A conversational history of the NBA, by an an acclaimed journalist and an 11-time champion player/coach…

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 Chicago Tribune sportswriter and Jackson was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls. Forty years later, the two remain close friends. In 2021, Smith helped the NBA arrive at a list of the seventy-five greatest players of all time in celebration of its seventy-fifth anniversary. Phil Jackson was asked to participate too, but he’s not a big fan of ranking greatness. They’ve been enjoying the argument ever since.

In Masters of the Game, Smith and Jackson chop it up about the basketball life, the sport, and the genius and the shadow side of the all-time greats: Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Bill Russell, Wilt, Jerry West, Bird, LeBron, KD, Steph Curry, Bill Walton, and more. In a conversation full of high-grade analysis and high-grade gossip, we meet the stars of long-ago eras of basketball and see the mark race left on players and the business of the game — and we get a master class on character and the alchemy of a good team. And of course, inevitably, these two old heads get into the GOAT debate.

There are so many huge characters here, and Smith and Jackson can hold their own with any of them. Their spirit — sharp, wise, irreverent, honest, respectful of the lore and legacy of the game but never pious — and the clash of their different perspectives combine to make this book a joyous ride, a short course in greatness open to all students.

Masters of the Game is a different kind of NBA book. It’s a collaboration between Sam Smith, the best-selling chronicler of the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, and Phil Jackson, the coach who helped take Jordan to all six of his championships and Kobe Bryant’s five. When I first learned of the book, it was a very enticing proposition. I’m glad to report that it mostly lived up to my expectations, and offers a fresh perspective on the League and some of its brightest stars.

“A conversational history” should be taken literally. In these short chapters, Smith and Jackson go back-and-forth about their memories of the players they’ve written about. Unlike many recent books, this is not a book of statistics (something NBA books lean on as a crutch to fill out the word-count, in my opinion) nor long game-reports (see parenthetical comment about statistics). Instead, Smith and Jackson draw on their long relationships with the League, as fan and journalist (Smith), and fan, player, scout, and coach (Jackson). The authors aren’t offering tried-and-tested stories about these players. Rather, they offer anecdotes that to them highlight the qualities of the stars — as players and people. For example, I thought Jackson’s account of Pete Maravich’s antics on an exhibition tour in East Asia were particularly interesting and well-written. Some die-hard fans/readers may know some of the stories already, but the personal touch that Smith and Jackson are able to bring enhanced the tales.

Thinking about who this book might appeal to most, I’m torn. Long-time NBA fans and readers, and basketball history aficionados will probably get the most out of Masters of the Game. But readers with a newer interest in the League and game should also find plenty of interesting and illuminating chapters here. The book works equally well as a beginning-to-end read, or as a collection of short essays that a reader might dip into on occasion when they want to read about a specific player. I can imagine younger readers starting with their NBA era, and the stars they are already familiar with and then going back to read about the stars of the earlier years. Given that Smith and Jackson do an excellent job of discussing the development of the League and how the game was played, readers who don’t start from the beginning will easily be directed to earlier stars they should read about. Similarly, given the short chapters, readers may well also discover players they want to read more about, and after finishing Masters of the Game, hunt down other books (or documentaries, etc.) for more.

Overall, then: Masters of the Game is a well-written, engaging, and inviting conversation about the history of basketball and the NBA, and some of its brightest stars. A must read for any NBA fan, in my opinion.

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Sam Smith & Phil Jackson’s Masters of the Game is out now, published by Penguin Press in North America and in the UK.

Review copy received from the publisher