The Book of Basketball is a Swish!

To his fans, he is revered as a God. To his archnemesis Mike Dunleavy, he is a "joke writer." Say what you will about Bill Simmons, but you must admit that the man has some nerve. Who else has the nerve to write a nearly 700 page book chronicling the history of American basketball. Apparently, Simmons has many more supporters than detractors as evidenced by the fact that The Book of Basketball has been on the New York Times bestseller list the last 3 weeks.

Simmons, also known as the Sports Guy, writes a weekly column for espn.com and is obviously a rabid basketball fan. Growing up in Massachusetts and Connecticut, he is a huge Boston Celtics fan with a major infatuation with the teams of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. This is Simmons' second book, his first was a compilation of columns about the Red Sox, entitled Now I Can Die in Peace.

Many doubters are hestitant to pick up this whopper of a book mainly due to it's size, but don't let that fool you, it reads much easier than you would believe. One of the reasons the book is so lenghty are the abundance of footnotes, but they are not vital to the narrative and even the author writes that they are okay to skip. However, this book is not for the faint of heart. Obviously, you need a passion for basketball because it is heavy on details and inside knowledge.

The book's main goal is to determine the best players and teams in NBA history and why some players and some teams understood what it takes to be great. Simmons takes his sweet time getting into the swing of things, but when he does, he really owns it. His vast knowledge and his humor sparkle with every word and anecdote. One of the brightest portions of the book is his convulted comparison of portland Trailblazer great Bill Walton "the whitest man you can find" to rapper Tupac Shakur, "the blackest man alive." The Book of Basketball is riddled with pop culture nuggets like that, making it one of the funniest and most entertaining book I've read. I highly recommend it to all those that would treasure a 700 page tome about basketball, pop culture and will make you laugh 'til it hurts. And that should be everybody.