Jackie MacMullan
Bestselling author of When the Game was Ours and Shaq Uncut
Bestselling author of When the Game was Ours and Shaq Uncut
"In his groundbreaking book The Soul of Basketball, Ian Thomsen has crafted fascinating and revealing insights into a pivotal time in the NBA involving the game's biggest stars. This is a must read for all basketball junkies."
Bob Ryan
Author of Scribe: My Life in Sports
Author of Scribe: My Life in Sports
"Master reporter and dream writer Ian Thomsen reminds us the game is played with fascinating people, who bring both human greatness and vulnerability. Beginning with the folly of The Decision, Thomsen traces LeBron’s evolution from somewhat confused superstar to the multi-time champion he has become. In addition, he probes the psyches of Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Pat Riley and Doc Rivers, among others. What David Halberstam did for the NBA fan of the late 70s and 80s in The Breaks Of The Game, Thomsen does for contemporary NBA buffs.”
Mark Fainaru-Wada
Coauthor of Game of Shadows and League of Denial
Coauthor of Game of Shadows and League of Denial
"Who better than Ian Thomsen – NBA writer extraordinaire, graceful storyteller, wired reporter – to tell the tale of the league’s transformation back to the top of the sports heap? The Soul of Basketball is a perfectly-timed narrative that takes you deep inside the minds of the game’s greatest players, coaches and executives to reveal the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that not only saved the NBA but elevated it around the world.’’
Dan Shaughnessy
Bestselling author of Francona (with Terry Francona)
Bestselling author of Francona (with Terry Francona)
"Ian Thomsen is the perfect writer to show us The Soul of Basketball. While baseball grew old, and the NFL dealt with multiple crises, the NBA emerged as America's game of the present and future. Riding sidecar with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Gregg Popovich, Ian was there for all of it and tells us how the NBA became our national pastime.”
Steve Fainaru
Pulitzer Prize winner and coauthor of League of Denial
Pulitzer Prize winner and coauthor of League of Denial
"Ian Thomsen brings us the NBA like we’ve never seen it before: Gregg Popovich, anonymous, brilliant and alone, drinking a $160 bottle of wine at New York City bar to forget the season; the German trainer who built the exact specifications of Dirk Nowitzki’s jump shot on his computer; LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, finding their own paths as the successors to Michael Jordan. Intimate, lyrical and consistently revelatory, The Soul of Basketball is the story of a glossy multi-billion dollar league stripped to its essence.”
Leigh Montville
NYT bestselling author of The Big Bam and Sting Like a Bee
NYT bestselling author of The Big Bam and Sting Like a Bee
"Ian Thomsen provides an antidote to the fast-food, twitter feed of instant information consumption. Travel back to the 2010 NBA season, when LeBron and his two amigos arrived in Miami, when Dirk asserted himself in Dallas, when the league went through an economic and social convulsion. Marinate to see all the repercussions. Tell the tale with deft prose and snappy anecdotes and bring us all up to speed on what might come next. Great, great stuff."
Kirkus Review
"A blow-by-blow account of the 2010-2011 NBA season, which reshaped the face of pro basketball in a flurry of big money....Thomsen goes deep behind the scenes into locker rooms, conference rooms, and boardrooms to follow what often amounts to a nonstop clash of egos—and a few friendships, too."
Publishers Weekly Review
"Through an array of profiles, NBA.com contributor Thomsen insightfully examines the 2010–2011 NBA season, which saw players and coaches negotiating the league’s rise in popularity, massive financial success, and increased marketing savvy....Thomsen’s ability to get personal, especially with unlikely sources, will hook readers, as when he captures the stoic Larry Bird gushing over LeBron James’s otherworldly skills, proclaiming him “the one guy I could watch play basketball all day long.”
Buy The Soul of Basketball NowIn the cultural tradition of Moneyball and Friday Night Lights, award-winning sports writer Ian Thomsen portrays the NBA as a self-correcting society in which young LeBron is forced to absorb hard truths inflicted by his rivals Kobe Bryant, Doc Rivers and Dirk Nowitzki, in addition to lessons set forth by Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich, Larry Bird, David Stern, Joey Crawford and many more.
Ian Thomsen's book on the breakthrough 2010-11 NBA season is available via all major online book sellers, both in hardcover and in digital editions. |