Mini-Review: The Breaks of the Game

"The Breaks of the Game" is universally known as "the basketball book about Bill Walton." Heck, the back of the book even refers to a "grim season for the legendary Bill Walton-led Portland Trailblazers." Did they even read the book? During the 1979-1980 season, Bill Walton was long gone from Portland, having been traded to San Diego after accusing the Portland team doctor of gross negligence.

Still, the shorthand description of "Breaks of the Game" as "the Bill Walton book" is not completely wrong. Walton hovers over the story like a seven-foot redheaded cloud. Sorry, that was a terrible metaphor. The ups-and-downs of the Trailblazers, with and without Walton, are a perfect example of, well, "the breaks of the game." With Walton on the court they were unstoppable. They won the championship in 1977 and looked to repeat until Walton broke his foot in the playoffs. Walton, Yao Ming before Yao Ming, spent the next season riding the pine in Portland before leaving for the sunnier climes of Clipperland.

David Halberstam's book follows Coach Jack Ramsay and his new-look Blazers as they struggle to cope in the year 1 A.W. If any team ever deserved the title "ragtag," the 1980 Blazers have a good a claim as any. Their starting forward, Kermit Washington, spent years wandering the NBA, not because he was bad, but because he nearly killed Rudy Tomjanovich with one ill-timed punch. Guard Dave Twardzik's crew cut and Polish heritage were both indicative of a playing style on its way out. And late-season pickup Billy Ray Bates was an illiterate sharecropper's son who spent time with a minor-league team called the Lumberjacks.

Halberstam, unlike some sports writers--I'm looking at you, John Feinstein--doesn't spend pages retelling the ins-and-outs of each basketball game. He isn't interested in telling you how Abdul Jeelani scored off a pick-and-roll from Lionel Hollins. If you want that, go watch the game tapes. Instead, Halberstam crafts a series of psychological profiles. Of course, his profiles explain why so-and-so is a great basketball player, and not why so-and-so is a serial killer.

A number of basketball icons make cameo appearances. Each one comes with his own brilliantly succinct summation. Bobby Knight is a "sensitive, volatile, deliberately and often shamelessly provocative and brilliant coach." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is "hidden behind two layers of masks, first a protective eyepiece which was a mask to the face, and then the face itself which was a mask to the soul." The late, great John Wooden is recalled as "a little bit of an old lady."

One writer called "The Breaks of the Game" "pretty much every sentient basketball fan’s favorite hoops book." I agree. Conclusion: read the book.