playoffs the next spring.

McCallum recalls how new coach Chris Ford retooled the team, injecting an element of speed and a running game with younger players like Dee Brown, Brian Shaw, Reggie Lewis, and Kevin Gamble. The author shows how the team jelled on the court and relates some of the off-the-court stories of that season, and notes that the team had a fresher, hipper image as a result of adding the younger players, culminating in Brown's memorable win in the Slam Dunk Contest that year.

For the Celtics, the season was one of change off the court as well as on--McCallum discusses the retirement of radio announcer Johnny Most and the advent of halftime promotions at Boston Garden.

The author marches through the regular season month by month, noting that the changes made to the team worked spectacularly early on--the Celtics jumped out to a 29-5 start and were seen as possible championship contenders. At the time, I was living in North Texas and got to see Bird, McHale, and Parish play in person when the Celtics came to Dallas in December 1990. Despite the team's great start, though, injuries set in late in the season and the team finished with a 56-26 record.

McCallum does a good job covering the team's two playoff series--the intense, entertaining, and memorable first-round win over the Pacers, and the competitive second-round series in which the Celtics fell to the Pistons. The deciding Game 5 against the Pacers, a 124-121 nail-biter in which Bird returned from a second-quarter injury to play spectacularly, might have been the most compelling game in Bird's last three seasons.

For the Celtics, the 1990-91 season might have been more interesting than any other from 1988-89 through 2006-07, and "Unfinished Business" is a solid look back at that campaign.

Jack McCallum is the NBA's Stephen King.

How do I get that, you may wonder? Well, here's what I think: McCallum is a solid writer, and never fails to keep the reader interested -- but ultimately, he's not great, and his work is nothing spectacular. What this book is MOST CERTAINLY NOT is an updated version of Halberstam's "Breaks of the Game," a landmark work in NBA and sports nonfiction that truly captured the complete essence of the Association at a given point in time -- something that McCallum alludes to attempting in the introduction. McCallum's writing, unlike Halberstam's, does not elevate the material into something more poignant than writing about sports; rather, what McCallum does well is portray characters, and it is the outstanding characters he documents who carry his work and make it memorable.

Of course, the character who defines "Unfinished Business" is Kevin McHale, the Celtics' power forward. Ever-present and almost always quick with a quip, McHale was the most quotable and reliable Celtic through the entire narrative. And yet, as McHale would be the first to notice and tell you, the entire book is overshadowed by the presence of basketball legend Larry Bird -- but somehow, in the midst of spending an entire season with the Celtics, McCallum comes away with an infirm sense of who Bird is. We see Bird, but we do not know him, not like we know McHale or Dee Brown or the coaching staff. Much of this is due to Bird's reticence and love of privacy, but all the same: for a year with the Celtics, there needs to be more of Larry Bird.

What McCallum has always done best is capture the NBA's new important player trait in the money era: ego -- in his newer book, "Seven Seconds or Less," the focus was on the perpetually insecure Shawn Marion, requiring reassurances from Suns coaches -- here, the main ego in question is McHale's, a man trapped between amusement, contentedness, and disappointment and playing perpetual second fiddle to Larry Bird.

In fact, I consider this a direct predecessor to "SSOL." Both the 90-91 Celtics and the 05-06 were immensely talented teams, expected to compete for championships, who ultimately ended up exiting the playoffs short of the ultimate stage. I loved those Suns teams, but "SSOL" never left a lasting impression on me past the wry wits of Mike D'Antoni and the Suns' coaches. "Unfinished Business" is ultimately the same -- a fun, quick read that lacks true depth or insight. Months from now, what I'll remember most are McHale's demented jokes.

But, all the same, if you're any sort of a Celtic, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, or NBA fan, read this book, if only for a glimpse into one season in the early 90s, when the Celtics were beginning their decline. And, for fun, read "The Jordan Rules," another cross-section of the exact same season, told from the part of the ascendant Chicago Bulls and one Michael Jordan.