This Game's the Best! So Why Don't They Quit Screwing With It? - Hardcover

Karl, George Matthew; Yaeger, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312156715 ISBN 13: 9780312156718

Publisher: St Martins Press, 1997

Synopsis

The outspoken coach of the Seattle Supersonics offers a clear, sustained criticism of the sport of basketball today, including such issues as the marketing of individual players and how young athletes have been ruined by eager coaches and greedy parents. Tour.

About this title

About the Author

Don Yaeger is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated.

Reviews

Karl, coach of the Seattle Sonics, has written a highly readable, entertaining, and perceptive book that is part autobiography and part critique of the NBA. While acknowledging the phenomenal popularity of the league, he is dismayed by trends that could undermine its success. As players get younger, richer, more egocentric, and less accountable, they pay less attention to their basic skills, their coaches, and the concept of team play. The result, Karl argues, is a gradual deterioration in the quality of the game. Although his observations are hardly unique, some of the solutions Karl proposes--such as turning the struggling Continental Basketball Association into a minor league for the NBA--are quite original. The book is likely to provoke discussion, if not much controversy. Apart from a few qualified potshots at such easy targets as Dennis Rodman and Allen Iverson, Karl doesn't name names when he complains about today's players. He's too good a coach to offer motivation for opposing players or give cause for resentment on his own team. Despite the circumspection, Karl's anecdotes and insights will greatly interest fans of pro basketball. Dennis Dodge

Traditionalist Karl decries the demise of team play in the NBA, blaming it on efforts by owners, agents, and parents to market individual players. As head coach of the Seattle Supersonics, Karl took his team to the 1995-96 NBA finals before losing to the Chicago Bulls. Reaching such heights didn't come easily to Karl, who first had to do minor-league coaching stints in Great Falls and Albany. Though passionately presented, Karl's criticisms and solutions (e.g., allowing zone defenses, shortening the season, lengthening the three-point line) are mostly recycled. Recommended for popular and regional collections.?William H. Hoffman, Ft. Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., Fla.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312156715
• ISBN 13: 9780312156718
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 258