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Black Planet
- Facing Race during an NBA Season
- Narrated by: Donald Elivert
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
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Black Planet
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Publisher's summary
The National Basketball Association is a place where white fans and Black players enact virtually every racial issue and tension in US culture. Following the Seattle SuperSonics for an entire season, David Shields explores how, in a predominantly Black sport, White fans - including especially himself - think about and talk about Black heroes, Black scapegoats, and Black bodies. Critically acclaimed and highly controversial, Black Planet was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN USA Award, and was named one of the Top Ten Nonfiction Books of 1999 by Esquire, Newsday, Los Angeles Weekly, and Amazon.com.
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
Kenny Smith was a star at the University of North Carolina before his storied NBA run, in which he won two championships with the Houston Rockets. His popularity skyrocketed when he joined TNT’s new show, Inside the NBA, which has thrived for twenty-four years and won multiple Emmys, receiving enormous acclaim for the insight, humor, social commentary, and unrivaled basketball coverage from Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Ernie Johnson, Jr. Kenny is known to fans for his laser-sharp analysis and eloquent observations of the basketball scene and culture.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book. Is heavy on racial topics, but appropriate
- By Mathias Noriega on 07-09-23
By: Kenny Smith
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Dream Team
- How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 470
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 414
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 414
In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great insight into the great basketball team ever.
- By James O'Brien on 09-04-12
By: Jack McCallum
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Furious George
- My Forty Years Surviving NBA Divas, Clueless GMs, and Poor Shot Selection
- By: George Karl, Curt Sampson
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 163
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 162
A man of deep passion and intensity, George Karl earned his bad boy reputation while playing at the University of North Carolina, a rap that continued through the five years he spent with the San Antonio Spurs - and long after he stopped playing. Karl's beery nights, fistfights, and barking followed him into a 35-year coaching career. In a game defined by big stakes and bigger egos, rabid fans and an unforgiving media, Karl was hired and fired a dozen times.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Pathetic little black book.
- By Brad Howard on 04-20-20
By: George Karl, and others
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This Book Has Balls
- Sports Rants from the MVP of Talking Trash
- By: Michael Rapaport
- Narrated by: Michael Rapaport
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 610
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 546
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 543
In This Book Has Balls, Rapaport uses his signature smack-talk style and in-your-face humor to discuss everything from why LeBron will never be like Mike to how Tiger needs the ladies to get his golf game back and how he once thought Mary Lou Retton was his true love. And, of course, why next year will be the year the New York Knicks win the championship. This book is a series of rants - some controversial, some affectionate, but all incredibly hilarious.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gringo Mandingo Mike Rapaport does it again!
- By Kathryn Lara on 10-24-17
By: Michael Rapaport
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Basketball
- A Love Story
- By: Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, Dan Klores
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Jim Frangione, Sullivan Jones, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 250
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 209
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 210
A sweeping and revelatory history of basketball, drawing upon hundreds of hours of interviews with the greatest players, coaches, executives, and journalists in the history of the game. In an effort to tell the complete story of basketball in all its fascinating dimensions, acclaimed authors Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, and Dan Klores have compiled nearly a thousand hours' worth of interviews with a staggering number of basketball greats. The audiobook that grew out of those interviews is an extraordinary project and quite possibly the most ambitious basketball work ever made.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Underwhelming
- By Adam Kosberg on 12-02-18
By: Jackie MacMullan, and others
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Golden Days
- West's Lakers, Steph's Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Jack McCallum
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
In Golden Days, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum uses these two teams - the Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain/Elgin Baylor Lakers and the Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant/Draymond Green Warriors - to trace the dynamic history of the National Basketball Association, which for much of the last half century has marched memorably through the state of California. Tying together the two strands of McCallum's story is Hall of Famer West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting and fun to read
- By Joe on 06-12-18
By: Jack McCallum
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Showtime
- Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,008
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 891
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Story5 out of 5 stars 888
Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end - marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV - Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Offended at the style used to voice black characters.
- By NP on 01-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Pistol
- The Life of Pete Maravich
- By: Mark Kriegel
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 165
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 168
Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete, a basketball icon for baby boomers, all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Extremely Good!
- By steve on 12-12-12
By: Mark Kriegel
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Three Ring Circus
- Kobe, Shaq, Phil and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 872
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 772
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 769
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.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Ok I've finished it and have more thoughts
- By Bobby S on 09-24-20
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Got to Give the People What They Want
- True Stories and Flagrant Opinions from Center Court
- By: Jalen Rose
- Narrated by: Jalen Rose
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 566
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 505
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 504
Jalen Rose has never been quiet. Not as a kid growing up in Detroit in the '70s and '80s. Not as the brash, trash-talking leader of the legendary "Fab Five" at the University of Michigan. Not as the player under the stewardship of Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and others throughout his 13-year NBA career. And certainly not as a commentator and analyst on ABC/ESPN and Grantland.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing book - a MUST download / read
- By Terry on 10-08-15
By: Jalen Rose
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One on One
- Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game
- By: John Feinstein
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
After numerous beloved and best-selling sports books, John Feinstein returns to the subjects of his first 10 books, crafting a narrative of the most revealing encounters he's had. These are the coaches and athletes who know their games the best, and the legends and legendary moments that gave inherent shape to our favorite pastimes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Big Time Sports Stories and Bigger Egos
- By fred on 03-12-12
By: John Feinstein
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Madden
- A Biography
- By: Bryan Burwell
- Narrated by: Mark Moseley
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 188
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
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Story5 out of 5 stars 165
Several years after his playing career was cut short by injury before it had a chance to really begin, John Madden was hired as an assistant coach by the Oakland Raiders, one of professional football's most iconoclastic franchises. Two years later he was named the team's head coach and proceeded to lead the Raiders to five championship games in his first seven seasons. Following years of heartbreaking losses in some of history's most memorable games.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Essential For Raider And Madden Fans
- By MovieGuy on 03-08-16
By: Bryan Burwell
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A Season on the Brink
- By: John Feinstein
- Narrated by: John Feinstein
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 387
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 338
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 337
A Season on the Brink chronicles the basketball season that John Feinstein spent following the Indiana Hoosiers and their fiery coach, Bob Knight. Knight granted Feinstein an unprecedented inside look at college basketball - with complete access to every moment of the season. Feinstein saw and heard it all - practices, team meetings, strategy sessions, and mid-game huddles - during Knight's struggle to avoid a losing season.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Sports Journalism
- By Robert on 04-18-13
By: John Feinstein
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Monsters
- The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football
- By: Rich Cohen
- Narrated by: Tom Taylorson
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 357
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 314
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 315
For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever - a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won but how they did it....
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5 out of 5 stars
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For any Bears fans
- By Frank S. Saltiel on 11-18-21
By: Rich Cohen
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From the Outside
- My Journey Through Life and the Game I Love
- By: Ray Allen, Michael Arkush
- Narrated by: J.D. Jackson
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 271
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 242
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 243
The record-holding two-time National Basketball Association champion reflects on his work ethic, his on-the-court friendships and rivalries, the great teams he's played for, and what it takes to have a long and successful career in this thoughtful, in-depth memoir. Playing in the NBA for 18 years, Ray Allen won championships with the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat and entered the record books as the original king of the three-point shot. Known as one of the hardest-working and highest-achieving players in NBA history, he was legendary for his sharp shooting.
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3 out of 5 stars
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It wasn't bad, but I thought it would be better
- By Amazon Customer on 07-30-18
By: Ray Allen, and others
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Dr. J Unabridged
- The Autobiography
- By: Julius Erving, Karl Taro Greenfeld
- Narrated by: Julius Erving
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
With his flights of improvisation around the basket and his towering afro, Julius Erving became one of the most charismatic (and revolutionary) players basketball has ever known. But while the public has long revered this cultural icon, few have ever known of the double life of Julius Erving. Dr. J traces the inner lives of the nearly perfect player and the imperfect man - and how he has come to terms with both.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I may overrate it, but I’m a hoops junkie!
- By @JWTheBlueprint on 01-29-14
By: Julius Erving, and others
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Over Time
- My Life as a Sportswriter
- By: Frank Deford
- Narrated by: Frank Deford
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter is as unconventional and wide-ranging as Frank Deford's remarkable career, in which he has chronicled the heroes and the characters of just about every sport in nearly every medium. Deford joined Sports Illustrated in 1962, fresh, and fresh out of Princeton. In 1990, he was Editor-in-Chief of The National Sports Daily, one of the most ambitious and ill-fated projects in the history of American print journalism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Memories
- By Amazon Customer on 05-18-18
By: Frank Deford
What listeners say about Black Planet
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- mk
- 11-21-19
great performance
content was a little outside of my usual but the narration was great. I look forward to heating more from Donald Elivert.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 11-19-19
If you like the NBA
This book is highly entertaining. The way it is narrated is engaging, there were many moments where I laughed out loud and told these stories to many other NBA fans and they are now listening to the book too. The original author and his view of race and the NBA is amazing. You will not get books written like this anymore when everyone is so PC now, this book is raw, entertaining and every bit worth your time. Especially if you liked the Sonics.
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