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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great look at the year that changed basketball forever., November 30, 2008
This review is from: When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball (Hardcover)
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In 1979, when I was at Ohio State University, the sports buzz was all about the Michigan State Spartans and their great player Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and a guy named Larry Bird who played for Indiana State. One team was undefeated, and the other was cutting a swath through the Big Ten.
But this was before (gasp!) cable TV in any but a primitive form. There was no ESPN. There was virtually no way to see these teams unless you scored tickets in person. And so it was that one of the great rivalries in sports history could barely be seen, much less analyzed by sports fans around the country. Only when Bird met Magic in that season's NCAA finals, could basketball fanatics really see not just what the fuss was all about, but the future of pro and college hoops.
In "When March Went Mad," Seth Davis, a basketball analyst for CBS, tells the wildly entertaining tale of how NCAA basketball came out from behind the shadow of college football to become a sports juggernaut in its own right. Even in college, Johnson and Bird were basketball virtuosos, capable of bringing their teams up to whole different level. There was something new and different and even a little mysterious being played out in college hoops that year, which brought in its wake a new crop of superstars like Michael Jordan and college sports TV contracts generating literally billions of dollars a year.
And it all started with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
With excellent attention to detail, Davis tells the real story behind that storybook year, relating the ups and downs, the PR and game-day disasters, the come-from-behind victories, the challenges overcome almost daily by two teams who had been completely ignored pre-season by pundits and analysts. From the head coaches to the scrubs, from the college presidents to legendary NBA names like Red Auerbach and Jerry West who were relying on Bird and Johnson to save a floundering NBA, Davis tells the exciting true story of two young men who together changed not just basketball but the business of sports, forever.
"When March Went Mad" is well worth the time of *any* fan who truly loves the game of basketball.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid but lacks flair; very much confined by its news report narrative, December 1, 2008
This review is from: When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball (Hardcover)
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I'm a sucker for a book like this, having lived through and loved the Bird era (and Russell, Cowen, and the rest of the glorious heritage, later almost destroyed and now revived) and having once been a 20-year resident of Red Sox Nation who even remembers the Patriots as the Boston Patsies. But even for a fanatically fanatic fan, it's hard to get excited about it. It's workmanlike but basically is a newspaper style narrarive of the season, with too much play-by-play of regular season games with useful though unexciting comments. Perhaps the very format of the book bounded its possibilities. It ends up just OK -- nothing special but delvering what it promises.
Lurking in the text is the complexity of Bird, who came from a background that almost guaranteed drift and failure but whose tenacity and integrity of his inner core won through. He clearly was less likable and more volatile than the persona presented by the press, and almost cruel in much of his behavior; he was also apparently a two-fisted drinker and enjoyed the resulting combination of party and put downs. This makes his growth and maturation even more impressive. The book hovers around this element of Bird but at a surface level. It also gives little depth about Magic's very different personality, that also seems to have had hidden quirks. These are two young men of whom perhaps there is little to discuss beyond what they achieved on court and there is little to say about that in words rather than through the televised game itself.
The writing is solid and avoids hype and purple prose. The material seems accurate in its quotes from and comments on players and coaches but the overall result is unexciting. There's little to criticize about it but little to enthuse about either.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fun book, December 15, 2008
This review is from: When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball (Hardcover)
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Today, college basketball is big business, with massive TV contracts and incredible hype. During the annual NCAA tournament, college basketball mania reaches its apex with "March Madness." Every red-blooded American fills out a bracket or ten and watches raptly as Cinderellas, dark horses, and favorites vie for supremacy.
But it wasn't always this way, and Seth Davis's When March Went Mad tells the story of the single game that arguably made college ball such a big deal: the 1979 tournament final, which pitted Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans against Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores.
Davis has done his research, with nearly 100 interviews and extensive trips to the radio and television archives. The result is a well-written, informative account of the season that led up to the crucial game. He provides ample background on Bird, Johnson, their teammates, and coaches, and puts the reader on the team bus as they crisscross the country over the 1978-9 season.
The Bird/Johnson classic came at a crucial time: the UCLA dynasty that dominated the sport in the 1960s and 1970s had begun to fade and television executives wondered if the public would continue to watch a game with no obvious favorite. With coverage limited, most of the country did not get to see many of the smaller schools play. With the advent of cable television, though, the game could get more exposure. The question is, would anyone watch?
After reaching into the backgrounds of the two principles, Davis charts the entire season in a way that keeps the reader's interest. By midway through the book, you'll be eager to learn what happened at the Michigan State/Northwestern game thirty years ago. Davis keeps it interesting enough to get you through the season and into the tournament.
Even if you already know the results of the final game (and most sports fans do), the book is still a fun read. Davis makes a strong case that this game not only set the stage for the Celtics/Lakers rivalry of the 1980s, but profoundly changed the way Americans watched college basketball.
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