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Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty Hardcover – Illustrated, September 22, 2020
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In the history of modern sport, there have never been two high-level teammates who loathed each other the way Shaquille O’Neal loathed Kobe Bryant, and Kobe Bryant loathed Shaquille O’Neal. From public sniping and sparring, to physical altercations and the repeated threats of trade, it was warfare. And yet, despite eight years of infighting and hostility, by turns mediated and encouraged by coach Phil Jackson, the Shaq-Kobe duo resulted in one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. Together, the two led the Lakers to three straight championships and returned glory and excitement to Los Angeles.
In the tradition of Jeff Pearlman’s bestsellers Showtime, Boys Will Be Boys, and The Bad Guys Won, Three-Ring Circus is a rollicking deep dive into one of sports’ most fraught yet successful pairings.
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMariner Books
- Publication dateSeptember 22, 2020
- Dimensions6 x 1.42 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101328530000
- ISBN-13978-1328530004
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LAST FOLK HERO | THREE-RING CIRCUS | GUNSLINGER | FOOTBALL FOR A BUCK | |
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“Exhaustively reported and eminently readable . . . Three-Ring Circus is a valuable addition to the Kobe Bryant canon—deeply reported and unflinchingly honest. By documenting Bryant’s youthful immaturity and harmful actions, Pearlman offers a fuller picture of a beloved but complicated man.”—Time “Pearlman [is] an amazing journalist with an eye for the revealing detail . . . NBA fans will absolutely devour this book.”—Booklist, starred review “Pearlman excites with this enjoyable, exhaustively reported, and unsparing portrait of the early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers . . . Pearlman’s ability to uncover juicy anecdotes . . . illuminates how egos and immaturity were the Lakers’ fatal opponents. This will be a three-pointer for hoops fans.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review “A must-read for all basketball fans, especially considering Bryant's tragic death in January 2020.”—Library Journal, starred review “Everything you wanted to know about the Los Angeles Lakers in the Kobe and Shaq days . . . More nuanced than the homages following [Bryant’s] tragic death earlier this year . . . [Pearlman] deftly illuminates the many dramatic twists and turns of a unique team . . . Easy reading that will appeal to all fans—and likely raise the ire of a few apologists.”—Kirkus Reviews “Three Ring Circus is a sports-writing classic, reminding us all that greatness can be ugly up close. The book shines in its portrayal of a young Kobe Bryant, as Pearlman pulls back the layers of the polarizing figure to show what it is to ache to be great: the isolation, the loneliness, the super-human drive that such greatness requires, before time, circumstance and age allowed him to evolve.”—Mirin Fader, Bleacher Report “It stuns me as a writer that somebody could find so many voices and so much detail for such a recollection. It must have been Jeff Pearlman who wrote this.”—Chuck Culpepper, Washington Post “Behind-the-scenes dives into teams never get old, and Jeff Pearlman offers just that into one of the most captivating dynasties. This is a hardcore, uncensored reveal of the enormous egos powering those fascinating and controversial Lakers.”—Marcus Thompson, bestselling author of Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry —
About the Author
JEFF PEARLMAN is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books. His subjects include the ’80s Los Angeles Lakers (Showtime), the 1986 New York Mets (The Bad Guys Won), the ’90s Dallas Cowboys (Boys Will Be Boys), and NFL legends Walter Payton (Sweetness) and Brett Favre (Gunslinger). HBO adapted Showtime into the dramatic series Winning Time, produced and directed by Adam McKay. A former Sports Illustrated senior writer and ESPN.com columnist, Pearlman is the host of the Two Writers Slinging Yang podcast and blogs regularly at jeffpearlman.com.
Product details
- Publisher : Mariner Books; Illustrated edition (September 22, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1328530000
- ISBN-13 : 978-1328530004
- Item Weight : 1.5 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.42 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #443,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #389 in Basketball Biographies (Books)
- #635 in Sports History (Books)
- #7,025 in U.S. State & Local History
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Jeff Pearlman the New York Times best-selling author of seven books. His new release, “Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre,” is available now. He is a former Sports Illustrated senior writer, a former ESPN.com columnist and a former staff writer for Newsday and The (Nashville) Tennessean. He contributes to Bleacher Report and CNN.com, and blogs regularly at www.jeffpearlman.com. He can be reached at anngold22@gmail.com, and Tweets regularly at twitter.com/jeffpearlman
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I also grew up hating Shaq and Kobe as Jazz fan, but that hate turned into admiration for Shaq after he retired and started doing TNT. However it was never personal with Shaq, he was just too damn dominant as a player but he was always entertaining and I liked his personality and heard of his generous personality for many years. Also his years on TNT have only made me like "Mr. Sensitive" all the more because you can tell when he genuinely gets mad but he doesn't hold a grudge. That said I can tell when Shaq isn't giving a fully truthful account of a story, and to be specific when the TNT crew talked about Dramond punching his teammate, he had some stories but wasn't willing to give details. This book gives those details... and Shaq can be petty at times but the worst you can say is he's fat and lazy towards the end, exactly like Chuck but frankly I like Fat and Lazy guys.
Now Kobe is another matter because I always respected his game more than him as a person, he had never said anything remotely interesting (one thing he did was dig Westbrook when he went after fans disrespecting him by saying something like "Utah always gave me a ton of disrespect when I played against them..." so he got some kudos for me in that instance) or amusing in all the years I've followed sports, and when the Rape happened and you read that apology this book says what I have to tell people all the time, you can't read that and not come away that and believe he's innocent.
However reading this book you can't help but dislike the Kobe that won championships with Shaq, frankly he's probably the most unlikeable person, other than LBJ, I've ever read about and Pearlman deals with this up front saying this is the Kobe of those years and it appears he changed. So his untimely tragic death really threw cold water on this, and it appears Kobe genuinely changed as a person... maybe.... perhaps... I don't know but since he's dead and the way he died I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
But why the Kobe hate? Read this and you'll see how he treated people like trash, sorry the stories are too vast! Kobe treated rookies like trash, he treated mid level players like trash, he treated his best teammates like trash, his coaches like trash, Shaq slapped him once it got so bad, he punched another teammate over $100 but had to back down because he knows he's not an actual fighter, he's a basketball player.
Kobe is also as phony as they come, acting completely against type to get street cred everyone knows he doesn't have, Jeff doesn't say this but I seriously wonder if he made the rap video to meet his wife, but he'll fight like hell on the basketball court... as long as he gets his though because he cared more about his points than actually winning most of the time, the Lakers won at times because of him but seems like more times in spite of him.
So these are Shaq's championship years and Kobe is this spoiled brat you just want Del or Phil to bench or someone to just beat his ass. He's seriously downgraded for me as a basketball player during these years, maybe he learned more as he took over driving the bus, but Shaq has 3 MVP finals and 1 as a sidekick, Kobe has 2 MVP finals and 3 as sidekick.
Lastly Phil Jackson I really downgrade as a coach because he's not even close to anything Zen in this book, he's 2nd behind Kobe as a narcissist and mostly unlikeable as well, also we all know Tex came up with the Triangle and the scheme that has been adapted by Kerr in GS, share the ball spacing all that, not Phil he's best is he can get egomaniacs to work together but he has no real magic to reign Kobe's in, in fact the best coaching he did was tell the Bus driver to pull over so a teammate Kobe sucker punched could beat his ass and Kobe finally had to back down and ask forgiveness... which makes you realize about his rape...
It’s safe to say that Three Ring Circus, is another great biography from Jeff, and it’s filled with small tidbits of information and stories that have never seen the light of day or were ever thought of being covered.
Learning about Kobe and Shaq’s rivalry from the time period was fascinating, although I do find Jeff’s characterization of Kobe Bryant’s rape case to be a tad suspect, it was a pretty good read. I wouldn’t say it’s unbiased, but it does keep the facts as they are, even with some colorful commentary.
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No holds barred, no punches pulled