Showtime

Reviews

“The Showtime Lakers weren’t just the best team of their era. They were also the most compelling, the most charismatic, the most complex. The Lakers of Kareem, Magic, and Riley were to the 1980s what the Yankees of Mantle, Ford, and Stengel were to the 1950s: a team perfectly matched to its time, and place. Jeff Pearlman, typically, delivers the goods, celebrating them for their achievements, pulling no punches on the subject of their shortcomings. This is a vivid portrait of a great team, in full.”

“An era that redefined the game has found a storyteller more than up to the task. By any measure, Showtime is magic.”

“The names (Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Riley, Buss) and the games (four championships) have long been studied by basketball’s anthropologists. But so much of the story of the Showtime Lakers, the Team of the 80s, took place behind closed doors. Jeff Pearlman, as is his wont, pries them open and finds … a whole lot of LA living.”

“Showtime is a rollicking ride, full of great characters, killer anecdotes, and surprising details. Pearlman is an indefatigable reporter, and here he provides an all-access pass to one of the game’s greatest dynasties, with tales of Kareem, Magic, Riley, and Jerry Buss in their heyday. It’s a book any NBA fan—any sports fan—will devour, likely in one or two sittings.”

“The nickname ‘Showtime’ described the Lakers’ relentless and unparalleled freewheeling run-and-gun offense, as well as the entire era itself; the book it inspired is just as enticing—full of fast breaks, dramatic intensity, and celebrity sightings.”

“The LA Lakers of the 1980s became, by mid-decade, an extraordinary basketball team, perhaps the best ever, and if their flamboyant style on and off the court belied their discipline and frequent sheer brilliance, it merits the enthusiastic and wide-ranging treatment that Pearlman gives it.”

“The sports-journalist author of Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton returns with a tough-love look at the NBA team that won five championships in the 1980s…Pearlman ably demonstrates how deeply flawed human beings can nonetheless create a near-flawless beauty on the court.”

“Showtime proves to be prime-time literary entertainment. A rocking, roller-coast of a ride, it reads like the Lakers of Magic and Riley played—an artistic fast-break of revealing, sometimes shocking tales tinged with sex, drugs, and, most of all, humanity. You want to know the real story behind a beautifully dysfunctional basketball dynasty? Read this book.”

“Once again, Jeff Pearlman has produced an exhaustively researched, elegantly written book that recreates one of the most colorful and memorable teams of the modern era. Showtime is a great show indeed, full of colorful (and complicated) characters as well as a trove of details that even the most passionate fans will be amazed to learn. No basketball fan’s bookshelf will be complete without it.”

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