Jeff Pearlman discusses his book about the Showtime Lakers which comes out March 4

I really enjoyed the book he wrote about the 90s Cowboys it took me 3 days to read the whole thing.

[url]http://thebiglead.com/2014/03/02/jeff-pearlman-discusses-his-showtime-lakers-book-the-writing-process-and-qualms-with-si-swimsuit/[/url]

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One of the striking things about reading any literature based on events that transpired before a couple years ago is how differently they would be magnified by social media. Can you think of anything that you

As a Laker fan, who has purchased many books on the Lakers over the years, I can not wait to get this book! This is going to be a nice addition to the collection. I am looking at 30 years of Lakers information. But this book right here.....wow. I can not wait. Thanks for the summary.

Just finished reading this. A pretty entertaining and fast read.

Pat Riley comes across looking pretty bad. I already knew rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and was very demanding and a tough coach, but not that the level at which this book describes him.

Jamaal Wilkes comes across very well, and also sympathetic due to suffering from the personal tragedy of his infant's death.

Although just like Jackie MacMullan's book 'When the Game Was Ours', it is inaccurate when it talks about Magic and Isiah's altercation in game 5 of the 88' Finals. Both books said Magic hit Isiah in the kidney. He forearmed him in the jaw. I'm sure both were researched pretty well, yet for some reason they get this one wrong.

Anyway, here are some excerpts.

On Mark Landsberger's intelligence:

[QUOTE]Of the sixty-nine men to wear the purple and gold between 1979 and 1991, no one matched the pure stupidity of Mark Landsberger.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]Good lord, Mark was the dumbest person I've ever met, said Michael Cooper[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]A boy approached with a team poster. "Can you sign your name and number? he asked.

"Why do you want my number?" Landsberger asked.

"I'd just like to have it," he replied.

"OK", said Landsberger. He proceeded to scribble M-A-R-K L-A-N-D-S-B-E-R-G-E-R in script, then added 3-1-0-7-5-0-6-7-2-8.

"Mark spoke at my summer basketball camp", said Mike Thibault, an assistant coach. "He was there to give an hour long clinic on rebounding. He took seven minutes and ran out of words."
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On Spencer Haywood's drug addiction and plot to kill Paul Westhead:

[QUOTE] With his hope crushed and dreams dead, Haywood consumed himself in a tidal wave of drugs and pity and terrifying plots. Only one teammate, Jamaal Wilkes, had called to check on him after the dismissal. Otherwise, they were all enemies.....Most of all, Westhead, the coach who ruined everyhing.

"I left the Forum and drove off in my Rolls thinking only that Westhead must die", Haywood said. He called a friend- Gregory, from Detroit- who dabbled in organized crime, and hatched a plan. They would sneak into Westhead's driveway at night and disable the brakes on his car. The next time the coach tried driving down the long, winding road from his Palos Verdes home, Haywood and his pals would run his vehicle off a cliff.

"Spencer supposedly flew two guys in to do it", said Westhead. "It was a very real idea".

"They were going to do the job for free", Haywood said. "For the sake of friendship and for the prestige of having done a favor for old Spencer." During a phone conversation shortly before the scheduled murder, Haywood's mother detected a sinister tone to her son's voice. "You're up to something no good, aren't you?" she said. Eunice Haywood threatened to contact the police if he acted on any urges. "I will turn you in myself", she said. "I didn't raise no fool". The killing was called off.

"Here's the amazing thing," said Westhead. "Eight years later I'm coaching college at Loyola Marymount, and Spencer Haywood enters the gym. He was in recovery, and he came to ask for my forgiveness."

"Spencer, of course I forgive you," Westhead had said. "Hell, it's great to see you. Because, if it had worked, I wouldn't be seeing you."



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On Pat Riley:

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Like Westhead before him, Riley began to start viewing himself as a genius, which was funny to those who realized 70 percent of his basketball strategy came from the pages of Jack McKinney. Whereas once he was agreeable and open, he turned suspicious and grouchy....He viewed all non-players and coaches as suspicious interlopers, and questioned the loyalty of many. "You were either with Pat or against Pat," said one employee. "That's how he saw it."

Riley was particularly cruel to Josh Rosenfeld, the teams nebbishy media relations director....He was the ultimate workaholic. "My life was the Lakers," he said. Yet Riley seemed to take a bully's delight in abusing the little guy. "I was a peripheral opponent," Rosenfeld said. "He told me once, 'if a bus is scheduled to leave at 11, you had better be there at 10:40, because I am never going to hold it for you. If all 12 guys are on the bus, we're leaving."

Riley worked Rosenfeld to the bone, even when tasks had nothing to do with the press. Generally, those in Rosenfeld's shoes attended team practices but paid little attention to the on-court details. "Pat didn't allow me to read a newspaper at practice," he said. "He'd say 'if you're gonna be at practice, you're going to be attentive and you're going to watch'". Occasionally, if he wasn't involved in a drill, Johnson would sit down alongside Rosenfeld to chat. "Oh, Pat would get pissed," Rosenfeld said. "But never at Magic, just at me".




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Riley appeared on the January 1989 cover of GQ magazine, and the accompanying article was eye-opening. When Riley didn't talk about how great he was, he talked about how great he was, or, on occasion, how great he was. He felt disrespected during pre-season contract renegotiations with Buss, and had threatened to resign. He was genuinely upset that, in seven seasons, he had never been named the league's Coach of the Year. He once approached Gary Vitti, the trainer, during a winning streak to complain that the chalk he was given to write with was "too hard". (Vitti's response: Pat, what the **** does that mean?). Early in training camp in Hawaii, he demanded the rims on the basket be painted bright orange, and the bolts on the backboard be replaced.

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Abdul-Jabbar traveled with a publicist, Lorin Pullman, who was friendly and well-liked. One time, when the Lakers traveled to Cleveland to face the Cavs, she was stranded at the Sheraton in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Riley refused to let her ride the team bus to the airport, even when others pleaded her case. Why? Because he could. When Kareem learned of this, he turned indignant. What happened to his old coach? The one who was understanding and personable? Where did he go? Many Lakers players had recently been told that Riley, without uttering so much as a word, had officially purchased the trademark rights to the phrase three-peat. The term had first been coined by Wes Mathews, the former backup point guard who, after the last championship, turned to Riley in the locker room and yelled "Don't break this up, we're gonna three-peat!"

"Riley was like, "Three-peat? I like that,'" Matthews said. "Then the bastard went and patented it. I was pissed. I was really pissed."

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In the 1987 Finals against Boston, after the Lakers won two at home, then lost game 3 in Boston 109-103.

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When the team met the next day to practice at the Garden, Riley explained that the biggest problem wasn't poor shooting or lazy passing or simply a good Celtics team having a fine night.

No, it was....the wives.

Dating back to his "peripheral distractions" operating philosophy (anything unrelated to the game itself was an unnecessary burden that could only stand in the way of victory), Riley chewed out his players for allowing a handful of spouses to come to Boston.

"Last week we made a deal", he told the team. "No wives or girlfriends would come back until Monday. We all agreed that we'd get to Boston, we'd practice, and we'd try to get a third game out of the way."

"Today I found out that a number of the wives flew in on their own Friday night. You were supposed to be settling in, resting and preparing mentally for the game, without distractions. I'm not going to fine you guys. I'm not going to bench you, or send you home, or yell and scream at you. And I definitely don't want you to go back to your hotel room and yell at your wives for getting you in trouble."

"But I want you to think about what happened. We've created a little white lie. We lied to ourselves."

Riley was serious.

The Lakers were agape.

They'd lost to the Boston Celtics at home in a really close game. This was the fault of the wives? Magic Johnson could screw around on the road all he wanted, and that wa s fine? But heaven forbit a spouse come, on her own dime, to support her husband? That was wrong?


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Nice, hadn't heard about this one, my next read for sure.