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

Publisher's summary

The best-selling author of Dream Team tells the interconnected stories of the NBA champion Golden State Warriors and the early 1970s Los Angeles Lakers, two extraordinary teams playing in extraordinary times and linked by one extraordinary man: Jerry West.

During their 1971-72 championship season, the LA Lakers won 33 games in a row, a streak that still stands as the longest and greatest in the history of American professional sports. It was a run of uninterrupted dominance that predated by decades the overwhelming firepower of today's Warriors, a revolutionary team whose recent seasons include some record-threatening win streaks of their own.

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. With "the Logo" as his guide, McCallum takes us deep into the locker rooms and front offices of these two era-defining teams, leveraging the access and authority he has amassed over his 40-year career to create a picture of the cultural juggernaut that the NBA has become.

Featuring up-close-and-personal portraits of some of the biggest names in basketball history, from the larger-than-life Wilt Chamberlain to the innovative Warriors coach Steve Kerr to the transcendent duo of Curry and Durant, Golden Days is a history not just of a changing sport but of a changing America, as seen through the prism of two teams that ruled the league during times of violence and political turmoil - the Charles Manson murders and the athlete-activist in the age of Trump among the narrative backdrops.

In the end, McCallum's book leaves an indelible portrait of West, the man who lived, played, and worked through it all - and who remains, on the cusp of his 80th birthday, one of the most vital, complicated, and compelling figures in all of sports.

©2017 Jack McCallum (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"With his classic eye for detail and deadpan wit, Jack McCallum connects two of the greatest teams in sports history through the endlessly fascinating persona of Jerry West. McCallum manages to unearth new details about some of the giants of the game, while shining a light on overlooked figures such as Elgin Baylor, delivering an original, fascinating, and breezy read." (Zach Lowe, senior writer, ESPN)

"I spent some of the 2016-17 season working as a consultant for the Golden State Warriors, but even I didn't know every detail of how this championship team came together. Golden Days breaks that all down and shows how the Warriors have revolutionized basketball." (Steve Nash, two-time MVP)

For bball fans, but well done

Any additional comments?

An insight comparison between Legend Jerry West as a player and Executive with the Warriors and Steph. Well done

awesome

one of the most educating and at the same time easy books that i've listened to

Jack McCallum strikes again

As a reader of some of his other gems about the dream team and my suns, this one is a great back and forth between two distinct eras and teams. If you enjoyed his other books, I’d highly recommend this one as well.

Very interesting and fun to read

Amazing how Jerry West has been such a great influence to so many organizations, teams and players. am a Worriors fan so this fit right in with the last few years in basketball. yars ago I read a book about Jerry West and this was like an update on his life. I hope he continues to help develope teams like Golden State and the Celtics. Team is the main word hear. Less isolation ball makes the game much more interesting to follow.