02622cam a2200313 4500 2624266930 TxAuBib 20251120120000.0 250626s2025||||||||||||||||||||||||und|u 9798217060702 hardcover (OCoLC)1516183422 TxAuBib Smith, Samuel Francis, author. Masters of the game : a conversational history of the NBA in 75 legendary players / Sam Smith and Phil Jackson. New York : Penguin Press, [2025] 400 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. Includes index. Sam Smith and Phil Jackson grew to know and respect each other in the late 1980s, when Smith was a Chicago Tribune sportswriter and Jackson was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls. Forty years later, the two remain close friends. In 2021, Smith helped the NBA arrive at a list of the seventy-five greatest players of all time in celebration of its seventy-fifth anniversary. Phil Jackson was asked to participate too, but he's not a big fan of ranking greatness. They've been enjoying the argument ever since. In Masters of the Game, Smith and Jackson chop it up about the basketball life, the sport, and the genius and the shadow side of the all-time greats: Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Bill Russell, Wilt, Jerry West, Bird, LeBron, KD, Steph Curry, Bill Walton, and more. In a conversation full of high-grade analysis and high-grade gossip, we meet the stars of long-ago eras of basketball and see the mark race left on players and the business of the game--and we get a master class on character and the alchemy of a good team. And of course, inevitably, these two old heads get into the GOAT debate. There are so many huge characters here, and Smith and Jackson can hold their own with any of them. Their spirit--sharp, wise, irreverent, honest, respectful of the lore and legacy of the game but never pious--and the clash of their different perspectives combine to make this book a joyous ride, a short course in greatness open to all students. 20251120. National Basketball Association History. Basketball United States History. Basketball History. Basketball NBA National Basketball Association. Basketball players United States Biography. Basketball players United States. Sports History. Sports Biographies. Jackson, Philip, 1948-, author.