And the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever

I saw this book first mentioned on some website while I was on vacation. So I did what most people usually do when they see a book on vacation... they write the name down and wait until AFTER vacation to read it. Yeah, I've never been good with reading books on vacation and I'm not sure why. This was, however, the first book I read after my visit to the land of milk and honey (Florida) and I had an absolutely enjoyable time reading it. We always hear people say "I would love to be a fly on the wall when...". Well the fly is Jack McCallum (sorry Jack) and the wall is a canvas drawn with the 1992 Olympic Games as the base and the Dream Team as the primer.

I'm a basketball fan but not to the point of absurdity, as some are. But because of the impact that Jordan, Bird, Magic, Barkley, Pippen had on (pretty much) everything, this was a book that I needed to read. Completely enjoyable, this book can be enjoyed by an "asylum fan" or a casual fan. It was nice to read about the little things that we mortals miss because we didn't travel with the NBA superstars. Jack does a great job of telling this fairy tale with wit, real anecdotes, and a history that we heard about but never really HEARD about. We knew the team was picked, but HOW was it picked? We knew that it was chock FULL of stars, but how would they get along? What is the REAL story behind Jordan vs. the Reebok jacket? Was Isiah Thomas screwed out of a position by Jordan? (Let me help you with that one... YES!)

The author has a good bead on interviewing and it was interesting to see some of the places he (and the interviewee) choose to talk. It's almost impossible to narrate the entire experience of the 1992 Dream Team into a single book, but I like how it is done here. Almost everyone has a chapter or three (Jordan. Forever the competitor) and we get a fun yet informative history on the beginnings of a (pro) US Basketball team.

Also, to anyone reading this book you'll notice one other thing: this author enjoys books. Not only writing them, reading them as well. Now I'm some of you just went "duh, he's an author", but trust me on this. Not every author likes to read and you can clearly differentiate the ones that do. Jack do's. Aside from his "nonfiction doesn't have to be dull" way of writing, I enjoyed the literary reference sprinkled throughout this book.

But getting back to basketball... you'll like this book. A lot. Jack's BIO says that he was with `Sports Illustrated' for thirty years. It's a shame I missed all those articles. (Shut up I know there's Google). It takes a lot for this fiction ONLY lover to heap praises on a non-fiction book, but that's because it is well deserved. Jack is a well respected reporter and it wouldn't be a stretch to say, a friend, to more than a few of the NBA legends. That also comes across in this book and that only adds to the authenticity of his work. Alongside the crude jokes, practice barbs, and gambling stories, are personal stories that must be read to be felt. There's a lot going on on the cover of this book. The only thing missing are the letters "Volume 1".

One reader's wish if I may; while I hope this author lives a long time I can only hope that he's writing a tell all book to be published posthumously. Jack spent a lot of time around the NBA's greatest and this man has some stories to tell. Seriously. I want to know who the NBA Dream Teamer was that ran into the family room demanding "who's got a rubber, I need one quick". Just one of the many quips like that in this book. Just one of the many quips like that that are unwritten.

But aside from that... please live a long time Jack. And keep writing books like this.

**One other thing: the eBook/Kindle edition DOES NOT have the pictures that the print book does. Why? Not sure, but I hope the publisher reconsiders.

Great insight to the 92 Dream Team. I wanted a little more knowledge about the practices but there was some solid inner looks at the squad and their relationships. Oh and my vocabulary has reached new heights with this book. Jack is a genius.

This was a great book and I enjoyed it from cover to cover. This book provides some additional color about this team, how it was formed, and some of the difficulties that the creators encountered. While it reviews the Isiah Thomas issue, it does not go into great detail. Overall, I would suggest this to people.

This is a great read with very candid, behind the scenes info about the original "Dream Team". Jack McCalum follows around the 1992 super stars as they prepare for the Barcelona Olympics and go into the games.

i had read an excerpt of this book in sports illustrated, which is probably the reason i wanted to read the complete book, some interesting tidbits regarding michael jordan, isiah thomas, bird and magic, really good for any b-ball junkies

For a basketball junkie, this book is addictive. As a non-reader, I actually looked forward to my next opportunity to read.In addition, knowing some of the characters mentioned, i.e. Bob Hurley and Josh Rosenfeld, personalized the book for me.FYI--The 92 team would kick 2012's ass.

Awesome book with all behind the scene stories from the dream team players. What happened before, during and after the olympics are all there highly detailed and well written.

Every basketball fan should read this book.

One of my favorite books. Painted all the scenarios surrounded the Dream Team in a nostalgic fashion. The politics behind the selections, the comradeship that took place in Barcelona, and how we will never see another team such as this ever again.

Wonderful read.

I greatly enjoyed this look back at the giants of my youth. This was a wonderful moment in time, captured well by a reporter who is also a fan. He navigated the waters well and told a wonderful story. A wonderful summer read.

This is a masterpiece ! McCallum topped himself once again, weaving in stories and dialogue with his self deprecating humor, as only he can do. He made me feel like I was there. My only negative is that it's too short, as I finished in three days.

Jack McCallum is one of my favorite NBA reads, whether it be books or the NBA beat at SI. Over the past few years though, I haven't read much of Jack's work, not because of anything he's done, but more what the NBA has become (a far cry from the heyday of Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, Scottie, Patrick, etc.) This book made me feel like a kid again, the 8 year old I was at the time of this historic event. It feels so genuine to read all the behind the scenes stories because it truly is information you are captivated by. If twitter/facebook existed at this time, all these great tidbits would have been left out of the bag. No team the NBA, USOC, etc., puts together will ever be in the league of the original Dream Team. The book left me with a greater appreciation for my childhood heroes (Larry, Michael, Scottie), a greater appreciation for a truly legendary writer in Jack McCallum (here's hoping he stays around for awhile longer), and an appetite for the NBA to return to its glory days of the 80's and 90's. Very proud to own this book. Thank you, Jack.

Many books have been written about American professional sports; but this one is the tops for accurate, concrete takes of teams, individual players -- and their on-court and off-court activities and friendships. A "must have" book for your sports collections!

The book is great. I can't put it down. Great insight and stories about the most famous sports team in history.

Only negative was that shipping took forever. It was between 20-30 days before my books arrived (I ordered multiple through the same vendor).

I was disappointed because I found that Mr. McCallum wrote about his experience with the Dream Team and made himself a central character in the book. He also failed to explain how the Dream Team "changed the game forever." There were some great anecdotes, interviews with the Dream Teamers, and touched on some of the more controversial aspects of the Dream Team (Decision to let professionals play, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson-HIV, and the covering of Reebok logo). After reading this book, I still consider the Golden Boys by Cameron Stauth to be the go-to read about the Dream Team.

This isn't a bad book. However, I want to caution anyone that watched the NBA TV documentary "The Dream Team." The documentary and the book are nearly identical - same stories, same themes, etc. I was disappointed in the book because there were very few what I condider new stories, anecdotes, and facts. It almost appeared like they based the documentary on the book.

If you are looking for something above and beyond what the documentary provided don't buy this book.

I love basketball, I guess I,m naive. I felt i would be interesting, but if I wanted to have story rewritten about me I sure wouldn't use some of the foul language,(even thou at times everyone says things they would'nt say i n a book)

t's almost possible to imagine Jack McCallum, the respected longtime basketball writer for Sports Illustrated, giggling a bit when the idea for this book came along.

The stars certainly lined up nicely. The year 2012 marked the 20th anniversary is an obvious time for a retrospective in athletics, since all of the participants have more or less left the stage (although some moved into other roles, like coaching or broadcasting). For a basketball fan and writer, there was no bigger story than the Dream Team of 1992, the United States Olympic squad that brought the international game into a modern era.

McCallum covered that era and that team thoroughly, and thus had long relationships with the participants. Not only could he empty his notebook and memory bank when it came to writing a book, but he also could go public with his own opinions as well as interview those involved after the fact when they could afford to be more candid.

The result is "Dream Team," and it's a barrel of fun for basketball fans.

A little refresher course - before 1992, Americans could only send amateurs - read college players - to the Olympics. Standards were different for what was considered an amateurs worldwide, though, and the traditional Eastern Bloc countries always sent their best players. Team USA was always good enough to win with the collegians, with the bizarre exception of 1972, but the Americans lost fair and square in 1988. If the sport of basketball was going to turn up the volume from that point, all great players had to be invited to the party.

Thus, the Dream Team was born. It started with a Michael Jordan in his prime, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird on their way out, Charles Barkley on his way out the door to party, and so on down the line. The world was captivated, or at least the basketball-loving parts of it that seemed to include everyone. You'd have thought the Beatles had reunited to put on a few shows in such places as Portland, Oregon, (qualifying) and Barcelona (Olympics).

McCallum makes it pretty clear that the most amazing part of the entire summer was how well everyone managed to mesh together, even if it took some negotiating and leadership by strong personalities to make it work. The squad was filled with alpha dogs (David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, etc.) who knew enough to let the biggest stars set the tone. There's also plenty of good information here about how the team was selection; that translates into the story about how John Stockton wound up on the team because Isiah Thomas wasn't well liked by the other players.

The author obviously spent the most time on Jordan's role - McCallum isn't stupid - but every player gets a good-sized say here. That includes Christian Laettner, a token college player picked as something of a throwback to the old way of doing things. Heck, someone had to carry the bags.

There's very little drama here, as the team clobbered every opponent in sight, and I suppose you probably have to be at least 30 years old to have a great deal of interest in much of the story. McCallum relates a lot of his own personal experiences, which makes the book a little less scholarly and perhaps turns it into a book of anecdotes.

No matter. "Dream Team" comes across as extremely entertaining and well done. If you want to know what the fun was all about and how everyone involved dealt with it, this is a good place to go.

Being an NBA fan, I could never forget the summer of '92 when the most talented basketball team to have ever been assembled, systematically destroyed the competition on their way to the gold medal. Never did I realize that the most entertaining aspect of the Dream Team was behind the scenes. Author Jack McCallum writes in a cinematic prose that detailed the politics, team relationships and individual player motivations from a fly on the wall perspective. Here, we get passages from Christian Laettner, the only "amateur" on the team as he attempts to make a name of himself in a sea of superstars. We learn how an errant elbow by hothead Charles Barkley, threatened to label the Dream Team as the stereotypical "ugly Americans." Or how a crushing scrimmage defeat ignited the will of the team to crush anybody that was in their way. This is some, fascinating, fascinating stuff. I'm not a particular fan of non-fiction and tend to take my time finishing a book, yet I breezed through it in two days. If you're a fan of basketball, do yourself a favor and pick this up.

I've never been a huge NBA fan, and there was definitely a part of me that was disappointed when the professionals were tossed into the Olympic basketball mix back in 1992. But it was such a big deal that I followed their journey to that inevitable gold medal since it was the obvious and patriotic thing to do at the time.

Twenty years later, Jack McCallum's "Dream Team" is a riveting account of that entire saga, from its inception to the present-day aftermath. To give some perspective, a friend and I basically listened to all 11 discs straight through during a 15 hour road trip from Florida to Pennsylvania, and it kept my attention for the whole trip, monotonous I-95 scenery notwithstanding. That's no small feat.

To be sure, this book is a bit self-promoting for McCallum, and there is much name-dropping and "let me make sure you know how many famous basketball players I've hung out with" sprinkled throughout the entire book. But McCallum admits this at the outset, acknowledging that the book will include him as a key figure because it's written from the perspective of his experience being "embedded" with the Dream Team during those several months of history-making. So, if somewhat self-promoting, it was the nature of his insider position that gives the book its heart.

And what a story McCallum has to tell. The back-room, political machinations that brought together the Dream Team were crazy. The relationships between the players were complex and often filled with tension. The implications for basketball, the NBA, the Olympics, and every single involved party were immense. And the product on the floor was awe-inspiring, arguably the best sports team ever assembled and certainly the most famous sports team ever assembled.

But, best of all, the insight into those twelve players was totally engrossing. McCallum pulled no punches to explain the athleticism, personalities, quirks, and psychoses that made this collection of all-time greats so dominant, so fascinating, and so complicated. Jordan was a cyborg. Johnson was a beloved but smarmy politician. Bird was a legendary cripple. Barkley was a cartoonish and arrogant goofball. Robinson was a saint. Stockton was a home-town boy. Malone was grumpy. Ewing was goofy. Drexler was delusional. Laettner was a yutz. Mullin was a story of redemption. Pippen was spiteful. And Chuck Daly was the perfect man for the job of making that immortal motley crew somehow figure out how to function together and, most importantly, bring home that gold medal.

Of course, many of these caricatures are well-known, but it's the depth and personal insight that makes the stories and the personalities come alive. My respect (or disrespect) for these guys grew exponentially after hearing the particulars of their journeys, before, during, and after the 1992 Olympics. How could you not love Barkley, just the funniest guy in every room? How could you not admire Robinson, so deeply committed to his ideals and a genuine man of faith? How could you not be inspired by Mullin's victory over alcoholism? How could you not laugh at Drexler's absurd claims to be Jordan's equal and sad at the resentment he still holds decades later? How could you not be charmed by the simplicity of Stockton's post-basketball life? How could you not be impressed at Jordan's ability to walk off the golf course and onto the court and immediately dominate the best players in the world? And how could you not be captivated by the layers to the Bird/Magic saga?

Obviously, I loved this book, truly one of the best I've ever read/heard. Surely the sign of a good book is the simple fact that at the end of 13 consecutive hours of listening to it as I drove through seven states, I sat in my garage at 3:00am to listen to the end. I just couldn't get enough. For anyone with even the slightest interest in basketball, the Olympics, or sports history, in general, I give "Dream Team" my highest recommendation. It was an absolutely delightful blast in every way...

More than enough has been written, spoken and shown about the Dream Team. But this book captures the essence of what the experience was like to the players, the fans, the journalists, the invested and peripheral people and entities involved.

The writing comes across as genuine and while there is most definitely a reverential tone in the pages that talk about Magic, Michael and Larry and a bit of the lovable goof with Sir Charles, there is also a realness to it....

The fact that I refer to them all on a first name basis in the paragraph above is proof enough that the book engaged me and personalised many of the players involved and really make you as the reader feel that you are understanding these great athletes as people.

As others have mentioned, McCallum inserts himself into the book far, far too much. Granted, he does apologize for this during the book. However, he does go out of his way to throw himself into certain parts. Extra annoying is the caption of the picture with McCallum and Charles Barkley. It reads "In case you aren't sure, Charles is the one in purple." Gee, thanks Jack. Also, McCallum goes overboard with the amount of big words.

You do get a good look at each player and what made him who they were/are. Yes the book is very Jordan/Magic/Bird/Charles heavy, but let's be honest here. Who do you think most people would rather read about, the four of them or Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner?

Perhaps the highlight of the book is The Greatest Game Nobody Saw, which was featured in an SI book excerpt. A little-known scrimmage between the Dream Team took place before they left for Barcelona. You'll wish you were there reading McCallum's description of this true lost classic.

Overall, while I don't recommend paying full price it's worth a read.

On the 20th anniversary of the ground breaking entry of US pro basketball players into International and Olympic play, longtime NBA and Sports Illustrated writer, Jack McCallum, has given us probably as close as possible , a primary source into what turned out to be a grand experiment that changed the sport forever. Because McCallum was so close to the team, yet also kept professional, journalistic distance, he has provided for the general reader, an inside account with enough distance to add some real comprehension into what happened, for the sport and the athletes involved.

Wisely, I think, McCallum breaks his story up into chapters that focus on individuals. So a chapter places the larger story within a context of a chapter on Michael Jordan, Larry Bird or Charles Barkley. He does provide the larger context for the Dream Team's inclusion, including interviews with Yugoslav FIBA representative, Boris Stankovic, a man largely unknown to American basketball fans, but without whom, the game might not have exploded as such a world wide, popular sport in the last few decades.

This story is partly anecdotal, partly personal memoir (because McCallum did have as much outside access to the Dream Team as anyone, partly journalism and partly history. It is clear that a tremendous amount of work and research went into this book. McCallum had extensive one on one interviews with all the '92 Dream Team players in the last two years, to get their reflections on the event, after having their initial reactions, as events happened 20 years ago. Of course most of the chapters and interest follow the three pillars - Jordan, Johnson & Bird, but every player on that team has his say in this book and that alone makes this book a capstone for a true watershed telling in international sport and basketball history.

McCallum's strongest writing, I think, concerns David Robinson, as he genuinely struggled to understand Robinson's motivations as a professed Christian, among teammates who mostly were not. Robinson's years since retirement have included hard effort as a leader of an inner city Christian school, and the writer does allow who and why Robinson developed into the type of player and man that he is, to be shown and not told.

Larry Bird's chapters function almost like Bird's role on the team. Bird was the 'older statesman', a hard working, plain, straight talking player, who valued effort, and competition and was wise enough to know his role among such large, competitive egos.

If you enjoy the Olympics, leadership study, personal relationships, basketball or even 90's culture, I highly recommend this book.

Profiles the 12 players who were selected to go to the 1992 Summer Olympics as in 1988 the United States came in third place with college players. Chronicles the selection, their play to qualify and then their practice Internationally where they gambled, played golf and played 'The Greatest Game No one Ever Saw'. Then they go to the Olympics and smash the other teams.

Topics include chasing skirt, drinking, and how they would bully each other. Goes on at length. Some insight, could probably have been shorter. Jordan (perhaps because he is the most famous) receives the lion's share of attention. Includes Magic and Bird information. Numerous flash backs and comments about them currently.

Concludes with the impact they had on the world of basketball. Swearing.

Many basketball fans looked forward for a long time to the day that NBA players would be allowed to play in the Olympics, even more so after the U.S. team failed to capture the gold medal at the 1988 Games in Seoul. The first NBA Olympians to represent America did so in Barcelona in 1992, and that group was so stacked that it instantly was christened the Dream Team. Jack McCallum tells the tale of that storied squad in this volume.

"Dream Team" recalls how professional basketball players were approved to play in the Olympics and how the 1992 team was assembled, and speculates on why Isiah Thomas was left off the team (the book contains a few mistakes--of them being the author's assertion that Thomas made his infamous comment about Larry Bird after Game 5 and not Game 7 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals). McCallum provides some background on each of the players that was selected and on coach Chuck Daly.

The author recounts the preparation the team went through for the Olympics, and covers each win the team had en route to the gold medal. McCallum also includes a play-by-play recollection of the legendary intrasquad game the players played in Monte Carlo before the Olympics. Also remembered are some of the friendships formed and other team dynamics during the team's time in Spain, as well as the unbelievable amount of attention the team got (and the security it required) there.

McCallum closes by examining how the Dream Team is viewed today and the impact it had on later players, and compares the team to other teams that represented the U.S. in international competition. There is also a chapter on the post-Olympic experiences of Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.

Someday there might be a U.S. Olympic basketball team with more raw talent than the team that went to Barcelona in 1992, but no team will ever be as hyped as the original Dream Team. Basketball fans are fortunate that Jack McCallum has written a definitive account of a team that will be remembered forever.

As a pre-teen basketball fan in 1992, I was steeped in Dream Team lore. Thee was not much about the team that I did not pay close attention to, from the player selection, to the uniforms, to the tournament of the Americas, to results in Barcelona.

Reading McCallum's book, you can sense him - in equal parts - digging back into the contemporary writing he was doing for SI while covering the team, and into his memory for the tidbits that were outside the scope of what he could have printed in SI at the time. It is on the latter count that I found new info here: for example, he goes more deeply into Jordan vs. Isaiah and the politics of selecting the team and choosing starters, and the drama of traveling with th Dream Teamers. At times, you can sense that a chapter is jumping off of an old notebook page, written with the idea that "maybe I'll write a book about this."

20 years later is as good a time to do it as any. McCallum's chapter titles almost always read like the capsules of the magazine stories he was writing at the time, with more color and depth added. The book has an element of memoir to it, and while McCallum's frequent parenthetical asides wore on me a bit, he often uses himself in the story only to indicate that material is drawn from his personal observations, or from interviews he conducted with the principals.

I enjoyed the read during this Olympics and appreciated the trip back to the Dream Team days. If you were an NBA fan in these days, be careful and set aside some extra time, McCallum recounts several specific games and even plays that sent me off to YouTube for some very enjoyable montages down Memory Lane.

This is the inside story of the greatest collection of basketball talent and the greatest team of all time. And it is a very entertaining and enjoyable read. McCallum focuses, of course, on the three greats of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird, but we also see the personalities and nuances of the "lesser" players on the team such as John Stockton.

Probably the most interesting story in the book is the now infamous internal scrimmage with Jordan leading one team and Johnson leading the other, with each desperate to win. It was not like a scrimmage but a real game with a collection of the greatest players squaring off. And it's a bit delicious that the ailing Larry Bird clinging on at the end of his career helped Jordan beat his old friend Magic Johnson with a clever steal.

McCallum does a great job discussing some of the controversies around this team, both internal and external.

First let's deal with the external. Not everybody was happy about allowing pros, especially these pros, play in the Olympics. But Boris Stankovic, head of FIBA wanted to see it happen and it did. Any why did he want it knowing the American team would dominate the competition? To starting bringing European basketball up to a more competitive level. And that has certainly occurred.

The other external controversy was simply the unbelievable hype, media attention and popularity of this team. They stayed in their own hotel out of the Olympic Village, which they were often critsized for, but they had no choice. They needed the security and seclusion.

The most prevalent internal controversy was that Isiah Thomas was not on the team when talent wise most people though he belonged. Suffice it to say he burned way too many bridges with way too many fellow players through his boorish behavior to be allowed on the team. He probably would have destroyed the chemistry and magical nature of the team given, it would appear, that Jordan and Johnson at least, didn't like him.

The debate between Magic and Jordan who was the greatest player of all time in their hotel lounge is also a fascinating look at the egos of these megastars but also how they managed to control the ego for the good of the team as a whole.

The best part of the book is when McCallum focus some attention on the players who were super stars in the NBA but just role players on this team. John Stockton, Karl Malone, Chris Mullen, and David Robinson all get some air time in the book and we get glimpses of their personality. And even the token college player, Christian Laettner conveys some of what it was like to be on the team.

One of the funnier stories was Charles Barkley going off into public and trying to lose his security so he could see the sights and have a little fun. Of course everyone was afraid that the irrepressible Barkley would do something or say something to cause and international incident. Luckily he didn't.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for any sports fan about this once in forever team.

I was about twelve when the Dream Team stormed through the 1992 Olympics. It was like watching the Justice League (or, to kids today, the Avengers in the movies) form. It was all the greats from each team playing together: Jordan, Magic, Bird, Ewing, Barkley, Malone, Stockton, Robinson, Pippen, Drexler and, yes, Mullin and Laettner. The team has formed such an outsized impression in my basketball memory I even imagined other players, like Shaq, playing on the team when they had not. Jack McCallum explains how the team came to be formed, how the players interacted, and what an impact it had on basketball globally. The team was so dominant that little attention is paid to most of the actual games they played in the Olympics, because they were so lopsided. One Exception is the first game against Croatia, where MJ and Pippen made it their mission to target future Bulls teammate Toni Kukoc. Another exception is the game against Lithuania, although that game was also completely one-sided but Lithuana's Grateful Dead-endorsed team still made a great story.

Based on McCallum's story, you get some sense of these amazing players as competitors who, at least most of the time, buried their egos towards one another in favor of the team. It is also amazing how little sleep these players seem to get during the Olympics while still dominating. One downside to McCallum's book is he spends a little too much time discussing his own interaction with the team, but being exposed to such a great achievement in sport makes such autobiographical detail understandable. Other reviewers can nitpick the book or the Dream Team, but I still contend they are the greatest team of players in an individual sport since the last time Babe Ruth batted alone. But seriously, the individual accomplishments of these players, interacting with one another, is interesting to read. There are also interesting side stories such as how Nike endorsed players dealt with Reebok endorsed Olympic uniforms, the affect of Magic Johnson's HIV diagnosis on his reputation, Stockton's ability to walk through Barcelona completely unrecognized, how several players worked to keep Isiah Thomas off the team, and Larry Bird's failing back. I pretty much stopped watching the NBA with any regularity around 2000, but this book reminded me of what I loved as a kid. The Dream Team is the equivalent of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and nine other superheroes playing together. Because they were so dominant (Coach Chuck Daly never called a timeout, because what would he tell these superstars?), McCallum occasionally has to manufacture and embellish adversity, but this is still a great story.

Dream Team is a book written by Jack McCallum, a writer for Sports Illustrated. This is "the book to read" to understand everything about the Dream Team. McCallum was the "inside man" who chronicled everything you want to know about the Dream Team. His book takes the reader through all those months it took to pull this team together. He leaves no stone unturned. He tells how the players were selected, how the team was put together, how the players played, how they got along on and off the court -- everything!

The year was 1992! The rules of the Olympics had finally changed. This was the first year professional basketball players would be allowed to play in the Olympics. Before then, only amateur players were allowed to play in any Olympic game. But, the definition of amateur player varied so much from country to country that players from one country who could better be considered professional were classified as amateurs, pitting amateurs against professionals - and unbalanced competition. This new ruling defined the definitions of amateur and professional players.

The Dream Team would be a team made up of the best players in the National Basketball Association - players from different teams - players with differing ideas, skills and egos.

Could superstar players be brought together and become the Dream Team? Was this just an impossible dream? The biggest challenge would be to unite these individual and strong egos into a team that could play - and win Olympic games. To have these players become a unified team would be the only chance for winning any game.

One of the first stars asked to join the team was Michael Jordan. But, he was reluctant to play. Finally, he decided to accept the call from Coach Daly to be on the Dream Team.

He was joined by other Superstars: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Clyde Dexter, Chris Mullen, Scottie Pippen and Christian Laettner.

Once these superiorly talented and skilled players joined the team, the managers wondered if these big egos would get in the way of forming a new team. Many of these players were on rival teams and were known for being involved in heated disagreements on the court. Would having these players on the same team be a success or a disaster? Could it be done?

The first practice scrimmages were disappointing because the players didn't know how to play together. They wound up playing as opposing teams or not playing their best games.

Soon, though, at some point, these super individuals unified and became a team - the Dream Team. They put all of their separate achievements, talent and charisma aside and moved up and down the court like they had always played together.

After it was all over, The Dream Team reclaimed the US Title in the games in Barcelona, Spain.
They were the best of the best. The Dream had become a Reality!

In 1992, everyone in America was a basketball fan thanks to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the rest of the "Dream Team" that played for the United States in the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. For the first time in history, professional basketball players were permitted to compete in the Games, as each country was truly allowed to send its best representatives. Author Jack McCallum, covering the team for Sports Illustrated, recounts the year that basketball ruled the Olympics more than any time before.

McCallum spends the first hundred pages talking about the team members and the selection process. In addition to Jordan, Johnson, and Bird, there was Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, and the token college guy, Christian Laettner. The underlying theme in almost every chapter of this first hundred pages was not so much how these players deserved their spot on the roster, but why Pistons guard Isiah Thomas was excluded from the list. Of course, Thomas was not the only player that could have been argued for, but he was the most glaring omission.

After dealing with each of these players, McCallum gets into the Games themselves, beginning with the practice sessions in San Diego and on through to the final game in Barcelona. Fresh interviews of the players involved bring back memories of Toni Kukoc, Drazen Petrovic, and other opponents. A deep reverence is displayed for the late Chuck Daly. However, McCallum does not pull punches on his subjects, painting Jordan at times as a bitter ego-maniac, Bird as a foul-mouthed trash talker, Laettner as a spoiled brat. People mature over time, and act differently depending on their surroundings (Barkley being the exception to those two statements), but McCallum presents them as they were at the time without apology.

The impact the Dream Team had on youngsters internationally, from Tony Parker to Dirk Nowitzki, will never be duplicated. It was a grand experiment that worked in 1992, even if it never worked the same afterward. Never again will there be a group of players with so much talent and influence. Dream Team by Jack McCallum is a great tribute to that great team, and should be on the bookshelf of every basketball fan.

What do "Caddyshack II", New Coke and the Altamont concert have in common? They are all epically failed attempts to replicate original formulas ("Caddyshack", "Classic" Coke and Woodstock, respectively). Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and appreciate a monumental success than try to repeat it ... or, for heaven's sake ... try and "improve" it. The US Men's Olympic Basketball team that traveled to Barcelona in 1992 is one such formula ... one that actually became a genericized trademark: the Dream Team. Jack McCallum witnessed that magical time when the iconic dinosaurs of professional basketball roamed the courts one last time before extinction. DREAM TEAM masterfully chronicles all aspects of the original Dream Team formula: the ingredients (players), the spoon that stirred them (Coach Chuck Daly) and the venue they were served (the Barcelona Olympics).

DREAM TEAM hit a niche for me as it rekindled an event I somewhat took for granted at the time. While McCallum traces the idea of NBA Olympians back to the 1972 Olympics (when the Soviet Union was granted the gold medal under dubious circumstances), the fact that everything came to fruition in 1992 is what made it a Woodstock-like event. By 1992, a "changing-of-the-guard" was imminent as my heroes (Larry Bird and Magic Johnson) were ending their careers and bequeathing the NBA helm to Michael Jordan. Barcelona served as that perfect moment in time where the most iconic men of the sport could play one last time, not against each other, but united, against the world. DREAM TEAM takes readers back to 1992 and makes us realize how "once-in-a-lifetime" and special the original Dream Team truly was.

McCallum comes across as part star-struck fan and part privileged sports columnist ... his writing style drips with giddy nostalgia, yet is tempered by historical context. Rather than simply recapping events, he opts to inject chapters throughout the book where the actual Dream Teamers add a present-day perspective to the story being told. But there is always a tinge of the author's awe at witnessing first-hand these sports icons at this moment in history ... like a Jefferson Airplane roadie must have felt at Woodstock. I felt one of the book's biggest attributes is the manner in which McCallum tells the story. Divided into a multitude of short chapters that are event and player specific, readers are given small, but detailed, doses of the goings-on both on and off the court. Adding to the fun are the author's nicknames for the players he is covering: the Chosen One (Jordan), the Shadow Man (Pippen), the Jester (Barkley) and the Dukie (Christian Laettner, the token college player on the team). I thoroughly enjoyed the initial practices and the warm-up games against the star-crossed college all-star team. Best of all, however, was the intra-squad game in which McCallum uses his access of the game's videotape to drop a riveting blow-by-blow breakdown of these leviathans going at each other (chapter title: The Greatest Game That Nobody Ever Saw) ... the chapter even concludes with a box score. There really is no stone left unturned in the Dream Team story and the chapters are succinct and juicy enough to keep the reader engaged throughout the book. From the goofy antics of Barkley and the controversy of an HIV-infected Magic on the court to the childlike arrogance of Laettner and the disrespecting of wanna-be Dream Teamer Isiah Thomas, we get it all.

DREAM TEAM didn't convert me back to being an NBA fan, but it did bring me back to a time when I last enjoyed the sport ... a time when the great players displayed more love and respect for the game than a paycheck. A time when everyone's egos were kept in check by the next guy and the outcome of the Olympic gold medal in men's basketball was NEVER in question. A great sports book about a more-than-great team ... a team that will never be replicated.

As a kid that grew up in the 90s and was exactly 10 years old when the Dream Team happened, I always like to think of myself as a bit of a Dream Team expert. I mean, I had the Wheaties box, the Starting Lineup Set, the T-Shirt, and the Larry Bird and Michael Jordan jerseys. Man, was I wrong. In Dream Team, Jack McKallum really opened my eyes to the truth behind the 'greatest team ever assembled.'

I wasn't entirely familiar with McKallum or his writing before reading Dream Team, so I didn't have a lot of expectations going in. What I found was a pleasure to a new McKallum reader. The layout of the book is simply wonderful: small vingettes about all of the members of the Dream Team, fantastic stories in their own right, all wrapped up into a larger narrative that makes up the telling of their creation. I'd always known how ruthless both Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were, but getting McKallum's first hand experience tells a much fuller, richer story than I've read before. It really is great.

The most interesting piece of the story is, of course, the dealings and decisions regarding Isaiah Thomas. As a 10 year old, you don't ever think about things like that. You knew Isaiah was really good, but so was John Stockton. I had no idea the drama that was involved in the selection process, and reading McKallum detail it is, to put it mildly, eye-opening.

This book, from start to finish, is really amazing. McKallum's narrative brilliantly details this iconic team and the huge personalities it contained, all while retaining such good humour and honesty that I can't recommend it enough. If you're an NBA fan, you'll love this. If you're an Olympics fan, you'll love this. And even if you're only someone that knows Barkley and Bird from those old McDonald's commericals, you'll still love this.

Great read.

Opening this book felt like sitting in a darkened theater waiting for a blockbuster movie to start. Jack McCallum was on the scene during the glory days in 1992, and was able to follow up with most of the players, coaches, and other key personalities twenty years later. The resulting book combines almost breathless recollections of games and other adventures with "interludes," reminiscences and motes of wisdom derived from McCallum's 2011 meetings with six of the twelve players. (Why those six? If McCallum explained, I missed it).

There are enough gems in this book that make it worth your investment of time. Not just the touted "greatest game that nobody ever saw" but the smaller moments. The interactions among players as they played cards during downtime in Barcelona, the Angolan elbowing, the Lithuanian travails, the near-meltdown involving Reebok logos. Although McCallum inserts himself into the proceedings a little too much at times, including an overlong anecdote about driving in Monte Carlo, for the most part he is able to keep his starstruck tendencies in check and let the players carry the plot.

Why four stars? Apart from the interludes, McCallum strays from the timeline too often, sometimes throwing me off track. Anecdotes and snippets of earlier stories reappear in chunks, resulting in a number of deja vu-ish "didn't I read about this a few chapters ago?" moments. I rarely reread books after I finish them, but I had to plow through most of Dream Team a second time. (To be fair to me, I tend to read late at night, when I'm falling asleep. And I'm not complaining: I enjoyed it even more as a repeat.) My conclusion was that the chapters tended to feel too much like magazine articles, each complete in its own right. Not like a book, which has a different rhythm.

My other issue with this book is the emphasis on Magic and Michael to the exclusion of the remaining ten players, including Larry Bird. Perhaps McCallum figured that readers wanted to know about these two mega-stars, and probably he was right. But even after a second reading, most of the other players remained shadowy, almost as interchangeable as they were on the court in the Olympics.

The golden era of basketball glows with even greater luster in this book. A time and a team whose achievements remain unparalleled and undiminished, Kobe notwithstanding.

In Jack McCallum's book, DREAM TEAM, you can do everything you ever dreamed about with the big boys of the NBA; shoot some hoops, play some cards, drink a little beer; trash talk with superstars, stay up late, ogle the skirts, ride around in limos, stay in posh hotel suites, get inside dirt on NBA teams, and many other joyous adventures.

It's a great book, full of surprises and insight about these amazing athletes. All the great ones, Jordan, Bird, Magic, Barkley, Ewing, Drexler, Malone, Stockton, Mullin, Pippen, Robinson, and Laettner, along with their coach, Chuck Daly, are here, showcasing their talents, their weaknesses, their egos, their warts, and their individual personalities. Their talent is unassailable. Past and present basketball players, with a few exceptions, can only hope to attain their skill level. As for their other attributes, the author is kind enough to let the reader form his or her own opinion. I found his reporting to be extremely forthcoming with intimate details without a lot of jock sniffing. He is most courageous given these players' reputations for somewhat thin skin.

I had some trouble sorting out the alphabet associations and their involvement in the Olympic project. It was clear, however, that none of them wanted to be left out of the glory and monetary flow that accompanied the program. I wouldn't call the various executives jock sniffers, but they were very adept at throwing around their stature and putting their noses into the right crevices. Give the players credit. They went about their business, playing basketball on the world's biggest stage, without paying much attention to the voraciousness of the organizational gluttons. It seemed that nothing came before slams on Charles Barkley's bald head.

If you like basketball, you absolutely will cherish this book. If you don't, the organizational web spinning and the players' frenetic involvement will keep you fascinated and amused. For sure you know the name Michael Jordan. The author takes it further, introducing you to Michael Jordan as a person who has a life outside round ball. Magic Johnson is revealed as having an astute business sense and Larry Bird simply wanted to eat big when he retired. David Robinson has a high, faith based inclination towards education and child rearing. For the most part the other players have successful outside activities that had basketball as a starter but have developed because of their dedication and willingness to dole out money. So the game has been good to all of them, just as they have been good to all of us who have marveled at their skill.

McCallum's writing is professional and, more fun, sometimes self-deprecating. He has no qualms about telling us of the slights and insults directed at him as an outsider. The players even assign importance to each other based on titles won or awards received. Champions sit at one table and the others are shooed away. It's all in good fun because it's apparent that there is great admiration for individual skills from the other all-stars. Don't miss this one.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

1992 was the first year that pro players from the NBA were allowed to participate in the Olympics, and what a team it was, with Michael Jordan, Magic, Bird, Charles Barkley, Ewing, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, John Stockton, and the one college boy on the team, Duke University's Golden Boy, Christian Laettner, who was included as a token! McCallum, who covered the NBA for Sports Illustrated at the time, and was in both Monte Carlo for the practice sessions and Barcelona for the actual Olympic Games, is a good choice for the subject. He knows the subject at first hand and knows the players involved. Indeed, the best parts of the book are those where he covers them individually, what they were like then, what they are like now and what they think, reflecting back on those days.

The flattest part of the narrative deals with the actual Olympic games, no doubt because they were, from start to finish, blowouts. The Dream Team defeated its rivals by an average of 43.75 points.

It is interesting also to read how it came about that professional basketball players were allowed into the Olympics, whose myth had always been that only amateurs competed though everyone knew those "amateurs" were often extravagantly rewarded by their home countries for participating. Not just the Olympics Committee and officials but the heads of FIBA (Federation Internationale de Basketball), which controlled amateur basketball world wide were unhappy to see their support tainted by letting the rich boys in, and both FIBA and the Olympics feared an NBA takeover of the sport, even at the Olympics level. The story of how all this was turned around is quite intriguing, and it's not a story I knew anything about before I read McCallum's book.

Equally engrossing is the intriguing that went on to select the team. Once the pros were in on it, selecting ac college coach for the team didn't make sense. Chuck Daly, of the Detroit Pistons, were selected instead. Chuck was a good choice not just because he was a winning coach. Everybody liked him, and that was important, especially the first time the NBA athletes would be involved as players. By far the most interesting part of the story is how super-star Isiah Thomas lost his chance to be on the team. I won't spoil it for the potential reader by telling what happened. Suffice it to say, Thomas managed to ease himself out not only of the first ten selected but even the eleventh, final NBA selectee. (John Stockton was selected instead.)

McCallum has something to say about the impact this team, and its dominating performance in the Olympics, had on the subsequent history of the sport. BY 2011, he notes, there were 86 international players from forty countries playing in the NBA and four of the first seven draft picks that year were from other countries: Turkey, Lithuania, Serbia, and Congo.

This may be Sports History Lite, but it's GOOD History Lite, and great fun to read. Anecdotes abound: I read every one with glee. Barkley comes across as unpredictable (but likeable) as I suspected he was. Magic is Magic, and Michael is Michael. But each of the players, not just the Big Four (Michael, Magic, Larry and Charles) has a story of his own to tell and there's no lack of strong personalities. Bird couldn't dominate on the court this late in his career -he hurt too much physically. (After he returned home, he resigned from the Celtics within weeks, his back too damaged to permit him to continue playing at the level he demanded of himself.) But he dominated in shaping the team's ethos, by his past record and force of personality. Patrick Ewing had grown up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Like his friends in high school, he hated Bird and the Celtics. He thought they were frauds, puffed up in the press because they were mostly white guys. Then he was a pro and facing Bird in a league game for the first time. He looked across and saw those steely eyes staring at him, looking for clues as to how to psyche him out of his pants. After the game, he called his old friends: "You know all that **** we were talking back then?", he said. "Well, forget about it. This [he's referring to Bird] *************** right here is the truth."
Anyone who loves pro basketball should enjoy this book. A lot.

This book is a really, really good read. I did not want to put it down once I started it and that really surprised me. As much as I love playing the game of basketball, I can take or leave watching most of the NBA games these days.

First my credentials as a basketball fan: I follow the Houston Rockets, but that's about it. I make it to two games a year if I am lucky and watch 15 games on television. I'll also catch the finals and some playoff games, depending on who is playing. I would say that I am a very average, or even below average, NBA fan.

That said, I don't think you have to be an NBA fan at all to enjoy this book. The author has done a great job of writing short chapters that offer snapshots of cultural icons, celebrities, world events, and Olympic greatness. He will draw you in and humanize the players that seemed larger than life. He makes a great case for the Dream Team having more impact on the world than any other sports team, period.

Two things that may deter a casual fan include the author's sometimes tedious account of "the greatest game no one ever saw." This was really just an interteam scrimmage between Dream Teamer's, but the account does not live up to the author's hype or its memory of the players who played it. A little trash talking between Magic and Michael, but other than that it is a pedestrian account . . . something that probably needs to be seen on video to be truly appreciated.

The other part of the book that I thought was thin was the epilogue's for the players. The information on their careers seems thin, but weird biography details are brought up and focused on. The author did a great job of giving us a preview of each player in the book, but the epilogues were lacking in my opinion.

Some reviews complain about the author involving himself too much in the story, but I thought that was part of what I like so much about it. It was a weird time in sports history and even journalists were swept up in the magic of the Dream Team, and this is an insider's account (though not too inside to be honest about the shortcomings). I thought the balance was definitely there and it added to the story for me.

I learned a lot, enjoyed this book much more than I thought, and would highly recommend it to anyone who was alive during the '92 Olympics or cares at all about basketball.

The hot debate currently is whether the 92' Team or the 2012 team would win if they could play each other today. I like Larry Bird's answer the best - "They probably could. I haven't played in 20 years and we're all old now."

For anyone who loves this book, pick up a copy of The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy.

The author clearly reveres these legends and must consider them friends to offer up such a chronicle of the Dream Team's formation. I am too young to clearly remember any shenanigans or drama surrounding the team; while I wasn't looking for a drama-filled narrative it is very clear that the author was more interested in protecting reputations than painting an accurate picture. One of my biggest beefs with this was that the author would refer to Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan as Michael/Magic/Larry -- they are not one person!!!!! They are very different people with very different playing styles and skills as well as personalities. I think it does a disservice to the players to be lumped together like that. I certainly learned some things and got a better picture of what the Dream Team was like and how it came to be but I feel like the author really tried to put a shine on things, almost like I was reading a 'nice' version of the real story. For people too young to truly remember this amazing group of people and their accomplishments this book would be a good introduction but for fans of these players they will find the information given old news and might want to look elsewhere for a more comprehensive book that devotes time equally to all people involved.

The Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics quite possibly featured the best team in team sports of all-time, the USA men's basketball team which took on the name of Dream Team, initially because of the all-star cast of characters, and eventually because of the way it dominated on and off the court.

Jack McCallum goes all out to bring all that to us in chronological order, starting with introduction and background on the 12 players and the head coach, the late Chuck Daly. He covers a lot of the backstory of how the team was assembled, why these players were selected, why some were left out (such as Isiah Thomas). After the team was assembled, we follow them, from practices to qualifiers and behind the scenes, with a whole chapter devoted (chapter 28 from what I recall) to the greatest game almost no one saw (a spirited intra-squad practice with Jordan vs Magic). Then we have the Olympics games and the after math of the gold medal. The author also "interludes", where-are-they-now segments, linking the past to the present as the story unfolds.

Overall, this is a fun and entertaining read, it does not read like a box score. Humor is definitely in the mix, although at times some of the pop culture joke attempts misfire as they are just off or they are orders of magnitude more obscure than the actual subjects, which defeats the purpose.

If you were expecting to read box scores and Xs and Os, this is not a series of box scores or a basketball theory book.

Let's face facts the actual basketball games involving the Dream Team (USA men's national basketball team made up for the first time of the best of the best from the NBA) are dull as dishwater outscoring their opponents by an average of 40 points a game. The real story is in this book on all the backstage rumblings from the exclusion of Detroit Pistons' guard (and unloved by Michael Jordan) Isiah Thomas to the Reebok vs. Nike (and to a lesser extent LA Gear and Converse) sponsorship controversy.

The author approached the subject well mainly taking a chapter each to focus on one or two members of the team and their back story. The best bits are the whole dynamic that developed off the court. Who knew Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing would become such good friends thus teammates referred to them as Larry and Harry? We all know Magic Johnson was front and center in the public eye throughout the whole process but behind closed doors it was Michael Jordan who ran the show really from the late-night card games to golf outings to racheting up practice sessions when needed.

If you love sports and want to really know how the NBA finally woke up to the global possibilties of the sport of basketball, this is must reading.

When I ordered this book I half expected a typical magazing/book, more picture than substance, program. Imagine my surprise when I received a 330 page book with no pictures. (I have an advance copy, I'm not sure if the actual release has any pictures or not.) I then proceeded to read the entire thing in one sitting. The book starts out with background on the players and then moves into the actual training time and the games from the 1992 Olympics. In reviews of books I don't like to list chapters or give out spoilers, but in this case just about the entire world already knows how this story ends and Jack McCallum wrote it well enough that I read until it was over. He personally interviewed all the players and coaches (except Chuck Daly who had died prior to the start of the project) and put the whole thing together more like a story guys are telling over a few beers in the living room than a history. Anyone who is a fan of any of the players from the original (and in my mind the ONLY) Dream Team owes it to themselves to read this book. If you aren't a fan I believe it still is an excellent story. If you buy it I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and thanks for taking the time to read my review.

If you're a basketball fan you will enjoy this book. Jack McCallum was an insider covering the "real" Dream Team, the 1992 US Olympic Basketball team. There are tons of stories in this book, many you've heard over the years but definitely some new ones you haven't. There are many angles covered in the book due to Mr. McCallum's own accounts and many interviews with people associated with the team from both the Olympic and NBA sides.

My favorite parts of the book were the dynamics of the ego/leader battle between Jordan and Magic (MJ was the new King and Magic just couldn't let it go...even though Bird and everyone else knew who ruled)and the greatest game that no one ever saw, the scrimmage between the Dreamers for bragging rights.

Everyone gets their due here, including coach Chuck Daly, who may have been the ONLY coach to have handled this team at that time. Nice insights on the Isaiah snub, the choices of both Stockton and Mullin, Laettner being the 12th man (deservedly so at that time)and the hijinx of the one and only Charles Barkley.

Well done Mr. McCallum, a very informative and entertaining job. And check out the documentary on NBA TV, goes nice with the book.

The book focused too much on everything but basketball. This was a true disappointment as the hype for this book was very large and had me thinking it would be about the team, and not the authors "so called partying" with the team. The author makes claims to be friends with several of the players, but if that was the case, why did they give so little in the way of feedback, and no one did a forward for it. I think this book underachieved greatly.

Reading Dream Team brought me back to when I was a 14 year old getting to enjoy all the great legends of the NBA at the time on the same team. Getting to watch those great names in action was always such a treat, especially being a Bulls fan and having the privilege of watching MJ and Scottie do their thing on both ends of the court. But in Dream Team, Jack McCallum gives a behind the scenes look at how it all came to be and the controversies and alliances that formed after the team was assembled. I only wish he had given more details on the specifics of the games, but the section on the scrimmage between the players on the team was fun reading and really page-turning. Apparently Michael and Magic didn't always get along when it came to winning and losing.

This was truly the greatest basketball team ever assembled, and this is the definitive account of that.

In the sports world, putting together the top professional NBA basketball players to participate in the 1992 Olympics was a BIG TIME move. After years of being taunted that the United States Basketball team wasn't as good as the rest of the world at the Olympic games, some NBA players were calling foul. All the other countries were using their pro players and USA was sending college players. It was time for America to show just how dominant we were at this game everyone else thought they knew how to play. That's what DREAM TEAM is about telling the story of all these legendary players (all are in the Basketball Hall Of Fame except for Christian Laetner, the lone college player who was selected to be on the team) coming together and dominating like never before on an international stage. I was in college when this happened and I still remember it vividly to this day. In fact, this move motivated the rest of the world to step up their game and be more competitive...which they now are.

Jack McCallum can write some good stuff about basketball. He knows the game, the history and the legends. He takes us behind the curtain of the greatest basketball team ever assembled. The 1992 Dream Team that Chuck Daly led to an Olympic Gold at Barcelona. Chuck Daly might have been the perfect choice to lead this team of superstars, along with his assistants Coach K from Duke, Lenny Wilkins and P.J. Carlesimo. The names of the 1992 team can probaly be recited by even the most casual of fans but it is sure fun to reel off those names. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler, Christian Laetner (the sole college player), Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin and the affable Charles Barkley. McCallum writes with ease on the selection of the team, the inclusion of pro basketball players in the Olympics and the practices and games. What he captures so clearly and so interestingly are the relationships between the players. It makes for a great ride which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I knew a lot about the Dream Team - I grew up in Boston, followed the career of Larry Bird very closely, up to and including the 1992 Olympics - but there was no way I could ever know the level of detail about them that the author presents in this book. He had the benefit of being a Sports Illustrated writer sent to cover them for the Olympics.

There was a lot to the team that the average American basketball fan never knew, like who came up with the notion of sending NBA players to the international stage in the first place (believe it or not, it was not the NBA). McCallum takes the players one-on-one, following them through the process in 1992, and reconnects with them 20 years later to test and examine their memories of the NBA's coming of age moment with the world.

If, like me, you've pined for the return of the Golden Age of professional basketball - for Jordan, Magic, Larry, Ewing, Malone, Barkley, Drexler - you'll find they live again in this book as young men in their primes.

After reading a recent article about Michael Jordan, I was searching for further reading about him. I was looking for books about his life that and the little things he did that made him Jordan. However, I came across this tome by former Sports Illustrated NBA beat writer Jack McCallum. Not only do you get some insight on Jordan but also on the rest of the 1992 USA Olympic Basketball team. You get to see the personalities of guys like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley. Every basketball fan in the world knows about the dream team and it even inspired a lot of international players that are in the NBA today. Everybody remembers how good they were and them blowing every team by an average of 43.8 points. Nobody knew the hard work and backdoor politics that this "Dream Team" created. This book gives a pretty interesting account of all that and even splashes in some amusing anecdotes about the team, including the story about the 'Greatest Game Nobody Ever Saw". This book was also an easy breeze. I couldn't put this book down and was able to read it in a day. The writer uses a few superfluous words but nothing you can't handle without a dictionary.

The greatest strength of this book is the reporting: the eyewitness accounts, and the thorough interviews and research used to create a full, coherent, and engaging story. After years of covering the NBA, McCallum had gotten to know many of the Dream Team players, and so he was able to tell a fast-paced and balanced composite of that summer of 1992, but also provide context before and after to really fill out the narrative. The book is tight, packed with insider details, and reads blazingly fast (I raced through it in two days), so for NBA fans, it's a slam dunk.

The two reasons I would only recommend it to NBA fans are these: the writing is workmanlike, journalistic, in that it mostly just moves the story along and gets out of the way. (That is, non-fiction writers looking to improve their craft will not find much to relish in terms of language.) The second critique is that the book rarely pauses from the play-by-play to reflect on how these actions and events shed light on humanity at large--something I would say that great non-fiction (such as Andre Agassi's Open, for example) does. So for this latter reason in particular, the book would exclude itself from general interest.

But if all you're asking of the book is a rollicking ride down basketball memory lane, you'll be quite satisfied.

It's pretty obvious from the word go that Jack McCallum reveres the 92 dream team. His tale tells of all the greatness while making anecdotal references to the shortcomings. By and large this book isn't about the team but about Bird, Magic and Jordan with Barkley as a throw in. The rest of the team is mentioned in passing with the exception of Patrick Ewing who doesn't even rate a few throw away pages. The reason that these athletes cooperated with McCallum is that they knew he would write a hagiography and that's exactly what he did.

The only saving grace from the book is the section about how it impacted global basketball. I don't share the universal catalyst, that was already well underway, but I can see how it helped to raise competitive bar. All in all mediocre is the best word to describe this book.

I am a little bit young to remember the 1992 games, but as someone who loves basketball, I thought this would be an interesting read. McCallum offers a first-hand account of the selection, prep, competition, and follow-up of the illustrious "Dream Team" (he was the one that coined that phrase!) The book was a little hard to follow in the beginning, but once I got into the rhythm of his writing style, I really enjoyed it. My one wish would be that there would be a little less focus on Michael/Magic/Larry and a bit more information about the "lesser known" guys. I put that in quotes because all of these players were exceptional and none were unknown. Overall, I thought it was a compelling, captivating narrative.

Jack McCallum is no slouch. His work in SI is of the highest quality, so it's not a surprise that it would continue to this date in _Dream Team_. All the pieces come together well here. It's at the right point in history--far enough away to add perspective but close enough that the primary actors still have a lot to say. He does an excellent job of telling ALL of the stories and not just the complimentary ones...the material on the relationship between Jordan and Isaiah Thomas is very striking. The chapter containing the play-by-play of the July 1992 closed-door scrimmage is worth the book's price alone.

In the end, the author has crafted one of the best basketball books of the year, and a seminal piece of historical narrative about the greatest basketball team the world has ever seen. A must-read.

The release of this book is timely in light of the recent achievements of the 2012 American Olympic Basketball squad. During the games this summer, the question was raised time and again - "Could the 2012 squad actually be better than the 1992 squad?". The answer, to me is an easy one. No, they cannot. While that argument could go on for ages, the simple fact is this - the 1992 team not only dominated every opponent, they opened up the game of basketball to the rest of the world. Sure, other countries played basketball before 1992. But none really knew where the bar was until that team came along. Jack McCallum not only chronicles the achievements of the '92 team, but couches it all in a historical perspective that helps the reader understand why this team transcends the court even today. It is a book worthy of the team.

When you're writing a book about the greatest team of all time, it's hard to go wrong. The story of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team is already captivating much like the players who made up the team.

Sports journalist Jack McCallum does a great job providing this well-detailed biography and really gets behind the scenes from when the team was created to when they were named to when they won the Olympic medals. It was really interesting to discover how the team went from idea to global phenomenon and when it comes to sports, there always has to be a debate--the debate here was the fact that Isiah Thomas never ultimately made the Dream Team. Each player is spotlighted and it's a great story of how these world-class athletes came together as a team.

Jack McCallum has covered the NBA for years and at the time the Dream Team was formed he covered it for Sports Illustrated. He was present at the creation, and covered them thru the entire Olympic experience. This is as close to an unvarnished, insider account as you're going to get.

McCallum helps us understand the road that lead to the entrance of NBA players into the Olympics. He carries us through all the team selection process and throws a great deal of light on the omission of Isiah Thomas from the Dream Team. He pays special attention to the roles of Magic, Larry and Michael as team leaders, and their interactions with others.

This is a GREAT book. If you are a basketball fan it is a must read, maybe a must own for the library. Highest recommendation

Absolutely extraordinary. From my perspective this book is complete and outstanding, particullary for somebody who used to play basketball and still is a fan of absolutely unique DREAM TEAM of Mike, Chuck, Larry & Harry, Magic, Karl et cet. This book is fantastic review of all kind of aspects creating this unique TEAM, his values, team spirit, and performance. Incredible intelligent narration, can build a flow of reading and thinking of that Team. I was able to watch all games of CHUCK DALY's DREAM TEAM, from my perspective that was ONE REAL DREAM TEAM. Author of "Dream Team" has the same opinion.That's a reason why I love this book !!! and I love this game !!!

One of the points the author, Jack McCallum, makes about Michael Jordan is that he is considered the apogee in our language--the best of the best. So my title of this review, "The Michael Jordan of Books on the Dream Team" would, you'd think, indicate a five star rating. But since there really aren't that many books on the US Basketball Team dubbed "The Dream Team," it is only the current heir to the throne--greater ones may still flash across the publishing sky.

My basketball fandom has gone in fits and spurts--I was a Sixers fan back in the days of Dr. J, Moses Malone, and Charles Barkley, but when they traded Mo Cheeks and then CB, it took a while for me to come back to the Sixers--and today I only follow the Tar Heels, having given up Pro Basketball as an egotistic, non-team mentality sport.

McCallum argues that all Dream Teams that followed the original don't deserve the name for precisely the same reason--that the later-day players were more about ego, success, and fame than the game. But the original Dream Team--with co-captains Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and the real leader of the team, Michael Jordan--they give new pride and meaning to the term "old school," a pure love for the game.

The book contains at least a chapter on each member, interspersed with an account of the Dream Team's formation, early games, and the Barcelona tour-de-force mass destructions of every team they encountered. I remember watching some of the games, mostly because of my beloved Charles Barkley, who was statistically and in other ways, the heart of the team, despite his Croatian elbow. At the time I wouldn't give Larry Bird any credit (Sixers fan, remember?), but time and this book have helped to mellow me. He had no interest in being the public face of the team and Magic took that role with pleasure, yet it was Bird who realized that MJ was the greatest player of all time (though I'd still argue the merits of Wilt--Sixers fan, remember redux?).

There are some nice memories, anecdotes, and insights and, while McCallum covered the Barcelona Olympics for Sports Illustrated AND later interviewed all of the players while writing the book...he is only a very good author. Five star basketball books are reserved for the MJs of sports literature in my eyes: David Halberstam, Adrian Wojnarowski, and David Wolf (BREAKS OF THE GAME, THE MIRACLE OF ST. ANTHONY, FOUL: CONNIE HAWKINS).

Still, if you want to go down memory lane with some great players and some great human beings (David Robinson, who opened a school focusing on excellence and religion for poor kids, for the win), you could do much worse than read DREAM TEAM.

The Dream Team came about in the midst of my high school years. Like many I was enthralled with watching them compete and the "coming together" of all these legends for some great basketball. This book brings out many things that I hadn't paid as close attention to like the genesis of the team, the off-court craziness, and great perspective from the players themselves. Makes me want to go dig out the old VHS tapes I recorded off TV.

I truly found this book to be absolutely fascinating.

When the NBA Network put out a movie on the Dream Team and people were discussing how inspiring the team was and how spine tingling the movie was, I thought it was kind of BS because the Dream Team was built to annihilate its opponents. And, they did.

So I didn't really buy into that line of reasoning.

But this book really pulled the story together for me. The backstory on keeping Isiah Thomas off the team was fascinating and the players came to life.

For me, I have always loved basketball and Jack McCallum really brought the team members to life.

Longtime Sports Illustrated writer Jack Mcallum has produced a timely and highly entertaining read on the original Dream Team. The entire world saw them whoop up on the rest of the world in 1992, but that's more a background note to the myriad of individual personalities of the Dream Teamers and the enduring global impact of the original Dream Team.

This Dream Team was far from a perfect team. The rivalry between the greatest NBAer of the 1990's Michael Jordan and perhaps the greatest of the 1980's Magic Johnson is cast in particular spotlight. The Dream Team was a rare combination of past superstars at the tail end of their career, mixing with the current superstars that embodied the NBA's 80's and 90's boom period. Perhaps most telling is who didn't make the team (The Isiah Thomas sections were an eye opener.)

But the story goes beyond the Dream Team to talk about just how the NBA got involved in the Games and the international impact of the games. This is my one problem with the book, it kind of jumps around from the events of 1992 to snapshots of the Dream Team in 2011, and then discusses more the international impact towards the end. While everything was entertaining, it could've been laid out a little better. Felt kind of hodge-podged together.

That small critique notwithstanding, it's a very quick read and Mccallum captures the spirit of the original Dream Team in a unique voice that is once humorous and honest about the pride, ego, rivalry and excellence that gave us the one true Dream Team.

I was twelve when the Dream Team awed my friends and I with their awesome sweep of the world at the Olympic games that year! My favorite was Shawn Kemp!

Anyways, this book really brought me back to that summer, and then some! Very cool to read about the inside stories behind all the wins.

The author knows his stuff, and goes over each player with equal weight, which is nice. I was worried that MJ might be the star or the book and hog the pages, but not the case--equal representation about on the pages!

Fun, informative read!

This is a great book by one of my favorite sports writers. If, however, you're looking for some dirt on your favorite players or a tell-all revealing behidn the scenes squabbles, this is not your book. McCallum focuses on how the team was put together, how they spent their downtime, and what it was like to be on the Dream Team. The 1992 Olympic basketball team seemed to actually get along quite well, and McCallum spends most of the book observing the complicated and interesting relationships between the superstars that make up the team.

The author takes us back 20 years to the origins of the original dream team, the greatest collection of players that will ever play together anywhere. Unlike books written by players, this book doesn't have an agenda - the reporter calls them as he saw them as events were happening.

I could criticize that the author spends too much time on Isiah Thomas and is a little too harsh on Lattner, but it doesn't diminish from the inside tales of these superstars interacting with one another and becoming a team.

Any one who is a basketball fan must read this book. Not only is it about the greatest players of all time on the greatest team of all time. It is about the birth of the globalization of basketball. Once you read this book you understand how basketball went from, an American game to a game for the whole world. The author does a brilliant job of telling the tail of this team through the eyes of its members, and with his eye witness accounts of those Olympics we can see what that summer was really like. I felt like I was there.

For rabid sports fans like me, one who was immersed in the Dream Team culture during the 92 Olympics, there wasn't much from this book that I didn't already know about. The stories of Jordan's competitiveness are well known. As is his gambling. Same goes for Magic's leadership and HIV, Bird's back and upbringing, Robinson's religion and physique, Stockton's determination and humbleness, and Barkley's volatility. So, in that aspect, not much is new.

What this book does contain, however, is an assortment of insider observations, random quotes, and peaks into the psychological makeup of how the Dream Team was built, how they interacted. For instance, I didn't know Larry Bird was so crass. Funny, but crass. I also didn't know the lengths to which Drexler mistakenly believed he was as good as Jordan (the thought of a one-handed, head-down dribbler being as good as MJ is comical). Laettner comes off as very insightful, maybe even reserved, which is surprising since it contradicts his personal image as a basketball player. As a Chicago fan it was fun rereading about why Isiah Thomas was left off the team, and why, ultimately, he wouldn't have fit in as well. One comment from Scottie Pippen, a player who was brought onto the team with a primary role of defensive stopper, about Chris Mullin really surprised me. Mullin, for those who don't know, was one of those guys with virtually none of the measurables, limited athleticism, a guy whose presence on the team was questioned by many. What Mullin did have, however, was basketball skill and knowledge. Anyway, Pippen comments how Mullin could back-door cut at the precise moment when an opponent was offguard, and he'd always get Pippen. Very telling, and it reaffirms his place on the team.

There are two reasons even a basketball fan should buy/read this book. First, there is great detail about how a Yugoslavian meat inspector named Boris Stankovic had the first idea of making a Dream Team, how he followed it through, and how by sheer will managed to rub elbows with the most influential basketball names in the world. The Dream Team is Stankovic's doing, make no mistake about it. Without him, we (U.S. citizens) would still be irritated about watching fresh-faced college kids losing to a team of Lithuanian "amatuers" with full beards. The other reason to read this book is the Monte Carlo scrimmage. Comparable to film of Bigfoot, the ungettable video breakdown (actually a play-by-play) of the fabled Monte Carlo scrimmage - it was closed to all media - is the true gem of the book. It should come as little surprise that MJ's team beat Magic's team; but, what is surprising, is how fiercely Magic wanted to hold on to the #1 spot. He wanted to remain the alpha-dog of the team, the NBA, but the Monte Carlo game might just have been the moment when the mantle was passed.

Enjoyable, quick read. Good for NBA or basketball fans, great for passing basketball fans, absolutely mandatory for younger basketball fans who mistakenly believe the 2012 Olympic team would stand a chance against the original Dream Team.

funny thing alot of the nba of yesteryear and today is felt through this book and the endoresement and the commercialism of the modern NBA. now i remember the dream team from 20 years back like it was yesterday and to me Charles Barkley played the best out of everybody on the team. of course everything is centered around Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, however barkley stood out in the games as he dominanted and bulled himself through the paint. i wish there was a follow up uncut book in light of what Clyde Drexler a dream team player back in 92 has said recently. the Greatest tragedy of dream team 92 was the no invitation to Isiah Thomas. Zeke should have been on the team period. christian Lattiner is a interesting story as the only college player on the team, however back then he was one of the Greatest college basketball players ever. he had some great years at duke,. Chris Mullin, patrick Ewing,David RObinson, Karl Malone, John stockton, CLyde Drexler, Scottie pippen, and coach Chuck Daily. i haven't seen another team since that is touching this one and make sure Kobe Bryant hears that last statment because he recently said the new dream team could beat the 92 era one and first thing came to mind, was Kobe let me check that gatorade you dirnking on over on the sideline because somebody done spiked your water. lets not get it twisted the 92 dream team would whip on any dream team that i have seen after it. now if you put the best dream teamers from the 96 team to the 2012 team in a best of 7 series then I could see the modern ones winning a game and the 92 team winning a four game series by an average margin of 12-15 points easily.

interesting thing about this book is the cats were very competitive and you gotta wonder how many of these cats actually liked one another aside from being teammates? this is a book that is going to be talked about for many generations to come and also this is the standard dream team in my lifetime with all apologys to the the ones prior to the 92 dream team.

this is a great read and well written from start to finish

The "Dream Team" was, without a doubt, the greatest basketball team ever assembled. As a teenager twenty years ago, the summer of 1992 left was one of the greatest summers I've ever had, for various reasons, but in particular for watching the utter domination by the U.S. basketball team reclaiming it's rightful place atop the world. I remember being amazed that they didn't score 200 points per game.

McCallum's book is based on his first hand experience covering the team as well as current interviews with each of the 12 members of the team. As a respected senior writer at Sports Illustrated, McCallum had the trust of the players and access to them in Barcelona that allow us to get insights that nobody else can provide. The book is set up in chapters on each of the 12 members with chapters on the overall story mixed in.

This truly was the golden age of the NBA and American basketball. A year earlier, Magic Johnson had retired due to getting HIV, Bird was about to retire and Jordan and the Bulls had ascended to the top of the NBA. And with all those great players, Barkley was the leading scorer on the team. As a teenager back then, I didn't really have a grasp of all the politics involved in pulling this off but this book helped give some insight into it.

One of the little nuggets of information that I quite enjoyed was Pippen admitting that Jordan and the Bulls got special treatment from the refs. If you're not a biased Bulls fan, you aleady were aware of that but it's nice for him to admit it. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable book to read. I read it in a day because I didn't want to put it down. A must read for any basketball fan. The only thing to be aware of is that there is lots of crude language in here (direct quotes from the players) so it's not suitable for young children.

Of course there are lots of great insights into the Dream Team; how they were picked, how they played together, and how they changed basketball worldwide. More interesting are the backstorys about each player and the coaches on the team. Mccallum makes each player seem like a real person with all their good and bad qualities. I marveled at the Jordan, Magic, and Barkley stories. I was touched by the stories about David Robinson, John Stockton and the Lithuanian team. Perhaps, the most entertaining part of the book was the description of the famous Monte Carlo scrimmage in which Michael Jordan's team beat Magic's team. Mccallum describes the game with humor and intensity. A quick and fun read.

Great book for both the basketball fan and the non fan. Not your typical sports play by play and stats book, but a book about personalities and putting your ego aside for two weeks.

The Dream Team was once in a lifetime and will not be repeated.

PS For all you "better than the dream team" types, I am sorry, but the team with Jordan wins.

This book is definitely not for everyone. If you aren't a fan of professional basketball or were born after 1987 I probably wouldn't bother. However, for someone like me who was in my early twenties in 1992 and a fan of both the NBA and the Olympics this story was pure gold. Karl Malone and John Stockton were my favorite players of that time period and I was overjoyed when they were selected to be on the 1992 Olympic Team. Of course the stars of this book are Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley but that is how it should be. Reading this book you realize again how special this team really was and how ludicrous comments by Lebron James and Kobe Bryant are when they claim their dream team could beat the original. I'd take MJ, Magic, and Bird over James, Bryant, and Durant any day. McCallum travelled with the team at the time and has insights into the players that are unique. There are no earth shattering or scandalous revelations to be found here but that is not the purpose of this book. "Dream Team" is about nostalgia It has been twenty years since this thrown together dream team entertained the entire world and introduced it to professional basketball.. Jack McCallum's prose is precise and never too flowery. He writes like the journalist he is and this book puts you into the action. Great recollections of the team that changed the Olympics and the NBA forever.

This book contains some very entertaining quotes and anecdotes from and about the famed Dream Team. However, the overall product is marred by McCollum's unfortunate predilection to aggressively insert information on himself into virtually every chapter -- as though any reader is remotely interested in reading about him.

It is also heavily weighted toward the players personally favored by the author. I found the expressions of his personal biases to be off-putting. Had he simply been a reporter rather than a commentator and would-be amateur psychologist, the book would have turned out far better.

Great memories of a time that transcended great team basketball ... if you were a fan in the 1980-1990 era...there was nothing quite like Magic, Larry, and later on Jordan . This book is a great account of hoop hysteria and history of those times.

If you love the game...if you watch the game...if you play the game...

There is nothing like reading about the 'Dream Team'.

Up close, reading about these famous superstars is a great read!

My son loves basketball; he grew up watching Michael Jordan in his prime. With the 2012 Olympics going this week, this has been the perfect book to get him in the mood to cheer the USA team. Easy reading, fun reading.

Following on the heels of his much-better book about the Phoenix Suns, Jack McCallum returns with this Cliff's Notes version of how the 1992 Dream Team came to be formed, their exploits during the Olympics, and what the players are doing now. This is a very entertaining book, but it's not done in-depth at all. Personality conflicts are glossed over, controversies are mentioned but not explored, and many of the less-than-wonderful information that could have been included wasn't included. I would have liked this book more if it hadn't felt like a primer; real basketball fans know there is a dark side to many of the players who were on that team, and would have probably appreciated McCallum being a more hard-hitting reporter, and less of a fan playing kiss-up with the players.

I liked this book, but it could have been a lot better.

this is a well-written and well-organized depiction of the 1992 olympic basketball team in all its glory (sorry, but just don't like the term "dream team"). the author had great access to the players then and now, and that adds a lot of color to the story, although he's so obviously enamored with the team and its personalities he often comes across as a bit of a sycophant. the behind-the-scenes action and relationships among the players were the most intriguing parts of the book. there was a lot going on between the players that i found quite interesting.

the major drawback i have--and it's a big one--is the extent to which the author inserted himself into the story. in 90% of the cases this was completely unnecessary and added nothing to the topic at hand. i'm not sure whether it's ego or insecurity (perhaps both) but i think he made a huge error in judgment if he assumed people wanted to read so much about him, what he was thinking, and how he got to play golf with so-and-so. i'm surprised an editor didn't pick up on this and have him tone it down a bit.

overall though, a fast and entertaining read.

Whatever shortcomings others may have found in this book, I enjoyed the book. The only thing that left me a little flat was the description of what's been described as the greatest game no one ever saw. For me, it's about the same as chess's Immaculate Game. That being said, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to those who have an interest in the one and only Dream Team.

Do yourself an favor and buy it. Just buy it. You will love this book. I have nothing else to say except Thank you Jack MCCallum and thank you Dream Team ... there will never be another team like them. EVER!

I think that the best part of the book was the never-ending stories of how the group interacted down to the final details. It was great insight and something only a first hand witness could share. And the on the floor recollections reminded me of an era of basketball that was one of the best.

For an NBA fan that grew up watching the players on the Dream Team, this book was a walk down memory lane. The insight in to what it took to put the team together was amazing. The behind the scenes stories of the interaction between players was the best part.

This book is beyond words. Took me about a month to finish, but I gotta say, we'll worth the time, effort and loos of sleep involved. The dream team remains one of the most interesting teams to ever play any sport and this book covers it all.

If you love basketball then you must read this book. All hoops fans should know the story of the dream team. Riveting material on each member of the team and many other unique stories that surround the greatest team ever assembled.

Jack McCallum takes the reader behind the scenes as he tells you just how it was! 'The Dream Team' is a fascinating story of the reputation that was as remarkable as that of 'Elvis.' The story is not only a gem in itself, but is refreshing and funny. A riveting story of how one team climbed the ladder to success. Interesting and Highly Recommended!

I miss the 90's so much that this book nearly brought tears to my eyes. This book reminded me of the days where basketball was more than just money and fame. It was about the love for the game of basketball.

I enjoyed the book about the Dream Team. Talks about how Boris Stankovic and Dave Gavitt fought to get the NBA players to play in the Olympics, forming of the team, and their journey in the 1992 Games. I would have gave it five stars though I believe the author took one to many liberties in this book plus I like to know whose telling the truth about the comments Clyde "made" about Magic.

Jack Mccallum is the perfect author for this book. He has great knowledge and insights into each of the personalities involved, and tells a very engaging story. I thought this book was as much fun to read as any I've read this year.

I've read a lot of sports books so I wasn't suprised by a little bragging, although it usually comes from a player point of view. If I didn't know better, I'd think McCallum was a bball player! Oh well, it's his book so why not write yourself into a hero? There wasn't a whole lot in here that hadn't been said a million times over on ESPN, but if you're a diehard fan of the late 20th century NBA (and who isn't?), you'll like this.

I DID NOT ORDER THIS BOOK AND TRIED, UNSUCCESSFULLY, TO CANCEL THE ORDER. I HAVE NOT READ IT NOR DO I INTEND TO READ IT. IF THIS HAPPENS AGAIN, I WILL NOT BE ORDERING ANYTHING ELSE FROM the store.COM.

I ONLY RATED IT AS ONE-STAR BECAUSE I HAD TO RATE IT IN ORDER TO SEND THIS.