Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Three-ring circus : Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the crazy years of the Lakers dynasty /

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020Description: 426 pagesContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781328530004
  • 1328530000
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 796.323/640979494 23
LOC classification:
  • GV885.52.L67 Pff 2020
Contents:
Magic -- The chosen one -- Kazaam! -- Formation -- Nick the quick -- Fox catcher -- Worm food -- Phil the void -- Turning around -- Someone shoot J.R. -- The coaching job -- Kings without a crown -- Getting bored with it -- Room -- R.A.P.E. -- The last season -- Survival -- The end.
Summary: "The story of the Lakers dynasty from 1996 through 2004, when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal combined-and collided-to help bring the Lakers three straight championships and restore the franchise as a powerhouse"--
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Star ratings
    Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)
Holdings
Item type Current library Home library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Standard Loan Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Nonfiction Coeur d'Alene Library Book 796.323 PEARLMA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 50610022730977
Standard Loan Hayden Library Adult Nonfiction Hayden Library Book 796.32/PEARLMA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Checked out 04/06/2024 50610022536366
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The story of the Lakers dynasty from 1996 through 2004, when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal combined--and collided--to help bring the Lakers three straight championships and restore the franchise as a powerhouse



In the history of modern sport, there have never been two high-level teammates who loathed each other the way Shaquille O'Neal loathed Kobe Bryant, and Kobe Bryant loathed Shaquille O'Neal. From public sniping and sparring, to physical altercations and the repeated threats of trade, it was warfare. And yet, despite eight years of infighting and hostility, by turns mediated and encouraged by coach Phil Jackson, the Shaq-Kobe duo resulted in one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. Together, the two led the Lakers to three straight championships and returned glory and excitement to Los Angeles.



In the tradition of Jeff Pearlman's bestsellers Showtime, Boys Will Be Boys, and The Bad Guys Won, Three-Ring Circus is a rollicking deep dive into one of sports' most fraught yet successful pairings.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Magic -- The chosen one -- Kazaam! -- Formation -- Nick the quick -- Fox catcher -- Worm food -- Phil the void -- Turning around -- Someone shoot J.R. -- The coaching job -- Kings without a crown -- Getting bored with it -- Room -- R.A.P.E. -- The last season -- Survival -- The end.

"The story of the Lakers dynasty from 1996 through 2004, when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal combined-and collided-to help bring the Lakers three straight championships and restore the franchise as a powerhouse"--

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Conducting interviews with former players and coaches, Pearlman (Showtime; Football for a Buck) profiles the success and discord surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 to 2004. From the free agent signing of NBA center Shaquille O'Neal to the drafting of high school senior Kobe Bryant, general manager Jerry West orchestrated one of the most dominant dynasties in NBA history. Unpopular with teammates, Bryant is portrayed as lonely and arrogant. In contrast, O'Neal is an undisciplined, yet reliable teammate. After struggling under head coach Del Harris, Phil Jackson tempered the animosity between the two stars. Beyond the Hall of Fame players and coach, Pearlman provides insight into the role of players such as Eddie Jones, Robert Horry, and Rick Fox. Despite the conflicts and jealousy between Bryant and O'Neal, the Lakers won three straight NBA championships between 2000 and 2002. The infighting between the two star players and the rape allegations against Bryant contributed to a turbulent final season in which they lost in the NBA Finals. As Bryant demanded to be the sole superstar, the dynasty ended as Jackson retired and O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. VERDICT A must-read for all basketball fans, especially considering Bryant's tragic death in January 2020. For a biography of Bryant's life, Roland Lazenby's Showboat will interest readers.--Chris Wilkes, Tazewell Cty. P.L., VA

Publishers Weekly Review

Sportswriter Pearlman (Football for a Buck) excites with this enjoyable, exhaustively reported, and unsparing portrait of the early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers. Pearlman chronicles the team's turbulent rise, highlighted by coach Del Harris ("no pizzazz, no imagination, and just too much jabbering"), and portrays the underachievers (out-of-shape Glen Rice) and fringe players (hardened rookie Mike Penberthy, who refused to be bullied by Kobe Bryant) behind the team's championship run. Pearlman explains that though the team won three straight championships (2000--2002), its continuing success was squashed by the inability of its two young, generation-defining superstars--endearing though undisciplined Shaquille O'Neal and enfant terrible Bryant--to coexist. The star throughout the narrative is Bryant, a teenage basketball prodigy with zero social skills and an unquenchable thirst for personal glory whom head coach Phil Jackson, who replaced Harris, deemed a "juvenile narcissist" and who Pearlman suggests obliterated Jackson's team concept. Pearlman's ability to uncover juicy anecdotes--O'Neal rapping about a rape accusation against Bryant on the team plane; Bryant prodded by teammate Karl Malone to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving--illuminates how egos and immaturity were the Lakers' fatal opponents. This will be a three-pointer for hoops fans. (Sept.)

Booklist Review

In the early 2000s, the Los Angeles Lakers won three consecutive NBA championships. The team was coached by Phil Jackson, who led the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls to six titles in the nineties. The key players on the Lakers were Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. Jackson's genius was pulling together disparate personalities into a cohesive unit, at least on the floor. Pearlman, an amazing journalist with an eye for the revealing detail, sets the stage with profiles of not only the three key principals but also Lakers management and the fringe players crucial to building a championship team. Fans of the recent Michael Jordan documentary, The Last Dance, will be familiar with the animus between Jackson and Bulls general manager Jerry Krause that ended with the dissolution of a championship team. Here Pearlman chronicles the Krause effort to convince Lakers general manager Jerry West to not hire Jackson. After their three-championship run, the Kobe-Shaq team blew up because the two were such different personalities. Shaq was fun-loving and proud but self-effacing. Kobe was driven, humorless, and arrogant. Pearlman takes readers inside a successful but ultimately dysfunctional organization that came apart because, well, some folks are just never going to get along. NBA fans will absolutely devour this book.

Kirkus Book Review

Everything you wanted to know about the Los Angeles Lakers in the Kobe and Shaq days. In his second book about the Lakers--after Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s--Pearlman entertainingly chronicles the success of the early-2000s Lakers, who, led by Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and coach Phil Jackson, won three consecutive NBA championships and reached four Finals in five years. In the process, the author wades into the collective psyche of modern professional sports, showing the manifestation of monetized idolatry. He demonstrates the belief of many fans that some stars have too much money and self-importance and too little self-awareness; this is reflected most clearly in the narrative via Pearlman's minibiography of Bryant. More nuanced than the homages following his tragic death earlier this year--which credited his singular focus but often said less about the costs of that focus--Bryant comes off here, in the early years of his career, as less of a spoiled star (though that element is present) than as someone who understandably struggled with becoming a multimillionaire idol as a teenager. As Bryant angled to become a Michael Jordan clone--with skill enough to nearly pull it off--he famously went on trial for rape, which Pearlman discusses in detail. Meanwhile, O'Neal's big heart toward down-and-out strangers and the guy at the end of the bench is belied by his frequent quarrels with Bryant. Throughout, the author uses a wide frame, giving more than cursory backstory for even minor players. Though he commits a few personal fouls in the form of hyperbole, he deftly illuminates the many dramatic twists and turns of a unique team. The book is not short, but it's never a slog. Easy reading that will appeal to all fans--and likely raise the ire of a few apologists. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jeff Pearlman was born in New York in 1972. He graduated from the University of Delaware and began his journalism career at a weekly newspaper in 1989. He is the author of numerous books including The Bad Guys Won!: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo-Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team to Ever Put on a New York Uniform--and Maybe the Best; Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty; Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s; and Gunslinger: the remarkable, improbable, iconic life of Brett Favre. He is a columnist for SI.com, a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and other publications, and blogs regularly on jeffpearlman.com.

(Bowker Author Biography)

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.