Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players Cover
Podcast Mentions

Masters of the Game A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players

Sam Smith

The legendary sportswriter and the Hall of Fame, eleven-time NBA champion coach separate the music from the noise in the stories of the greatest who ever played and their impact on the game Sam Smith and Phil Jackson grew to know and respect each other in the late 1980s, when Smith was a

Podcasts 1
Quotes 3
The Bill Simmons Podcast

In the episode, Bill Simmons introduced the book, noting that it presented 75 NBA players through a back‑and‑forth interview format but suffered from numerous factual errors and editorial oversights. Zach Lowe explained the conversational structure, and Simmons admitted that despite its oddness he extracted roughly twenty useful insights. The overall view was mixed, acknowledging the book’s quirks while finding some value.

Critiqued

Episode: Tatum’s Stunning Return, Wemby’s Big Weekend, and...

The hosts said the book profiles 75 NBA players in a backandforth interview style, contains several factual errors, but still offered about 20 useful insights and interesting tidbits.

"

I read this book called Masters of the Game. Okay. By Sam Smith and Phil Jackson.

They go through 75 players and it's basically a back and forth. Almost like how we did that Dwight Howard thing. It's a back and forth of their conversation with each player, but each one kind of can basically zag into this different conversation.

It's one of the strangest books I've ever read. I don't understand if they had a proofreader or an editor or anything. There's certain guys where they don't even talk about the guy. And at the same time, I got like 20 things out of it, reading it.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.