List Price: $24.00 Details

Save: $6.35 (26%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime & FREE Returns

FREE delivery: Monday, April 12 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from	Amazon.com
Sold by	Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon or get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Monday, April 12 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Used: Good | Details

Sold by A&C Multimedia

Fulfilled by Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

$13.65
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Vo Books

$17.65
& FREE Shipping on eligible orders. Details

Sold by: admire

$22.21
+ Free Shipping

Sold by: Publisher Direct

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Elliott Kalb

Who's Better, Who's Best in Basketball?: Mr Stats Sets the Record Straight on the Top 50 NBA Players of All Time Paperback – Illustrated, November 19, 2003

by Elliott Kalb (Author), Elliot Kalb (Author)

47 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$17.65

$13.65

$0.37

Paperback
$17.65

36 Used from $0.37 13 New from $13.65

Enhance your purchase

ABC's and ESPN's "Mr. Stats" ranks the NBA's greatest players of all time in this provocative and comprehensive book

"Elliot Kalb's work is beyond excellent. He thinks in story lines and uses numbers and history to make compelling and often original points." --Bob Costas

"...a book that any hardcore basketball fan can savor." -- San Francisco Chronicle

When the NBA released its supposedly authoritative list of the top 50 players, basketball fans everywhere begged to differ. In Who's Better, Who's Best? Elliot Kalb, known to TV viewers as ABC's "Mr. Stats," enters the fray.

The ultimate NBA historian and authority in armchair athletes' disputes, Kalb interweaves numbers, facts, and anecdotes to flesh out the central question in every basketball fan's mind: Who's the best? His choices are provocative (Michael Jordan isn't #1; he's not even #2), framed by discussions with unorthodox sources and respected NBA experts, players, and coaches.

A tremendously satisfying book for anyone hungry for statistics and debate, this is the ultimate behind-the-numbers story of the best of the NBA.

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publisher

McGraw-Hill Education
Publication date

November 19, 2003
Dimensions

6 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches
ISBN-10

0071417885
ISBN-13

978-0071417884
See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Sam Amico
285
Paperback
$6.69
Howard Bryant
677
Paperback
$8.99
Steve Silverman
6
Paperback
$16.95
Bill Simmons
1,125
Paperback
$15.99
Akeem Smith
1
Paperback
$10.00
Dave Zarum
52
Hardcover
$30.36

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Steve Silverman
6
Paperback
$16.95
David Halberstam
259
Paperback
$14.45
Bill Simmons
1,125
Hardcover
$44.00

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Sam Amico
285
Paperback
$6.69
Howard Bryant
677
Paperback
$8.99
Steve Silverman
6
Paperback
$16.95

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Editorial Reviews

Review

.,."a book that any hardcore basketball fan can savor."

..."a book that any hardcore basketball fan can savor."

From the Publisher

Elliot Kalb is "Mr. Stats" at ABC and ESPN. He was previously at NBC for 15 years. The three-time Emmy winner has worked alongside Bob Costas, Marv Albert, Dick Enberg, Brent Musburger, and others.

Publisher : McGraw-Hill Education; 1st edition (November 19, 2003)
Language : English
Paperback : 416 pages
ISBN-10 : 0071417885
ISBN-13 : 978-0071417884
Item Weight : 1.27 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #482,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #430 in Basketball Biographies (Books)
- #694 in Basketball (Books)
- #777 in Leadership Training

Customer Reviews:
47 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		52%
4 star		26%
3 star		13%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

NBA LOGO

Good book

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2013

Verified Purchase

Fun book to read with a lot of statistical information, even though I don't agree with the rankings, even back then when the book was published in 2004. I believe the new 2013 book, NBA's 50 Greatest Basketball Players of All-Time is better in every respect - with descriptions of a players attributes & skill set, player comparisons throughout,factual and statistical information,and up to date accurate rankings with perhaps the possible exception of Kobe Bryant. But recently, Bill Simmons ranked Kobe in his hardcover, The Book of Basketball, 15th on his All-Time list and then shortly after 8th in his paperback - we will all just have to wait and see how Bryant's career finishes out. So for the reader's out there, I believe the current book as stated above, when its all said and done, will be the most accurate assessment of NBA greats of any recent basketball book published, even over Bill Simmons! The 2013 book has gotten some inaccurate reviews simply because of the fact the author does not have a credential as a sports writer like a lot of the prominent author's for basketball books. Keep in mind when you purchase this latest book,there are many people out there who are as, or more knowledgeable and passionate than others (who are actually professionals), but who haven't caught a break particularly in the entertainment industry! Great chart in the back of the book:

One person found this helpful

Helpful

CKwon

Shaq, the best player ever? LOL

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2005

Verified Purchase

This book is an interesting read. And really, how can you judge who was really better when you are talking about the top players of all-time. So discussions like this are always up for debate and purely subjective.

But I do think that I know my basketball and the top 5 players of all-time has to be:

Chamberlain, Kareem, MJ, Bird and Magic. I absolutely have no doubt that these players would have thrived in any era and dominated. I really hate to leave Bill Russell out of my top 5 but the reason why I do so is because I don't think Bill Russell would be as good if he were playing today. Bill Russell dominated in an age where bball was played below the rim. Bill dominated due to his extremly long arms and his exceptional leaping ability and timing.

But in the modern era where everyone can throw down monster dunks, i just don't see the same impact.

As far as Shaq goes, a player who has to be taken out in close games because of his free throw percentage, he does not deserve to be in the Top 5. Maybe Top ten, but not top five.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Zeus

Poor or nonexistent methodology

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2005

Verified Purchase

After finally getting a copy of and reading this book through for myself I want to join in the review discussion and declare that this book is totally weak in its analysis. The writer ranks the best players of all-time but does not identify the criteria which he uses to arrive at his conclusion. All he seems to do is interview past players and present some selected (biases) statistics to support his claims.

Look, anyone can present their opinion as to who they believe is the best player ever (even former players), but what we need is a methodology which objectively determines the top players, and this book does not do that. As such I am extremely disappointed in it. Even former players can be biased in favor of their former teammates, or players of their era (that they played with), or just based on those they actually saw. Because many people did not see George Mikan play for eg. does not make him an inferior player, or justify a lower ranking. He could very well be a man ahead of his time.

Adding to that the author has some very questionable rankings which he probably made to stir up some controversy like ranking Shaq ahead of Wilt Chamberlain. Consider this, Wilt Chamberlain has a higher scoring average than Shaq (30.1 vs 26.7), a higher rebounding average (22.9 vs 12.0) and he played his entire career book-ended between two of the greatest centers to ever play the game Bill Russell and Kareem while putting up those Herculean numbers. Where is Shaq's biggest challenges coming from these days. Since Hakeem retired there's no other center even close to challenging his dominance in the paint and still his career averages are going down. What's up with that?

And consider this other anomaly. Tim Duncan is ranked much, much higher than David Robinson despite the fact that Timmy does not compare with the Admiral's stats at the same juncture of their careers. Timmy has now played eight seasons in the NBA and his career averages are 22.5 points per game, and 12.2 rebounds per game. During the Admiral's first eight years his career numbers were 25.5 points per game and 11.8 rebounds per game. Very comparable, if not slightly better than Duncan's. And consider this additional fact, the Admiral played his entire career surrounded by the two of the top centers in history, Hakeem and Shaq. Tim Duncan, who's natural position is a center, is raking up all his career numbers at power forward where there are fewer dominant players to defend him. Had he played his career at center, and matched up more against the likes of Shaq, et al then it is more than likely that his career numbers (especially scoring numbers) would be lower. I am not saying here that the Admiral is necessarily better than Timmy D. Frankly San Antonio did not win their first title until Tim Duncan came along the scene, and he proved in 2005 that he could win the big one without the Admiral. So it is possible that he is better than David Robinson, but probably not by eleven spots (#9 vs #20) in this books rankings.

All in all, this book needs to better develop its methodology if it wants to have any credibility as a truly great sports book. In the end, pay more attention to the statistics, don't just speak to the former players of the game. Their opinions are important, but they should not be the only thing to go on.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

SAR124

Great Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is a great book for a basketball fan who wants to get away from all the normal discussions about who the best player is. There is a lot of depth and justification for the picks and its a great read!

One person found this helpful

See all reviews