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This is my final foray into Bill Simmons who completes his long decline from innovative and interesting sports writer to celebrity wannabe with this piece of dreck disguised as a book.

Endless footnotes (The reason books have pages in order is so that one doesn’t have to flip back and forth seven times for every page), his banal opinions on a sport that he thinks he’s an expert in (despite being wrong in so many predictions, you’d be hard pressed to wonder why he gets paid to write about the sport)

I used to look forward to every Friday column, and now (somewhat) sadly have decided to move on after reading this monstrosity of a “book”.
Rating: 1 / 5

Now before you jump down my throat, I’m a fan of Bill Simmons Page 2 Column. I mean how can you not like a guy who looks like he’s high in his publicity photo? His columns are the best because of a variety of factors, but chief among them is their brevity. Even at his wordiest he maxes out at maybe four or five pages.

This book is over 700 pages long! 700 pages! The Bible isn’t even that long and it goes back millions of years!

I only made it 70 to 80 pages in before my nose started bleeding. I mean, how much is there to say about basket ball? Dribble dribble, shoot, score. Dribble dribble, shoot, score. Dribble dribble, foul, dribble, shoot score. The most points wins. This book lists about a 100 of the best players in history…. Sure it was interesting, and I’d be hard pressed to argue his rankings and choices, but Holy Mary Mother-of-God the paragraphs were miles long! He could have filled the entire Pacific Ocean with the volume of words he used. And he used big words, like “burgeoning” and “significance” and he even makes up words like, “demeanor” when he really means “the mean one”.

One last thing… footnotes…. So not only is the reader punished with 700 pages of material to slog through, but then there are micro paragraphs at the bottom of almost every page… if you made those paragraphs regular sized I bet this mammoth book would weigh in at 1,400 pages, or maybe even twice the original size!

Please Mr. Simmons, I love your columns and your writing, but next time can you limit the number pages to maybe 20? Or if you must go longer, insert captions that tell the reader, “You can take a break and read more later”, or “it’s ok to use a bookmark” or even, “Now go to the bathroom”. That last one could have saved me a set of bed sheets.

Rating: 2 / 5

Keep in mind when reading this that there are the Celtics and no one else ever played basketball but them, according to this author. Would have liked more Laker stuff, especially Magic… instead of insulting Kareem. Just don’t have a sense of humor for it. Ok, book Remember, Simmons called “Maravich” better researched…..more like wrongly researched. So follow this with a grain of salt as well
Rating: 2 / 5

I am a Celtics fan and this book makes me angry. It is not a fair treatment of the sport or those who support the concept of fair play. Simmons sucks up to Barkley like no other. He mixes up the Malones and their contributions. His treatment of John Stockton is absolutely without any insight. He makes light of Magic’s health problems. Isiah Thomas must have something on author Simmons. Without wasting any more time, the only good thing about the book was the introduction by Malcolm Gladwell. sports guy? espn?
Rating: 1 / 5

This was a great idea for a book, and I generally enjoy Mr. Simmons’ column and blog. However, I was unable to get past the prologue due to the horrible language. It’s too bad Mr. Simmons feels like this is appropriate. He would have a wider audience if he cleaned up his language.
Rating: 1 / 5