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The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers In The Words of Those Who Lived It |  | Author: Roland Lazenby
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $1.92
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Seller: carpepmbooks
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 410087
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0071430342
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323640979494
EAN: 9780071430340
ASIN: 0071430342
Publication Date: December 5, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The first definitive oral history of the ever popular L.A. Lakers The L.A. Lakers have long been one of the NBA's most exciting teams. In The Show, critically acclaimed sportswriter Roland Lazenby brings the story of this charismatic team to life in an unprecedented oral history, featuring such legendary players as Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, and Magic Johnson, along with current stars like Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. Through in-depth interviews with players, coaches, and many other key figures, Lazenby follows the Lakers from their birthplace in 1946 Minneapolis to their eventual successes and failures in Los Angeles, using his flair for storytelling and eye for detail to show you exactly why the 14-time NBA champion Lakers are a celebrated favorite for sports fans all over America. (20051222)
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 A Laker Showoff March 23, 2010
Brian Page (Phoenix)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was fascinated by this book even though it was not very well written. In fact, a majority of the book consists of short quotes from various personages involved in the long illustrious history of the Lakers. Lazenby plays the role of a gossip columnist here, commenting on the various rumors and innuendo bantered about so freely. Normally this type of stuff would not hold my interest for long, except that it involves one of my favorite subjects: The Lakers. There is a lot of franchise history to be garnered from this collection of interviews and much of it is extremely interesting to a rabid Lakers fan such as myself, but I'm not sure how relevant this all might be to the casual follower of the team or the league.
The problem with this particular format is that many of the quotes contradict each other and others amount to unsubstantiated slurs. I especially didn't appreciate the numerous comments of the form, "...I'm not going to name names but..." These typically go on to describe drug, womanizing and attitude issues of the team as a whole without specifying individuals, but in the process smearing large groups of players with the broad brush of controversial behavior. Still, if you can recognize the difference between verifiable and unverifiable information then there is a wealth of useful historical knowledge to be gathered here. The reader of this book also needs to realize that Lazenby has his own personal biases and preferences towards those involved and picks his quotes and comments accordingly.
Despite its many shortcomings this makes a very interesting narrative that is jam-packed with Lakers factoids from the team's inception to 2005. It certainly altered my perception of Kobe Bryant among others, as I came out of this experience having much more respect for both the basketball player and the man. I am still disgusted by the scandal in Eagle, regardless of what actually happened there, but I now realize that this is really an issue to be resolved between Kobe and his wife and that we shouldn't necessarily judge people by the worst public mistakes ever exposed in their life. Integrity is not measured by our worst behavior but rather by the human equation, which includes the adjustments made to correct personal mistakes and the accumulated actions of a lifetime.
I was vacillating between giving this book three or four stars but settled on a low four in the end, around the eightieth percentile. However, your mileage may well vary and if you're not a hardcore Lakers fan, nor a aficionado of tabloid journalism, then it may prove a disappointing read.
 Lakers February 11, 2010
J. Johnson (Rocklin, CA)
This book was even better then I thought it would be. I reccomend it for all Hard Core Lakers Fans.
Complete and easy-to-read September 12, 2009
Vicente Llamas Roldan (Spain)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great book. Complete Lakers' history with easy-to-read textual quotes of the Laker's owners, stars and rivals.
Even For Laker Haters February 8, 2008
Howard Wexler (White Plains, NY United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For some reason, sports lends itself perfectly to oral biographies, especially basketball. The Terry Pluto book about the ABA, "Loose Balls" is one of the greatest sports books ever written.
This is a delightful book, an easy read and incredibly informative. All eras of the Lakers are covered, from startup through current. There are a lot of sources from every era, many of them contradicting each other, which is great.
Jerry West is quoted throughout and that is reason enough to buy the book. He is notoriously reticent and the author deserves a huge amount of praise for getting him to open up.
Even the soap opera between Bryant, Shaq and Phil Jackson is told in a way that is readable.
Great book!!!
A Good Read For Laker Fans June 27, 2007
Jeffrey C. Bullock
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A good book, although I started skipping through the last third of it - too bad there wasn't more info on the Minneapolis Lakers version and the early 70's West-Chamberlain-Goodrich Lakers - it would've been nice to read more about personalities on those Laker teams - there was already enuff media saturation with the Kobe-Shaq Lakers so i started to skip thru that section. Seems kind of sad that everyone didn't have the foresight (and media saturation) like we do now, to save every lil scrap and every piece of info, so we can have a better perspective on how things were then.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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