By Bill Bradley
Ranking:
An excellent book--no "ifs",
"ands" or "buts" about it. Bradley is a very introspective
person and a deep thinker. This book covers the 1973-74 season--not necessarily a
spectacular season. It was Dave DeBusschere's (Bradley's roommate) final
season. Bradley describes in great detail what the daily grind of the NBA life is
like. That's the gist of the book. He does go into his past, but this isn't
really a life-autobiography, because he only touches on points. You learn why he
passed up the NBA to go to England (he was a Rhodes Scholar), and why he eventually
decided to play in the NBA. He also gives the backgrounds on his teammates and the
Red Holzman's coaching philosophy -- and there's no doubt that Bradley bought into it,
reading him talk about it. The stories about Jerry Lucas' power of memorization are
amazing!
Bradley also talks about opponents (and goes into detail about the legendary duels with John Havlicek) and his conversations on the streets with the casual fans. To sum it up, it's kind of like a documentary of a season in the life of a professional basketball player. He's not flashy and looking for outrageous statements, and he does look within more than you see on a documentary, but basically it covers a lot of the little things that go on in the life of a player, and it's written beautifully by a brilliant man.
Introspection: 5+
Insight: 4
History: 1973-74
Readability: 5
Life on the Run. Bill Bradley. Vintage Books. 1975.
