Seven Seconds or Less by Jack McCallum
Anyone who likes basketball probably has a soft spot for the Phoenix Suns, whether he or she's a fan of them or not. The subtitle on the cover above is a perfect description of this team -- they run mercilessly, they bomb 3-pointers all night long, and they often have the flashiest offense in the NBA. I often find myself simultaneously horrified and thrilled at the prospect of my Lakers facing the Suns in the playoffs; horrified because, when the Suns are on their game, they are capable of stomping anyone into the ground, and thrilled because they look so damn good doing it.
This book came about a couple of years ago because McCallum wanted to get an inside look at the Suns, a team whose style fascinated him to no end because it was a throwback to the NBA of the 1980s, when every team ran the court. (Not coincidentally, the '80s were by far the best for the NBA in terms of domestic popularity and overall quality of play.) What made this team tick? How did they deal with the ups and downs of the NBA season?
The 2005-06 season was a particularly dramatic one for the Suns. Early in the year, they lost one of their best players, Amare Stoudemire, for the whole year due to a knee injury that required microfracture surgery. In a decision that's actually kind of brilliant, McCallum intensifies the drama by warping past the regular season and going straight to the playoffs, where the Suns had to tough it out against some good teams throughout the postseason. I liked reading about how the coaches interacted with the players following epic wins and horrible defeats; the Suns are a laid back team, but they are nonetheless focused on winning. There is a good amount of focus on the assistant coaches, which is interesting because you never hear much from them around the NBA, unless you're watching a local sports broadcast.
In between series recaps, McCallum recalls various points in the regular season to highlight certain players so that the reader gets to know them better. It's an interesting way to construct the narrative, and it works pretty well. These little vignettes provide a nice look at how certain players got to where they were, how they approach the game, and how they help the team. Overall, the Suns come off as a likable bunch of guys, even with the occasional ego and paranoia that plagues nearly everyone on the planet. For instance, as a Laker fan, I despise Raja Bell because he is the type of player every fan finds annoying -- he plays tough defense, he hits shots when he needs to, and he does it against your team. But he actually comes across as an OK guy in the book, except when he's committing retarded flagrant fouls against Kobe Bryant.
One thing that I didn't like, though, is that the book is a little too biased toward the Suns. I can definitely understand a bit of bias -- as much as McCallum wants to remain even-handed, he spent an entire year with these guys, talking to them and sharing in their victories and defeats, so he's built relationships with them, for better or worse. However, while he's not afraid to point out their shortcomings, nearly every bit of information about opposing teams is filtered through the Suns' point of view. It seems like every time an observation is made about another team, the observation is pretty negative and made to contrast with the Suns, who are obviously a model organization. This isn't enough to make me not enjoy the book, but it does get kind of grating after a while.
This is a fun book overall. It's filled with funny stories, interesting looks behind the scenes of an NBA team, and it made me remember some good and not so good things about the 2005-06 playoffs. (How could the Lakers blow a 3-1 series lead?? How?? I will never get over this.) The book's a light read, so it's good if you just want to kick back and lose yourself in sports for a few hours.
