Increasingly lazy in terms of conditioning as his career wore on. “The best teammate I ever had,” reserve guard Mike Penberthy says. Jackson rightly gets clobbered for an ego that old foe Larry Brown said “could not be any bigger.” And for poor treatment of veteran assistant Tex Winter, the architect of the “Triangle” offense, who at some point was banished to the second row on the bench “when Jackson thought he was getting too much credit for his team’s success.” He was an offensive mastermind - changing his style from year to year and from franchise to franchise to match personnel - and as good as any in terms of understanding relationships with players. But he was ordinary Jackson was a genius.”Īdelman wasn’t ordinary in fact, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame last September, one of nine coaches ever to collect 1,000 wins. His offensive schemes (knockoffs of assistant coach Pete Carril’s old Princeton offense) were predictable. He went long spans when it seemed like he genuinely forgot that certain players were on the bench. His substitution pattern - limited in scope - often made little sense. “Jackson knew (truly knew) his rival was no sideline match. Pearlman also marginalizes Rick Adelman, with an off-the-mark appraisal as such: Writes Pearlman: “By this point, Harris could say, ‘I’m giving each man on the team $10 million and my nude pics of Halle Berry’ and (the players) would hear, ‘Blah blah blah blah blah blah Halle Berry blah blah blah blah.’ ” Pearlman roughs up Del Harris, Jackson’s predecessor, with plenty of quote from players talking about the coach’s propensity for filibustering. The author takes an in-depth look at Bryant’s biggest offense, extensively covering the 2003 rape trial in Colorado, with transcripts from the investigative interviews with Kobe and his accuser. Writes Pearlman: “Over the first four years of the guard’s career, teammates recoiled at his arrogance, his indifference.” And then it got worse. “But in a sadistic way, not a good-natured, normal way.” “Kobe was such a bully,” Shirley is quoted as saying. The notion that Bryant was selfish and not a good teammate - at least through the early part of his career - is corroborated by a number of biting comments from former teammates, including Paul Shirley, who calls him a psychopath. And if Pearlman lean toward the opinions of Jackson and O’Neal because they cooperated - sorry, Kobe, you had your chance. The author neatly puts into context the complexities of the main characters. There was enough dysfunction and chaos at times that it reminded me of the Jail Blazers (or perhaps Jail Blazers Lite). It’s roughly the same time frame as my “Jail Blazers” book, which detailed the period from 1995-to-2006. Pearlman pulls no punches in this revealing review of the Lakers covering the 1996-to-2004 period, during which they won three straight NBA championships (1999-2002). Shaq gave me an hour and twenty (minutes), and he was excellent.” Two of his best sources, however, were the other protagonists in the three-ring circus - center Shaquille O’Neal and coach Phil Jackson, the latter inviting Pearlman to his home in Montana. You’re just the vessel.”ĭuring the interview process, Pearlman reached out to Bryant. I didn’t have any opinions on Kobe going in. All I got was a few Tweets - a shockingly bare minimum (of criticism). I felt the same thing was going to happen here. ‘Don’t come to Chicago.’ I ended up scarred by that experience. “There was a lot of (controversial) stuff from the end of his life,” Pearlman says. In 2012, Pearlman wrote a book entitled, “Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton.” A few weeks before the unauthorized biography was released, Sports Illustrated ran a cover excerpt. You’re writing about a period of history. “I was nervous about what the blowback would be. … but the only thing I did was add the three-page author’s note (before the prologue). I’m not saying later on I didn’t think about that. “My first thought was how incredibly sad it was. “It definitely did not,” Pearlman tells me. Did the untimely death cause him to soften his commentary on the legendary Laker? Pearlman’s presentation reflected a good portion of the latter. Kobe Bryant - one of the protagonists in the author’s book about the Los Angeles Lakers of the late 1990s and early 2000s - was killed in a tragic helicopter accident.īryant’s story through those years was a mixture of overwhelming success and undeniable failure. I do get a commission if you use the links in this post.)Īs the manuscript was completed for “Three-Ring Circus” in early 2020, author Jeff Pearlman found himself in what some would consider a quandary. (To make it easy for you to buy any of these books if you are interested, I made each image linked to buying the book right on.
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