This is the book that changed the way the world viewed Michael Jordan, while delivering nonstop excitement, tension, and thrills. The Jordan Rules chronicles the season that changed everything for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. After losing in the playoffs to the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons for three consecutive years, the Bulls finally broke through and swept the Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, on the way to their first NBA championship. Celebrated sportswriter Sam Smith was there for the entire ride. He reveals a candid and provocative picture of Michael Jordan during the season in which his legacy began to be defined, and seeks to figure out what drove him. The Jordan Rules covers everything from his stormy relationships with his coaches and teammates and power struggles with management—including verbal attacks on general manager Jerry Krause and tantrums against coach Phil Jackson—to Jordan’s obsessions with becoming the leading scorer, and his refusal to pass the ball in the crucial minutes of big games. Jordan’s teammates also tell their side of the story, from Scottie Pippen, to Horace Grant, to Bill Cartwright. And Phil Jackson—the former flower child who blossomed into one of the NBA’s top motivators and finally found a way to coax Jordan and the Bulls to their first title—is studied up close. “Smith takes us into the locker room, aboard the team plane and team bus, and seats us on the bench during games. Sometimes, books reflecting on a team’s success don’t reach the personal level with the people who made it happen: The Jordan Rules does” (Associated Press). Discover the team behind the man, and the man behind the living legend, in this intense, fascinating inside story of the incomparable Michael Jordan.

    Tall Tales is essential reading for any fan who understands that the history of the league does not begin and end with Michael Jordan.

    Then came the Olympics of 1972 and defeat by the Russians in the last heartbreaking and highly disputed seconds. Boycotts and another defeat in 1988 followed. Now, with the historic decision to allow our greatest NBA stars to compete for the first time, the Dream Team is set to go for the gold in Barcelona. 275 full-color photos and illustrations.

    He and many others who have played the game over the last 50 years form the foundation of Nelson George's Elevating the Game. . . . George] has brought his own love of basketball to this folksy yet scholarly study. . . . He] examines the sport's origin . . . and charts its evolution from a kind of indoor football to an American passion. Basketball has been called life in short pants, and Mr. George recounts how, for the first black players in a game once reserved for whites, the phrase was no idle bromide. The author tells how black players from colleges around the nation advanced the game, sometimes in cities where people were opposed to the integration of basketball. Understanding the way in which black cultural expressions often knit together, Mr. George even likens basketball to jazz and to the nervous, insistent rhythms of rap. It all makes for a rich and welcome addition to sports literature."-New York Times Book Review. Nelson George is a former columnist for Billboard and the Village Voice. His most recent book, Hip Hop America, was a finalist in the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Awards.