Playing for Keeps : Michael Jordan and the World He Made

Rating:
Summary: The best sports book I have ever read
Review: This book doesn't just tell you why Michael was such a great athlete, it tells you why. From his ultra (and I mean insane) competitiveness to his landmark athleticism. I began to understand that Michael Jordan is an argument for theism. There seems to be no way Jordan could have existed without God specifically forming him to be a basketball player. Many people talk about Jordans jumping ability but few speak about his olympic-type speed. Combine that with the ulitmate desire to win and you have a guy that could remain the greatest ever for a LONG period of time.
But David Halberstam is in no way offering a book full of praise to Michael Jordan. There were times in the book where I felt almost sick to my stomach reading how incredibly psycho Jordan can be. But you come out realizing that Jordan is indeed the best and there is good reason for it.
What I like most about the book is that it reads at times like a scouting report. It tells of Jordan in high school when he was cut from Varsity. He dominated on JV, and when he moved up to Varsity, he dominated on varsity. Scouts are quoted in the book as saying that Jordan was the best high school player they had ever seen. So he wasn't as much a late bloomer as a well-kept secret. Then it goes into college and we know the rest of the story.
This is most informative and intelligent book on basketball I have ever read. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: No Terrifically New Insight, But Well Researched and Written
Review: As a big admirer of both Halberstam and Jordan, I got pretty excited last year when I heard that a new book would be coming out. Now after, reading it, I feel a little disappointed by certain weak points, but I'd still recommend it overall, particularly to people who are curious about Jordan and who haven't read much about him before.

First, the bad: The book doesn't have terrifically new insights into Jordan. Perhaps this is to be expected for a celebrity so regularly probed, but I was expecting more in the way of fresh anecdotes, inside stories, etc. Halberstam, to his credit, brings a reassuringly thorough approach to his work, which made me confident that some of the more provocative anecdotes I read had actually happened. Still, at times I felt like I was reading direct excerpts out of previous material I'd read on Jordan, for example his own book "Rare Air." Also, Halberstam's insight into athletes themselves sometimes sounds remarkably one-sided and simple - I'd be curious to learn how many times he uses shopworn phrases like "passion in his eye" and "taking it to another level" in this book.

I shouldn't complain too much, though, because overall, the book possesses many strengths. The structure of the book is a pleasant blend of past and present, almost like a movie in which one starts at the present day, fades back and forth to various moments in the past, and then culminates with the capstone of Jordan's fabulous playing career.

One of the most interesting devices comes near the end, when the author writes a series of paragraphs describing where various figures from Jordan's past were on the night of last year's decisive NBA Finals game. We get into the minds of people like Dean Smith, Dick Ebersol, Buzz Peterson et al. Having met many of these characters through earlier parts of the book, readers are treated to sketches of what these key figures were thinking and doing as they watching Jordan come through once again in the clutch.

Finally, Halberstam does a decent job of analyzing and explaining some of the larger social currents around Jordan, namely involving the sports world and the globalized economy into which it sprang this decade. His multifaceted background as journalist and social historian serve him well as he contextualizes this greatest of twentieth-century athletes. For that I think we can all thank him.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating non-fiction even for non-fans
Review: I'm not a basketball fan. A friend of mine who is gave me this book as a present. Nonetheless it is an excellently written and riveting look at a very influentual aspect of American public life, society and culture. Halberstam delineates on-court and off-court intrigues expertly in a way that makes even the unitiated understand their significance. Jordan's early years are convincingly narrated as are powerful figures in his life, his dad, North Carolina coach Dean Smith, and Bulls coach Phil Jackson, compellingly portrayed. This isn't a private life though. Halberstam stays away from the wife and kids.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best Sports books in recent years by a master!
Review: When David Halberstam undertakes any subject, you can be absolutely sure that it will be exhaustively researched. Having read several other books by Mr. Halberstam I can tell you that once again that he maintains his excellent standards. He is more than fair to all parties concerned. Mr. Halberstam takes us to the board rooms, playgrounds, press rooms, restaurants hallways, corridors and offices where things were set in motion.

This book covers so much more than Michael Jordan and the Bulls. He brings to light so many different people and faithfully traces the current sports scene and it's precipators to the source. He does all this in a fascinating manner.

This was compelling reading. He covers angles missed entirely in other sports books. You are introduced to the major and the bit players, who are no less compelling.

If you enjoyed "The Fifties" and "Breaks of the Game" and are a sports fan. If you want to really know things got to where they are now. This is the book to read.

Mr. Halberstam is one of the literary treasures of our time.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling, thorough read on a legend and modern day sport
Review: I had read many of the current books having to do with basketball and Michael Jordan in particular and find that once again Mr. Halberstam has done not only a magnificent job at researching Mr. Jordan and the sports business in general, but also has actually presented something new to us. With more than a fair hand he fleshes out the major and minor players in the sports media, on the basketball courts and locker rooms. Intriguing, entertaining, colorful, fascinating, I could not put it down. David Halberstam seldom disappoints, this book is evidence of that.

Rating:
Summary: Playing for Keeps Michael Jordan and the Wolrd He Made
Review: This book is the best Jordan book I ever read. Lots of great details about JOrdan was included. This is also my first time reading David Halberstam's book. After I read "Playing for Keeps Michael Jordan and the Wolrd He Made" I think I will read more books by David Hablerstam. This book not only showed about Michael Jordan's life but also mention about how NBA change over time in the 80's and the 90's. This book is just amazing so i highly recommand people to buy this book and read it!

Rating:
Summary: Michael Jordan is *awesome*
Review: This is a book about a nearly textbook case of a type A personality. Michael Jordan is the consummate perfectionist and competitor. From his early days as an unknown kid at Laney High in Wilmington to his days with Dean Smith at Carolina to his days of scoring championships and NBA titles with the Bulls, this book has the entire history, and it makes fascinating reading.

What comes through much more clearly by putting his entire history together than it does even in watching a game like the one he scored 40-something against Utah when he had the flu, is how intense a competitor Jordan is, how he needs to win, how if you think you can beat him you are, you have *got* to be wrong. Golf course, basketball court, baseball diamond, wherever, Michael Jordan had to be the best. Combine such a drive with a good understanding of certain dynamics and a 6'6 frame with only 4 percent bodyfat, and you've got yourself a ballplayer.

Occasionally I was bored by some of the more financial aspects of Jordan's career, but the light that it sheds on the intensity of his personality is illuminating.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book About the Greatest Ever to Play the Game
Review: Any Jordan fan will enjoy this wordy tribute to His Airness. Halberstam loses a star for some stupid factual errors, which are unforgivable for a journalist to make. The most annoying example was his description of the final game of the Bulls 2nd championship where Paxon hits the 3 for the come-from-behind win. Halberstam inexplicably re-writes history and omits Horace Grant's block at the buzzer to preserve the win. Nitpicking aside, I highly recommend!

Rating:
Summary: Best Sports Book Written
Review: Quite simply the best book about sports written. Halberstam manages to captures the intensity of Jordan's drive, which permitted him to establish himself as the greatest basketball player of all-time; while, keeping an eye on the forces which allowed him to become an international icon.

This is not merely a book which focuses on the greatness of Jordan; although, it does that. What Halberstam does even better is capture and capsulize the events and influences that assisted in making Jordan the figure he became. What separates Halberstam from other sports' historians is his detailed attention to, and superb research of the supporting cast and societal influences.

Markedly as interesting as the continual rise and perfection of Jordan's own career are the other cultural and societal phenomenons, which simultaneously converged to elevate Jordan's career and change the culture of basketball and other professional sports. For instance, Halberstam fully develops the emergence of ESPN as a cultural and societal change. Not only did the coinciding emergence of ESPN influence and shape Jordan's career, but it changed the way popular America approached sports and reshaped the perception of American athletes. For better or worse, ESPN has changed athletes from mere sports heros into rock-stars. As interesting is the development of sports' agents and their influence on the players, and the resulting players' attitudes influence on the games that they play and we watch; not to mention, the evolution of Nike from merely a successful shoe company into a ubiquitous marketing presence.

And as interesting as the symbiotic societal developments are the stories of Jordan's supporting cast. Halberstam spends nearly equal time telling the individual stories of Jordan's supporting cast, who in-turn had a role in shaping the Michael Jordan that emerged. Absolutely fascinating is the tale of Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf and how their greed, envy and egos not only contributed to creating six world championships, but similarly destroyed the team they created. The light is shown on Jordan's teammates from high-school through the end of his career. We are treated to intimate tales of their relationships and interaction with Jordan, as well as the result that was produced. In particular, Halberstam's treatment of Jordan's high school career and the North Carolina mystique is worth the price of purchase alone. All of the role-players from Jordan's championship teams (including Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Steve Kerr, Horace Grant, Charles Oakley, Dennis Rodman, and Ron Harper) are discussed and introduced from an intensely human perspective.

This book is not only a must read for Michael Jordan and basketball fans, but fans of history who are interested in the societal and cultural developments that arose, from 1983-1998, out of un-equaled career of Michael Jordan and the rise in the international popularity of basketball.

Rating:
Summary: The Grandest Jordan Tale
Review: David Halberstam writes the best look into the world wide phenomenom that is, was and will always be Michael Jordan. In depth and detailed stories capturing all sides of the global icon who he his. The True and incomprehensible genius of his Airness, on paper in spellbinding fashion. The greatest sports book I have ever read.