Just Ballin: The Chaotic Rise of the New York Knicks
by Mike Wise, Frank Isola
Category: Sports & Recreation

It's the stuff NBA nightmares are made of. Michael Jordan retires after the most spectacular career in league history; Latrell Sprewell returns after one of the most violent incidents in the long history of player-coach relations; and a nasty lockout threatens to cancel the entire misbegotten season. The NBA had become a dysfunctional family, suddenly low on star power and scoring while high on self-serving players with little use for authority. And the perfect symbol for this new era of chaos was the New York Knicks. In Just Ballin', Mike Wise and Frank Isola take you behind the scenes of an incredible run to the 1999 NBA Finals -- and into a diverse and often divided locker room. Well established as two of the nation's top NBA writers, Wise and Isola examine the Knicks' turbulent and nearly triumphant season. After barely making the playoffs, the Knicks somehow transformed themselves from underachieving malcontents into the least-loved underdog sports has ever seen. Revered in the Big Apple bur reviled throughout the rest of America, this team became a powerful mix of hip-hop icons, aging veterans, and born-again believers. Just Ballin' unravels the curious contradictions: Is Sprewell a coach-choking monster or a misunderstood leader who came to rule Madison Square Garden? Is coach Jeff Van Gundy a fall-in soldier or a master manipulator who cunningly turned public opinion his way? Is franchise center Patrick Ewing an honorable warrior or an albatross who hurts the team with his on-court limitations? In addition, Wise and Isola examine the key issues facing the league as it enters the new millennium: labor problems heightened by escalating salaries, the lack of a suitableambassador following Jordan's departure, a rising influence of urban culture, and racial tension in a league dominated by black players and a white power structure. Not since David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game has any book provided such an insightful, definitive account of life in and around the NBA's arenas. Just Ballin' takes us to dramatic playoff games and wild practice sessions, on memorable rides aboard team buses and charter planes. From the locker room to the boardroom, from the preseason through the Finals, it tells the unforgettable story of a team that won over New York -- and the ongoing saga of a league still wondering about the shape of its future.