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The New York Times bestselling author of Sweetness and Gunslinger delivers the first all-encompassing account of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of professional sports’ most-revered—and dominant—dynasties.
The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s personified the flamboyance and excess of the decade over which they reigned. Beginning with the arrival of Earvin “Magic” Johnson as the number-one overall pick of the 1979 draft, the Lakers played basketball with gusto and pizzazz, unleashing their famed “Showtime” run-and-gun style on a league unprepared for their speed and ferocity—and became the most captivating show in sports and, arguably, in all-around American entertainment. The Lakers’ roster overflowed with exciting all-star-caliber players, including center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they were led by the incomparable Pat Riley, known for his slicked-back hair, his Armani suits, and his arrogant strut. Hollywood’s biggest celebrities lined the court and gorgeous women flocked to the arena. Best of all, the team was a winner. Between 1980 and 1991, the Lakers played in an unmatched nine NBA championship series, capturing five of them.
Bestselling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost three hundred interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end—marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV—Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.
- Sales Rank: #343296 in Books
- Brand: Pearlman, Jeff
- Published on: 2014-10-07
- Released on: 2014-10-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x 1.00" w x 5.30" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 496 pages
From Booklist
Some books about sports (think George Plimpton or David Halberstam) are the equivalent of literary fiction; some (say, John Feinstein) compare favorably with serious nonfiction about other subjects. Showtime, by the author of Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton (2011), is more on the order of a celebrity bio. It is gossipy, at times sensationally so (particularly in regard to drug use and sex), and sometimes sophomoric (and cruelly demeaning of lesser players), but it imparts hard-won inside knowledge, and it is certainly entertaining. Many of its individual subjects are true celebrities—the ebullient and charismatic, though problematic, Earvin Magic Johnson; the moody (and far stronger words are used) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; coach Pat Riley; and even owner Jerry Buss—and with outsize egos to match. But, though not gelling immediately, the L.A. 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. --Mark Levine
Review
Praise for Showtime
“The Showtime Lakers are the dynasty that forever changed the NBA, transforming a game into an entertainment spectacle. Through his relentless reporting and buoyant writing, Jeff Pearlman has delivered the story in full, from rare insight into Kareem and Magic to what (ital) really (ital) went on after-hours in the Forum Club. Once you start "Showtime," you won't be able to put it down.”
—Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo Sports NBA columnist and author of the The Miracle of St. Anthony
“An era that redefined the game has found a storyteller more than up to the task. By any measure, Showtime is magic.”
—Mark Frost, author of The Greatest Game Every Played
“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.”
—Armen Keteyian, 60 Minutes Sports
“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 L.A. living.”
—Jack McCallum, author of New York Times best-seller Dream Team
"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."
—Chris Ballard, Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated
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.”
—Jeremy Schaap, ESPN commentator, New York Times best-selling author of Cinderella Man and Triumph
"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."
—Seth Davis, author of Wooden: A Coach's Life
Praise for Sweetness
"Mr. Halberstam would have been the first to insist that we not confuse fiction with nonfiction, and that we not mistake biography -- the telling of a life -- for hagiography -- the burnishing of a legend. Which was football's big trouble last week, it turns out, as lots of folks who should know better took exception to a new biography of Walter Payton."
—ESPN.com, "The Sporting Life"
"I found the Walter of your book to be more of a hero than the one people refer to."
—Rick Hogan, WGN Sunday Papers
"I have read the book and I can tell you your appreciation of Walter will be heightened if you read the whole book and not just the excerpt." — Rick Kogan
"Jeff Pearlman has written Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton, which depicts Mr. Payton as perhaps the greatest all-around football player ever, a generous teammate and a loving father."
—Scott Simon, NPR Weekend Edition
"Over the weekend I read an advance copy of Sweetness and found it to be an incredible, thoughtful, deep and profound read. It’s exceptional work. I wouldn’t let an out-of-context excerpt and some enraged condemnations get in the way of a fascinating read about a fascinating man."
—Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
"READ THE BOOK...But if you like texture, if you want to get the sense of a real life lived by a real person with real beauty within and real warts, start reading and do so with an open mind."
—The Indianapolis Star
"Pearlman did not set out to expose Payton but to understand him, to identify and define the qualities that made him so appealing. He was a football-playing hero to millions, true, but he was also a human being of considerable complexity. There’s a story in how those two sides intersected, and a skilled biographer gets to that story ... If Walter Payton, magnificent football player and Chicago treasure, is enough for you, ignore the book and cherish your memories. If Walter Payton, flawed but fascinating human being, intrigues you, read it. You might come away with a greater appreciation."
—The New York Times
"If Walter Payton, magnificent football player and Chicago treasure, is enough for you, ignore the book and cherish your memories. If Walter Payton, flawed but fascinating human being, intrigues you, read it. You might come away with a greater appreciation." -New York Times
About the Author
Jeff Pearlman is a New York Times bestselling author and sports writer. He has worked as a columnist for SI.com and ESPN.com, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, a features writer for Newsday, and a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and CNN.com. He lives in New York.
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
The Fabulous Showtime Lakers--Warts And All
By TMStyles
"Showtime" is an engrossingly entertaining retrospective look at the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s. It is an astonishingly compelling book relating everything you thought you knew and much that you never knew about one of the most exciting professional basketball teams of all time. This is a book not to be missed by anyone who was a basketball fan during the 80's and, in particular, a Lakers fan of that fabulous era. Kareem, Magic, Wilkes, Michael Cooper, Spencer Haywood, Bob McAdoo, Mitch Kupchak, Norm Nixon, and so many others who transform a lethargic Laker franchise into perhaps the most entertaining, fast breaking, and dysfunctional professional team of all time.
Jeff Pearlman has clearly done his homework. There are references to interviews over a three year period with all the major characters who were part of the Laker magic and interviews with many who were involved in the league but watching from afar. We learn that Showtime was the brainchild of Jack McKinney, an innovative yet doomed head coach, who saw his fling at fame destroyed by a terrible bicycle accident. The lamentable Paul Westhead era that followed was controversial and certainly ugly at times, including the feeling that Magic Johnson was the real force who got him fired. The Pat Riley era began somewhat inauspiciously and ultimately blossomed into one of the most exciting and entertaining basketball teams in the history of the NBA.
Showtime really began when Dr. Jerry Buss purchased the Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke, an owner content to be the overlord of a professional team that really didn't know its own identity or its potential. Buss changed that with his own personal desire to see a faster more entertaining game and his devotion to acquiring the young Earvin "Magic" Johnson to run his team and transform it into what quickly became known as Showtime.
"Showtime" chronicles the entire history of this era including flashbacks and behind the scenes looks at the interpersonal dynamics of the team, the coaches, and the owner. Having lived through this era and being a Laker and Celtic fan, a lot of what is represented in the book was known or at least assumed by the media but "Showtime" details the animosities, the friendships, the drug use, the wild sex, and the jealousies and pettiness of individual competitors. Norm Nixon versus Magic Johnson, the recalcitrant Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the drug addled Spencer Haywood, the front office mistakes of drafting the wrong individual, or making trades that alienated players. So much of what we saw (and didn't see) is revealed in "Showtime" to have been destructive beneath the surface.
Pearlman's book can be deeply satisfying at times, depressing and sad at times, and sometimes simply infuriating when reading of the people and the times of the Showtime Lakers. But, it all happened, and it is exhaustively chronicled in this can't-put-down look at the team that changed the face of modern-day professional basketball. If you were a fan of professional basketball and/or of the Lakers during this astonishing era of the ascendant Laker dynasty and you think you know its history, you need to read "Showtime". Pearlman's book examines this transcendent team not only on its entertaining surface, but with all the dysfunction that occurred behind closed doors revealed warts and all. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for sports fans in general and Laker fans in particular.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “WHEN YOU HAVE SOMEONE LIKE MAGIC… YOU RUN EVERY CHANCE & UNDER EVERY POSSIBLE SITUATION”
By Rick Shaq Goldstein
If you have had the opportunity to visit the NBA Hall of Fame… one of the things you’ll see are displays dedicated to teams during specific times that were considered *DYNASTIES*… One of those dynasties was the 1980’s Showtime Lakers. Before I ordered this book… let alone before I read it… I looked at my personal library and counted over twenty books regarding the Lakers. I at first said… how much more can there be on a team from over thirty years ago… and then I reminisced about how I had enjoyed three other books I read by the author Jeff Pearlman on… the Dallas Cowboys… Walter Payton… and the steroid cheat… Roger Clemens. I ordered the book… and as this review will confirm… I am thrilled that I did.
What makes this book so worthwhile… even with the knowledge of what I read in all the prior books I owned… and in addition to attending many of the Showtime Lakers games in person at the Fabulous Forum… and the fact that I had even played in numerous pickup games against a number of the Laker players… were three main facts… first… Jeff Pearlman invested his time and energy in an exhausting amount of piercing… in depth interviews… secondly… his writing style is smooth yet exhilarating… the reader never gets the feeling as with many other authors… that they’re just trying to fill additional pages… and the third reason… is the fact that “time” itself… over thirty plus years… over a quarter of a century has passed… and that means literary morals have changed… and what is considered acceptable in everyday journalism has changed. So thirty years ago when a written word was published… there were moral limits as to what could be written. Some examples are… in the past an author might write that Kareem was not a friendly guy… but today you can quote someone like CBS reporter Pat O’Brien as saying: “Once you accepted that Kareem was a “P”… you could get past it.” (Note: there are no abbreviations in the book… but it has been my experience that Amazon won’t publish my reviews if I spell out what is in the book… some things never change!) The author can also state unequivocally that “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hated white people.” You can also have quotes regarding Jack Kent Cooke the man who owned the Lakers-The Forum-The Hockey Kings-and-The Washington Redskins… and who sold the Lakers to Jerry Buss… from Hot Rod Hundley… who said of Cooke… “The number one “A-H” who ever lived!”
This additional literary freedom is why even if you have over twenty Laker books… many covering this time frame and period… written by everyone from Magic… to Riley… to Kareem… to writers who spent their whole careers covering the Lakers… this book is almost like reading about the same fantastic dynasty with societies blinders removed. It’s all here… from the sale of the Lakers… to Magic’s megawatt nineteen year old smile… to Kareem… snarling… moping… and growing old… to Riley wearing out his welcome… to the women… the drugs… and with the author leading the “story-telling-fast-break”… the reader will feel like he’s James Worthy… filling the lane… out on the wing… as the author passes you one gem after another… at full speed… and like “Big-Game-James”… you will never break stride… as you score a great championship read!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
From Spencer Haywood to Vlade Divac, it was a long, strange trip. And a fantastic one.
By J. LAWSON
Sometimes Pearlman writes about Kareem as if he's aiming to settle a score, and sometimes Pearlman seems to enjoy criticizing Pat Riley, but aside from those minor bits of turbulence, reading this book is like watching the vaunted LA Fast Break go on a 21-2 run.
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