From Publishers Weekly
Now a basketball mecca, Los Angeles was once anything but. In the 1960s, the Lakers lost the NBA championship to Boston six times and again in 1970 to New York. By 1971, Laker fans had grown tired of being perennial bride's maids, so much so that, despite a star-studded lineup featuring Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, the Lakers' first home game attendance was 2,500 short of capacity. It wasn't until well into "the streak," during which the Lakers won a record 33 straight games, that fans began paying closer attention. Rosen, a columnist for ESPN.com, writes, "The scoop around the league was that the Lakers' 1970-71 season had marked the team's last chance for glory....The Lakers were the over-the-hill gang and ready for the glue factory." And yet their new coach, Bill Sharman, "the best basketball coach nobody ever heard of," was determined to turn this aging group into a fast-breaking bunch. Rosen's volume is less about how these Lakers changed the NBA than it is about a team remaking itself in one remarkable season. The narrative pulls the reader deep into the action, describing every game, strategy and key injury, as well as the many records set (a 63-point margin of victory, a record 69 wins and those astounding 33 consecutive wins). Casual fans will likely be overwhelmed by the level of detail presented here, but serious NBA history enthusiasts, and certainly Laker fans, will find this armchair entertainment almost as exciting as watching a Lakers' game on television. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers won 33 consecutive regular season games on their way to a championship. The team, built around future Hall-of-Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, was coached by a third Hall member, Bill Sharman. Rosen, author of five novels and coauthor, with Phil Jackson, of More Than a Game (2001), traces the team from training camp through the start of the next season. His dual focal points are Sharman and Chamberlain. Sharman, who played with Bill Russell in Boston, convinced Chamberlain to play a more Russell-like style, emphasizing passing and teamwork. Rosen provides background for all the principals, context for games in the streak, as well as an account of the team's play-off run to the championship. This is wonderful reading for NBA history buffs, replete with anecdotes, humor, and revealing profiles. What Rosen doesn't do is make the case that this team changed the NBA. Still, recommend this to anyone with even a passing interest in the NBA. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Charley Rosen, the NBA's foremost historian, brilliantly recreates that record-breaking Lakers season. The highlights include a thirty-three-game winning streak that will never be broken, as well as the 'Hollywood Lakers' astounding the sports world by proving that style and substance are not mutually exclusive concepts. Along the way, Rosen reveals secret sides of the participants-Chamberlain's disinclination for post-game showers, Jerry West's nit-picking perfectionism, and the inner workings of coach Bill Sharman's personal and professional game plans.... I've always believed that my Chicago Bulls championship teams in the later nineties would have easily handled Russell's Celtics and Magic Johnson's showtime Lakers. But the 1971-72 Lakers would have given us a battle royal."
- from the Foreword by Phil Jackson
"Charley Rosen has written an accurate, expert, and fascinating account of one of the most enjoyable seasons any coach could ever hope to have. Even though I can still remember how each turning of that season played out, just reading this book got me excited all over again."
- Bill Sharman, NBA Hall of Fame Player and Coach
Book Description
An in-depth look at the most influential Lakers championship team-the coach, the players, the season that changed the NBA.
The 1971-72 basketball season was one to go down in history. For the Los Angeles Lakers it was a season of records, an incredible championship, and many personal victories-by a team featuring several players bound for the NBA Hall of Fame. For the sport of basketball it was a season of transition, when West Coast style overcame East Coast sophistication. And for the fans, it was simply a season to remember.
Charley Rosen, one of the best sports historians in recent years, brings to life all of the memories, events, and spectacles. Featuring an iconic all-star roster that includes Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, The Pivotal Season is an account of some of the greatest names in the game and their contributions to one of the most remarkable seasons in history. This dramatic narrative credits the Lakers coach, Bill Sharman, who, though virtually unknown today, was the best basketball coach of his time.
Photographs and action-packed narrative portray the pivotal 1971-72 season in this memorable book of sports history, which includes a special foreword by Phil Jackson. Basketball fans will be able to relive this amazing story of despair turned to triumph, when the Los Angeles Lakers won a record thirty-three consecutive games, persevered and defeated their archrival, the New York Knicks, won the championship-and in so doing changed the sport of basketball forever.
From the Back Cover
Praise for Charley Rosen:
"Rosen is the game's foremost literary chronicler."
- The Wall Street Journal
"The best nonfiction treatment of the affair."
- The New York Times Book Review on Scandals of '51
"Underlying it all is a reverence for a game that, when played well, can be a transcendent personal experience and a joy to watch."
- Booklist on More Than a Game
"The technical details in this wonderful book will give any fan a better appreciation of the game."
- Publishers Weekly on More Than a Game
"A fascinating view of the seamy side of sports gambling."
- Library Journal on The Wizard of Odds
"This is not simply a novel about basketball in the dark ages. This is a book about guilt and redemption, about the loss of innocence, about racism and bigotry, about class differences. ... Mr. Rosen gets the ambiance just right."
- New York Times Book Review on The House of Moses All-Stars
About the Author
Charley Rosen set scoring and rebounding records at Hunter College, earned a master's in medieval literature, played in the old Eastern League, and coached in the Continental Basketball Association. The Pivotal Season is his thirteenth book, and he has also written dozens of articles for publications as diverse as Rolling Stone and The New York Times Book Review. He is currently the NBA analyst for foxsports.com. Rosen lives in Accord, New York, with his wife, Daia.
The Pivotal Season: How the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers Changed the NBA FROM THE PUBLISHER
The 1971-72 Basketball Season was one to go down in history. For the Los Angeles Lakers it was a season of records, an incredible championship, and many personal victories-by a team featuring several players bound for the NBA Hall of Fame. For the sport of basketball it was a season of transition, when West Coast style overcame East Coast sophistication. And for the fans, it was simply a season to remember.
Charley Rosen, one of the best sports historians in recent years, brings to life all of the memories, events, and spectacles. Featuring an iconic all-star roster that includes Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West, The Pivotal Season is an account of some of the greatest names in the game and their contributions to one of the most remarkable seasons in history. This dramatic narrative credits the Lakers coach, Bill Sharman, who, though virtually unknown today, was the best basketball coach of his time.
Photographs and action-packed narrative portray the pivotal 1971-72 season in this memorable book of sports history, which includes a special foreword by Phil Jackson. Basketball fans will be able to relive this amazing story of despair turned to triumph, when the Los Angeles Lakers won a record thirty-three consecutive games, persevered and defeated their archrival, the New York Knicks, won the championship-and in so doing changed the sport of basketball forever.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Despite its subtitle, this book is less the story of how the Lakers changed the NBA and more a chronicle of the team's 1971-72 championship season. As a narrative of the season, it is complete: Rosen had acres of primary sources, interviews, and inside access. He details many of the games and shows the arc of a season the way few books do. But Rosen's style is also heavy and laden with sportswriter cliches. He asserts that the Lakers of 1971 changed the NBA, but it's not at all clear that they did, and Rosen's arguments are unconvincing. He claims that basketball in Los Angeles in the 1960s was lazy and lacked the killer instinct possessed by East Coast teams. But in the 1960s, John Wooden's UCLA Bruins were laying waste to the NCAA. He also beats the dead horse of "flashy, selfish West Coast versus old-school, defensive, hard-nosed East Coast" that is still with us today. He ignores that ABA teams of the time were as dunk-happy as anybody and West Coast NBA teams like Seattle were well rounded. The book is lopsided and does not prove Rosen's point. Of interest primarily to die-hard Laker fans.-James Miller, Springfield Coll. Lib., MA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Art & Photography
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