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Title details for Three-Ring Circus by Jeff Pearlman - Available

Three-Ring Circus

Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty

by Jeff Pearlman
Brian Hutchison
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
The inside story of the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 through 2004, when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille
O'Neal combined—and collided—to help bring the Lakers three straight championships and restore the team
as a powerhouse franchise
In modern sports, there have never been two superstar teammates who loathed one another the way Shaq loathed
Kobe and Kobe loathed Shaq. There was whispered—and outspoken—sniping and sparring. Taunts. Physical
altercations. The recurring threats of trades. This was warfare disguised as NBA basketball. And yet, despite eight years
of infighting and hostility, by turns mediated and encouraged by idiosyncratic coach Phil Jackson, the Shaq-Kobe duo
resulted in one of the greatest, most enduring, and ever-evolving teams in NBA history.
Just as Kobe and Shaq entertained huge crowds of fans at the Forum (and later Staples Center), so they also
provided a nonstop sideshow for their cast of supporting players—including Glen Rice, Robert Horry, Rick Fox, Karl
Malone, J.R. Rider, and briefly even Dennis Rodman—whose games often seem enhanced by their biggest stars as
they tried mightily not to pick sides.
With Kobe Bryant's tragic death in 2020, Three-Ring Circus also serves as an extraordinary coming-of-age tale
about one of our era's most revered athletes. Bryant's competitiveness, insecurities, and inspiring growth as a player
come into full focus. As best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman shows in this rollicking masterpiece of reporting, legacy
is never simple.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 22, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781980081173
      • File size: 464130 KB
      • Duration: 16:06:56

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 29, 2020
      Sportswriter Pearlman (Football for a Buck) excites with this enjoyable, exhaustively reported, and unsparing portrait of the early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers. Pearlman chronicles the team’s turbulent rise, highlighted by coach Del Harris (“no pizzazz, no imagination, and just too much jabbering”), and portrays the underachievers (out-of-shape Glen Rice) and fringe players (hardened rookie Mike Penberthy, who refused to be bullied by Kobe Bryant) behind the team’s championship run. Pearlman explains that though the team won three straight championships (2000–2002), its continuing success was squashed by the inability of its two young, generation-defining superstars—endearing though undisciplined Shaquille O’Neal and enfant terrible Bryant—to coexist. The star throughout the narrative is Bryant, a teenage basketball prodigy with zero social skills and an unquenchable thirst for personal glory whom head coach Phil Jackson, who replaced Harris, deemed a “juvenile narcissist” and who Pearlman suggests obliterated Jackson’s team concept. Pearlman’s ability to uncover juicy anecdotes—O’Neal rapping about a rape accusation against Bryant on the team plane; Bryant prodded by teammate Karl Malone to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving—illuminates how egos and immaturity were the Lakers’ fatal opponents. This will be a three-pointer for hoops fans.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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