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 enlarge | Author: Jack Mccallum
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $5.99
You Save: $18.01 (75%)
New (9) Used (12) from $5.91
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 15017
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323640979173
ASIN: B000WPM9LG
Publication Date: November 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 NBA Junkies' Delight! October 20, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you love basketball, you're going to love this book. McCallum writes about a season with the Phoenix Suns, and takes us through their playoff run. He mixes in flashbacks to key points during the season, and manages to entertain.
Two problems are that the book is shallow and doesn't go into enough depth on most topics, and there is absolutely no criticism of anything the Suns did.
Enjoyable, but light. NBA fans are going to devour this.
Great story with a couple of flaws August 26, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm an SI subscriber, so I've been reading Jack for years in the magazine. I was looking forward to this book ever since I put it on my wishlist, and I wasn't disappointed. They gave him really great access, and the coaches seemed to relax around him and give him good quotes. He has a smooth and engaging writing style, which works great for wriiting about sports.
And he did not treat the players like Gods, and that was very key. He made Shawn Marion look like he was, your typical insecure semi-superstar, and allowed Amare Stoudemire to appear as the clueless, under-educated athlete that he is. Reserve guard Eddie House wound up being the star of the book, player category, he's very entertaining without coming off like a jerk.
A couple of quibbles:
Jack really does not like Mark Cuban, and takes as many shots at him as he coould. Makes a person wonder if he tried to float this book idea by the Mavericks and was turned down.
The other, far bigger gripe, is that the book was too short. It seemed that he rushed it to get it out quickly, and thus the focus so much on the playoffs, with the preseason and regular season not touched on much. I know that this is paritially a compliment, wanting the book to be much bigger, and I mean it that way. It just seems rushed.
All in all a great buy, well worth the money I paid, and I got it right here at Amazon.
 Feeds every NBA fan thirst of what goes on behind the closed doors of Phoenix Suns Basketball August 6, 2007
Over the last 17 years that I've been watching, reading, writing, and playing everything and anything that is related to the NBA, I've never come across a book which has truly captured the very essence of the league and the game of professional basketball until I read Jack McCallum's ":07 Seconds or Less [My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns].
Jack McCallum, Sports Illustrated chief NBA writer, had the unique privilege "come aboard" and take part as a member of the Phoenix Suns staff during the 2005-2006 NBA season. McCallum made the most of the opportunity and in the process penning an undaunted and realistic look at what goes on behind the closed doors of Phoenix Suns Basketball--from the coaches, players, trainers, broadcasting, management, and even the eccentric owner's perspective to the colorful metaphors (profanity laced statements) that they use as a means of self-expression from time-to-time.
McCallum captures classic moments (Gentry's Anthony Mason and B.J. Armstrong story (pp. 129); The sounds of a "jungle bird" in the Suns shower story (pp.180); The Eddie House story (pp. 74; 94); and McCallum's definition of coaching (pp.144); among others) and also meticulously explains several of the Suns basketball terminologies such as "dribble-ats" - "terms used to described when "the ball handler dribbles toward his teammate and either uses him as a screener or, more typically, hands off to him to keep the offense moving;" "Gold" - "term for fronting an offensive player, thus discouraging a pass from even being thrown;" and my favorite, "clickety" - Steve Nash's word for the "clock that clicks off the time until tip-off ."
Overall, it's one book that you can't put down. An amazing ride from start to finish and if you're not yet a Phoenix Suns fan, you will be after this book.
Phoenix Suns August 1, 2007
Jack McCallum had an insiders look at a season with the run and gun Phoenix Suns. Very well written and informative look at the behind the scenes action of a msuccesful NBA franchise.
If you want a good sports book, this is the one. July 12, 2007
This book brings you behind the scenes of the Suns during their 2006 playoff run. The best parts of the book, isn't the actual games but rather the behind the scenes dialogue between players, and even better the coaches. There are tidbits throughout the book about what went on during the regular season which are interesting also.
My only problem with the book is that I felt it peaked during the Lakers series, which was the first round. Not the authors fault, reading about Kobe, and Phil Jackson was more interesting than Elton Brand, Dirk, & Mark Cuban. & it was more dramatic than the other two series,(I give it 4 stars instead of 5, so it wasn't bad).
I would def. recommend this book to any sports fan, its better if your an NBA fan but you don't have to be. On a sidenote, (Im a Knicks fan), I always followed the Suns because of their fun up-tempo style but I will be pulling for them a little more this year.
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