When the author speaks of huge contracts for 300,000 or 400,000 dollars a year, it feels particularly incongruous in that the the league rookie minimum is now 525,000 a year. There are jarring differences from the NBA of today that clang like a Shaquille O'Neal or DeAndre Jordan free throw. It now seems quaint and out of touch, as if it were a relic from another century oh wait, it is from another century. Written by Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam and set in particular, during the 1979-80 NBA season it really doesn't hold up well. Way back in the dark ages (the early eighties) I read and enjoyed this book, and though I had my reservations about how well it would hold up to time I decided to get it on Audible. It's about the influence of big media, the fans, and the hype they subsist on, the clash of ethics, the terrible physical demands of modern sports (from drugs to body size), the unreal salaries, the conflicts of race and class, and the consequences of sport converted into mass entertainment and athletes transformed into superstars - all presented in a way that puts the listener in the room and on the court, and The Breaks of the Game in a league of its own. This is a story about a place in our society where power, money, and talent collide and sometimes corrupt, a place where both national obsessions and naked greed are exposed. Yet he is writing here about far more than just basketball. The tactile authenticity of Halberstam's knowledge of the basketball world is unrivaled. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by which all journalists measure themselves. A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them best sellers. More than six years after his death David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII.

A New York Times best seller, David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game focuses on one grim season (1979-80) in the life of the Bill Walton-led Portland Trail Blazers, a team that only three years before had been NBA champions.

Halberstam breaks of the game