Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
Some books about sports (think George Plimpton or David Halberstam) are the equivalent of literary fiction; some (say, John Feinstein) compare favorably with serious nonfiction about other subjects. Showtime, by the author of Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton (2011), is more on the order of a celebrity bio. It is gossipy, at times sensationally so (particularly in regard to drug use and sex), and sometimes sophomoric (and cruelly demeaning of lesser players), but it imparts hard-won inside knowledge, and it is certainly entertaining. Many of its individual subjects are true celebrities—the ebullient and charismatic, though problematic, Earvin Magic Johnson; the moody (and far stronger words are used) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; coach Pat Riley; and even owner Jerry Buss—and with outsize egos to match. But, though not gelling immediately, the L.A. Lakers of the 1980s became, by mid-decade, an extraordinary basketball team, perhaps the best ever, and if their flamboyant style on and off the court belied their discipline and frequent sheer brilliance, it merits the enthusiastic and wide-ranging treatment that Pearlman gives it. --Mark Levine