When the Game Was War: The NBA's Greatest Season

by Rich Cohen

The gritty, no-holds-barred account of the 1987 NBA season, a thrilling year of fierce battles and off-the-court drama between Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and Michael Jordan—from New York Times bestselling author Rich Cohen.

“Cohen brings new life to these athletes and their legendary rivalries.”—Bob Ryan, sports columnist emeritus, The Boston Globe

Four historic teams. Four legendary players. One unforgettable season.

The 1980s were a transformative decade for the NBA. Since its founding in 1946, the league had evolved from a bruising, earthbound game of mostly nameless, underpaid players to one in which athletes became household names for their thrilling, physics-defying play. The 1987–88 season was the peak of that golden era, a year of incredible drama that featured a pantheon of superstars in their prime—the most future Hall of Famers competing at one time in any given season—battling for the title, and for their respective legacies.

In When the Game Was War, bestselling author Rich Cohen tells the story of this incredible season through the four teams, and the four players, who dominated Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers, Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons, and a young Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls. From rural Indiana to the South Side of Chicago, suburban North Carolina to rust-belt Michigan, Cohen explores the diverse journeys each of these iconic players took before arriving on the big stage. Drawing from dozens of interviews with NBA insiders, Cohen brings to vivid life some of the most colorful characters of the era—like Bill Laimbeer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Danny Ainge, and Charles Oakley—who fought like hell to help these stars succeed. 

For anyone who longs to understand how the NBA came to be the cultural juggernaut it is today—and to relive the magic and turmoil of those pivotal years— When the Game Was War brilliantly recasts one unforgettable season and the four transcendent players who were at the center of it all.

Genres: Sports, Basketball, Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Biography, Childrens

265 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2023

About the author

RICH COHEN is the author of Sweet and Low (FSG, 2006), Tough Jews, The Avengers, The Record Men, and the memoir Lake Effect. His work has appeared in many major publications, and he is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Coh...

Reviews

[Michael Burke · Rating 2 out of 5]

In “When the Game Was War,” it is Rich Cohen’s contention that the NBA’s 1987-1988 season was the greatest ever. This was the time of the Magic Johnson / Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Lakers, the Larry Bird Celtics, Isiah Thomas’s Detroit Pistons, and the soon to be dominant Michael Jordan Bulls. Also, as the book’s title suggests, we were seeing the transition from the “showtime” brand of play to a rougher, much more physical playing style, as each team muscled-up to defeat the champion ruling before.

There are back stories of each of the star players of the time, much of it pretty well known.
More interesting is the strategy of the front offices in putting together the teams, the rosters best suited to capitalize on the strengths of franchise players. This was particularly true of the Bulls, as Jordan’s amazing star power did not translate into an NBA championship until his seventh season.

Rich Cohen grew up in Detroit and admits he is a lifelong Pistons fan. He watched Isiah Thomas play in high school and college and states a number of times he believes Isiah has unfairly been underrated as one of basketball’s all-time greats…based on “blood and guts.”

“Consider this book a revisionist history. It’s not that I wish to devalue Jordan or Johnson or Bird, all of whom were just as great as people say, but that I aim to return Isiah to the pantheon , where he belongs.”

Cohen lays it on a little thick in his effort to elevate Isiah, and it seems a little misleading to present this as a study of the “greatest season in NBA history,” when so much of it seems to only serve as a backdrop to pump up his role in it. It is a short book, kindle listed at 288 pages, but a third of that is documentation of sources and the index. I think I have learned more from longer magazine accounts and documentaries than I have here, other than about the exploits of one very good player.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as there are many arguments between sports fans about who is the greatest team, athlete or event in a particular sport, this can also come up about the greatest season for a league. This book by Rich Cohen makes the case that the 1987-88 season was the greatest for the NBA. While it may not convince every reader that 1987-88 was the best season (including this reviewer – I chose another one in his honorable mention list, 1976-77), Cohen does make a compelling case for this argument.
The book reads better as a long editorial than as a history of that basketball season. Not only does Cohen make his case about the 1987-88 season, he also makes a case for Isaiah Thomas to be included as one of the greatest players not only of that time – to be included in the conversation with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan – but also of all time. While I did see a point to the main topic of the book, I do not agree with this assertion and at times, it feels like Cohen is writing more as a fan than as an author or historian when talking about Thomas. Bringing up Thomas’ infamous quote about Larry Bird more than once and defending it by saying it was a thought many Black players had felt like a defense of Thomas. Cohen does point out his own biases toward not only Thomas and for the reason he felt 1987-88 was the best one, hence why I called the book more of an opinion piece.
I will also note that I have read reviews that point out many factual errors, a few of which I caught without needing to verify them. Because I read an advance review copy, these were not detrimental to the goal I had for this book, which was to see why Cohen felt this was the best season. There is also the matter of referring to a season by the latter year (i.e. 1987-88 would be 1988) which is inconsistent throughout the book. Again, something that will hopefully be cleaned up in the final edition.
But…the positives far outweigh the negatives in this book, especially if the reader is a fan of basketball in that era. The season is viewed through four teams – the Los Angeles Lakers (who ended up winning the championship), the Detroit Pistons (who lost in the Finals to the Lakers), the Boston Celtics (who lost to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals) and the Chicago Bulls (who lost to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference semi-finals). These four teams made the most sense to include, especially looking back now. There was the reigning champs (Lakers), the old dynasty ready to end (Celtics), the hungry (and physical) team ready to take over (Pistons) and the new kids on the block getting ready to crash the party (Bulls). Each team had a compelling chapter in the book and made for excellent reading.
Reading about the matchups during the season and in the playoffs between two of the four featured teams was also great. Enough detail to truly feel how close the game was, and in the case of many Pistons games, how physical and even violent the play went. This was an era when the game’s big men played in the paint and not often out on the perimeter as Cohen notes. While he doesn’t explicitly say this, I get the impression that he preferred this type of basketball. I did as well and why despite the reservations I wrote earlier, I really enjoyed this book and fans of that era of professional basketball will as well.
I wish to thank Random House Publishing Group for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Was the 1987–88 season really the best in NBA history?”

“There are two units of NBA time. There is the season, and there is the moment. The season is important, but it’s made up of moments. When you are in the moment, there is no important or unimportant. There is no season. There is only the moment.”

“The NBA was so special back then. It had the best teams, best players, best rivalries; and the game, too, was at its best.”

I love any book that talks about what I consider the golden age of basketball. I loved the 1980’s/1990’s era of basketball where Magic, Bird, and Jordan changed the game for the better. While today’s game and players and rules and focus on 3’s over a big man down low, their era was great in terms of physicality and rivalries. And Rich Cohen’s “When The Game Was War” does a great job of capturing this time period.

When it comes to books about basketball, I look for a few things. Is it well researched? It is entertaining? Am I going to learn new things about the players? And is it written with a lens of the time? The answer is a resounding yes to all of these questions. And one player I did not know much about was Isiah Thomas, who the author describes as being cast as a villain of the era. That was always my feeling and though the author did not change that opinion, I did enjoy that he humanized Thomas and gave a lot of good stories about him. He was definitely an important aspect of the era. The author is definitely biased in his devotion to Thomas.

All in all, a really good book that is worth reading if you like this era of basketball. Not as good as a Jack McCallum or Jackie MacMullan book, but pretty darn close.

I received this book free from Netgalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.

[Patrick Bowlby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually I’m a big sucker for any sports history book. This just seemed like mostly regurgitated stories and assumptions we’ve all heard a million times.

[britt_brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories from the Bird, Jordan, Thomas, Magic era. I can’t say I’d normally pick something like this up, but my 9 year old is NBA obsessed and anytime I can throw him a fact, he thinks I’m cool. Like, did you know Dennis Rodman grew 10 inches in one year?! Wild. Plus, reminiscing on the Jordan and Magic days of my childhood was really enjoyable.

[SA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is fine. Fine for a book at the pool or while traveling. The author’s thesis is probably right. But the storytelling and narrative is about an inch deep and a mile wide. I don’t read too many sports books and this one has done nothing to convince me to change my general practice.

[Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10. Concise little book about basketball. What jumped out to me was that the pacing felt off. The subtitle is "The NBA's greatest season". There are 4 legends on the front cover. But the book didn't really honor the idea of the "season" or each legend appropriately. Here was the pacing:

Page 1 to 155 is the regular season, described by all of 4 games.
Page 155 to 165 are the first three rounds of the playoffs. Boom, the Celtics and Bulls are gone and with them, two of the four legends on the cover.
Page 165 to 202 are The Finals, which feels like it could have been the whole book. Clearly this is what he wanted to write about, and this part does not disappoint.
Page 202 to 232 is this weird "Where are they now" bit, ending with a thought about how Gen X'ers are tougher than Millennials/Gen Z because they grew up during the Cold War.

Now don't get me wrong, that may be true. But it felt more like a personal thing that Cohen was harboring more than it was relevant to the "The old NBA players were tougher" point he was trying to make.

One thing I loved--I've not read hardly anything that Stanned for the Bad Boys Pistons, so it was really refreshing to see this book do that. All four featured teams were legendary, but it was clear Cohen really loved those Pistons teams. That resonates with me, as my first favorite basketball team was the 2004-05 Pistons, cut from a similar cloth. So points for that.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re a basketball fan of the 70’s and 80’s like me, you will have to love this book-Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, Bulls, Bird, Magic, MJ, Isaiah, etc. Those truly were the glory days and this book captures them perfectly.

[Chris Pereira · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling narrative if you’re a basketball fan. It claims to be about the ‘greatest season in NBA history, but should be called ‘the Apology of Isiah Thomas.’ The author grew up in Chicago but is old enough to remember Thomas as a Chicago youth player, and his attachment to him drives the entire narrative. The focus is on Thomas’ Pistons and their three main opponents in the 1988 playoffs (the Bulls, Celtics and Lakers). He mentions the documentary The Last Dance, and in a way this book is the anti-Last Dance, taking issue with its portrayal of Thomas and the Pistons as villains. But that ship has sailed. They were villains. You can try to paint other teams as villains that maybe escape that brush. But you can’t unpaint the Pistons, who are universally reviled by contemporaries.

Before I go further, I should mention that I read a galley copy. There were lots of errors in facts that hopefully will be corrected prior to publication:

In the bird section, it says bird was born a year before magic, but he was actually three years older (when they faced off in the famous ncaa title game, bird was a fifth year senior and magic just a sophomore).

It says when describing bird’s time at IU that freshmen weren’t allowed to play varsity. 1974-75, bird’s freshman year at IU, was the third season since the NCAA started allowing freshman to play varsity. And IU coach Bobby Knight used 6 freshmen in 1972-73, the first year the ncaa allowed it, including quinn buckner, the team’s third leading scorer and leading playmaker. In 1973-74 knight only used one freshman, kent benson, but he was the fourth leading scorer and leading rebounder. In bird’s freshman year knight used three freshmen.

Referring to bird’s first year as ‘1979’ is misleading; usually seasons are referred to by the latter year, so 1979-80 (bird’s actual first year) would be referred to as 1980, even if bird’s first games occurred in 1979. Later in the paragraph 1979 is referenced as Bob McAdoo’s last season with Boston. But mcadoo’s last season with boston was 1978-79. Referring to both 1978-79 and 1979-80 as ‘1979’ causes obvious problems. Cohen does this a lot, seemingly switching back and forth between how he refers to a season. Calling it by the latter year is the accepted standard today and should be what he sticks to.

In the magic section it said that he took everett high to the state quarterfinals as a senior, when in fact he won the state title.

When discussing the 1979 draft he said the Lakers traded up, which isnt true. They had been awarded Utah’s pick as compensation for Utah signing away the Lakers’ Gail Goodrich years earlier.

Magic’s first game, when Kareem won the game on a last second shot and magic embraced him, was against San Diego, not seattle.

‘The Lakers had signed [Kareem] in 1975’; they actually didnt sign kareem, they traded for him.

In the Isiah section, he claims Isiah won the Rookie of the Year award, when in fact he didn’t even finish in the top 3 or win a single Rookie of the Month award (Buck Williams was ROY in 1981-82). Its particularly egregious since the author is such a self proclaimed Isiah super fan.

In the Jordan section, he mistakenly says that Michael’s brother Larry was five years older than him, when he was only one year older.

David Thompson was only 6’4 (listed, may have been smaller) not 6’6.

When setting up the end of the 1982 ncaa championship game, he says Georgetown was up 63-62. But that was the final score, with the teams reversed. So it should say 62-61.

He says Michael hit the shot at 18. But his birthday is February 17 (born in 1963), the game was march 29, 1982, so he was 19.

Portland and Houston didn’t tie for the worst record in 1984 (he refers to the season as 1983). The coin flip in those days was between the worst team in each conference, regardless of record (so tied records don’t matter). Portland, in the same conf as Houston, had actually won 48 games and made the playoffs the year before. Their own pick was #19. The coin flip was between Houston and Indiana, which actually had the worst record in the league (26 wins, three less than Houston, so no tie. Chicago had actually also had a worse record than Houston, but not worse than Indiana and therefore didn’t get to participate in the coinflip). But Indiana had traded their pick to Portland three years earlier for center Tom Owens, hence Portland getting to participate in the flip.

In the Season section, he refers to the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals as a six game series before later in the paragraph mentioning Detroit losing in game 7.

He refers to Hakeem Olajuwon as 7’2” when he was only 7’ (and some think shorter).

He says Bill Russell went to San Francisco State, he actually went to the University of San Francisco.

In talking about Russell and the Celtics drafting him, Cohen skips the meat of the manouver. He mentions the funny story of Rochester getting the ice capades in lieu of drafting Russell, but Boston didnt have the second pick, they had to trade for it. They were fortunate that their star starting center Ed Macauley was from St Louis, and that they owned the draft rights to former Kentucky star Cliff Hagan (similar strategy to what Auerbach would do years later with Bird), and traded both for Bill Russell (and also lucky that the owners of St Louis, in the cultural South, knew they couldn’t draft a black player).

He says that the Celtics ‘won sixteen championships in eighteen years’. They won eleven in thirteen years. Their sixteenth title didn’t come until 1986, so it was sixteen in thirty years. The titles they won in ‘74, ‘76, ‘81, ‘84 and ‘86 were numbers 12-16. Later he says they won eighteen titles in twenty five years (which is it, 16 or 18? Neither, actually), which is also false. To this day (2023, before playoffs are finished) they’ve only won 17.

His painting Robert Parish as an also-ran before he was acquired by Boston is also selective memory, particularly the part about him ‘never playing.’ He was literally their best player, leading GS in scoring, rebounding and blocks, and putting up two consecutive double double seasons prior to the trade. He was a borderline allstar who was only expendable bc the warriors planned using the first pick from Boston on picking a center who they thought would be better.

He says Ainge and DJ played beside each other for nearly ten years when it was only five and a half.

He says the Celtics made ‘the finals in 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1985’ but they didnt make it in 1983.

Describing the Bulls 1987-88 season, he says Jordan averaged 32.5 ppg, but he actually averaged 35. (Here’s where Cohen’s lackadaisical season references hurt him; he’s talking about the 1987-88 season all book, but he seems to want to call it the 1987 season. But officially and in basketball circles its known as the 1988 season. So its like he was thinking ‘1988’ and saw a list of Jordan’s scoring averages and picked the one for 1988-89, which is, you guessed it, 32.5.)

Jack Kent Cooke never ‘poached’ Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Cohen saying that Cooke resorted to free agency to bolster the Lakers. Neither Chamberlain nor Abdul-Jabbar was signed in free agency. Both were acquired via trades.

He mentions that Dennis Rodman’s infamous comments about Bird and race happened right after Bird won the league MVP award. But they happened in the 1987 playoffs, and Bird last won MVP in 1986 (1985-86, not 1986-87, as perhaps Cohen thought 1986 meant).

In the Bulls at Pistons chapter, he mentions Jordan was shooting 42% on the year. But Jordan shot 53%.

Bulls-Pistons game 5 was not at Chicago Stadium it was in Detroit.

In the conclusion he says the Bulls finally won in 1992, they actually won in 1990-91.

He says Jordan left in 1997 to play for the Wizards. He left in 1998, and didnt play for the Wizards for 3 more years. (Cohen also says Riley left the Lakers for the Knicks in 1990. While he did leave the Lakers in 1990, he didnt do it to go to the knicks, he took a year off, only joining the knicks in the 1991-92 season. But here Cohen may be using hyperbole.)

He says Kurt Rambis played 18 NBA seasons, but he actually only played 14.

Jordan’s ‘republicans buy sneakers too’ line wasn’t from 2020, it was from when Jesse Helms ran for senate in the 1990’s.

He says Dennis played another season for Phil Jackson after Chicago, in LA, but he actually was in LA in the 1999 season, prior to Phil’s arrival.

So back to the actual book. Not many reasons are given for why 1988 is the apparent best season besides variations of ‘it just felt like it.’ He mentions at one point that its when tough physical play met “athletic playground” style basketball. While some use ‘playground style’ as a euphemism for ‘black,’ here I think Cohen is using it more for ‘fast break’ basketball. If so, he missed that the early 60’s were the premier fast break era. The Lakers and other western conference teams brought it back in the 80’s, but teams today play at a similarly high pace. He also inexplicably calls the 1976-77 season talent diluted, when its mentioned as a possible competitor for best year. As he notes, its the first season post merger between NBA and ABA. He also notes that it was after years of expansion. True, the league had roughly 2.5x as many teams in 1977 as it did a decade and a half earlier. But expansion through the 1960’s and 70’s happened to occur when the relative segregation of the league in the 50’s and early 60’s was going into decline. It meant that there had been tons of talented black players who simply weren’t considered for rosters who were now actually making it to the league. One of the reasons for the Celtics’ dominance in the 60’s was Auerbach’s ignoring this unofficial effort to keep the league mostly white. And the merger did the opposite of watering down the talent. Only four ABA squads were permitted to join the NBA, rosters mostly intact. But all other ABA teams’ players were dispersed across the existing NBA franchises. The talent level had never been higher. So that theory is bunk. If the presence of so many stars is the reason, any year from 1985-89 contained all of Kareem, Jordan, Magic, Bird and Isiah. 1988 and 1989 had both Kareem and Pippen, the youngest of the central figures. He eventually chalks it down to being a generational preference, which is sort of ridiculous. Basketball is basketball. He says he grew up in the Cold War, “sitting around, waiting to be nuked.” I grew up in the Cold War too and can assure you that literally no one did this. Life was normal. It didnt feel like it could end at any second just because of geopolitics. It certainly didnt make us like tougher athletes than other eras. I think the golden era of basketball is now. Not because it isnt as rough, and not because I’m younger. Its because the players are better, top to bottom. ‘Positionless basketball’ has allowed centers to embrace guard skills like passing, dribbling and shooting 3’s and lets guards carry heavy scoring loads instead of just being pass-first setup guys. Players dont just shoot more threes, they shoot them so far out players like Magic and Bird wouldnt have been able to fathom it. Players today hit as many threes as some teams did all season in the 80’s. (I wish that were hyperbole, but Klay Thompson holds the single game three point record with 14; in 1979-80 the Atlanta Hawks shot 13-75 from three for the entire season) He does latch on to the logic Lorne Michaels provides for why people prefer particular SNL seasons. That its what they remember fondly. And that’s really the most compelling reason for why Cohen thinks the season is the best. Because he just did. He was young and happy and anything from that time he remembered is great. Fine. Damn the logic.

His defense of Isiah and the Pistons is a little tougher to sweep under the rug. It’s particularly galling when Cohen compares Isiah to ‘what happened to the Jews when Rome converted to Christianity.’ Maybe Cohen thinks he can make the comparison in good conscience because he’s jewish, but as a non Jew I’m offended on behalf of jews, and I imagine a lot of jews would be too. (Of course, Cohen would say that I’m offended bc I’m a millenial and not a tough hardened Gen Xer like him and Michael Jordan. I think non Gen Xers would point out that that’s why other generations tend to dislike Gen X) Jews have been actually persecuted and exterminated in inhuman ways. Isiah has not been persecuted at all. He’s had tons of opportunities in the sport. Commisioner of the Continental Basketball Association. President of the Toronto Raptors. Head coach of the Pacers. President of the Knicks. He flamed out in all of them, and his Knicks tenure scarred a whole new generation of fans. He’s still a commentator on TV, but not a particularly good one. He’s considered an asshole because he is an asshole. So too were Bird, Magic and Jordan. But none of them embraced the persona of being the face of the Bad Boys. People love Isiah and the Pistons for that. But many more loathe them. The Jewish people didnt lean into any villainous persona. And they were persecuted before the empire converted to christianity (as were christians, for the same reason: unique out of the multitude of religions across the empire, judaism and christianity refused to incorporate elements of Roman mythology and deities into their own practice). Cohen says his aim is, not to bring down Bird Magic and Jordan, but to ‘return Isiah to the pantheon.’ I’ll take that challenge. Does Isiah belong in the pantheon? If the pantheon is far below the level that the other three are at, then maybe. He’s a top 75 player all time, probably. He’s not top 50 anymore in all likelihood. He was when he retired. But a lot of other great players have come along since Isiah retired in 94, have ascended to ‘the pantheon.’ The pantheon cannot simply be the top 10 players of all time. If so, Bird and Magic would be in danger of falling out of it. Players who have played their entire careers after Isiah’s retirement who are fairly locks for the top 10 all time include Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. Shaq and Isiah overlapped for a couple years, but Shaq is in there above Isiah too (I tend to think of those two in completely different eras until I see highlights from the 1993 allstar weekend, when they were both selected). Steph Curry has to be placed above Isiah. Durant probably as well.

Top 10 is Jordan, Lebron, Kareem, Wilt, Duncan, Shaq, Bird, Magic, Kobe and Steph. Part of it is the eye test. Part of it is accolades and hardware. Part of it is counting stats. Of the 10, only Wilt has as few as Isiah’s two titles. Shaq and Kobe each only have 1 MVP, while the other 8 all have multiples, while isiah has 0. Of these, Steph has the fewest first team all NBA selections (4), just ahead of Isiah’s 3, but all the rest have 7 or more, and Steph has 3 more second team selections to Isiah’s 2, plus he has those 2 MVPs and twice as many titles as Isiah. Let’s just agree that the ‘pantheon’ Isiah may aspire to isnt the top 10, or else its impossible.

If the pantheon is just ‘top players of the era’, then sure. Isiah is a marquee player of the era. But if it was such a golden era as Cohen claims, he would have to be the first to admit there were other great players beside these four. If the pantheon is simply being the top four of all those great players, even that is too much to ask. Much has been made of Isiah not being selected to the Dream Team in 1992. (Much more should be made of Shaq not being named to it - one amateur player was named, but inexplicitly it was Christian Laettner and not the universally superior O’Neal). Isiah by 1992 had deteriorated. He was out of the league by 94. Part of it was the achilles injury. But he only averaged 14 ppg before the injury. The last season he averaged double figure assists was 1987. Meanwhile, John Stockton, who was named to the Dream Team, in 1992 had just led the league in assists for the fifth of nine straight seasons. Which point guard would you rather have if you’re designing a literal dream team and need someone to distribute the ball to the roster of high scorers you just assembled? Isiah’s lack of longevity is blamed on his size. Stockton was the same size, and despite being just a year younger would go on to play for almost a decade after Isiah’s retirement (putting up big assist totals and taking his team to the playoffs in each year). Let’s look at Stockton, actually. He’s the league’s all time leader in assists (and assist titles, with 9, to Isiah’s 2), a total that has not been even vaguely been approached by others. He’s similarly atop the league’s all time steals list. He led his team to the finals twice to Isiah’s three times, to at least the conference finals five times, which was the same as Isiah, and to at least the second round ten times, whereas Isiah only managed this six times, and only even made the playoffs nine times (to Stockton’s 19). If you stack up this team success, this ‘sublimation’ as Cohen would call it, you’d give the nod to Stock except for the fact that he has zero rings to Isiah’s two. But in this it’s pretty clear that Stockton had the misfortune to run into alltime great Bulls squads whereas Isiah had the good fortune to sneak in ahead of the Bulls’ greatness. Certainly the Bulls would never have been the Bulls if not for having their mettle tested by the Pistons. Maybe that should be worth more than any hardware. But it belongs to the Pistons all together, not Isiah by himself.
And Stockton is just one of many in the pantheon who should probably be put ahead of Isiah. His teammate Karl Malone. Jordan’s teammate Pippen. Charles Barkley. The great Hakeem Olajuwon, whose own back to back titles in 1994 and 1995 are conveniently ignored by Cohen when he mentions dynasties in waiting. Patrick Ewing and Clyde Drexler. Maybe Isiah’s own teammate Rodman, who won eight straight rebounding titles, two defensive player of the year awards, and was a key star on five championship teams.

Cohen says its not right that Jerry West, Steph and John Stockton are ranked ahead of isiah on some arbitrary ranking of players. But Stockton is the only one serious basketball fans would quibble about. There’s no question for aficionados that West and Steph are better than Isiah Thomas. Cohen keeps going back to Thomas’ height, calling him 5’10 and saying he’s the best player under 6 feet. But he was listed at 6’1 his whole career. Not even six even. Maybe it helps the narrative to make Isiah smaller than he really was while listing others as bigger than they were (Hakeem, Thompson), but at some point you have to remember that other small players have played and excelled at the game.

Cohen says the third quarter of game six of the 1988 finals should be enough by itself to make Isiah top ten all time. The most intense hyperbole here, and he might as well just go ahead and claim Isiah is the best ever (he does just a few sentences later when waxing poetic about his lack of height). So maybe we chalk this down to Cohen just being a huge Isiah fan and not very realistic or much of a fan of the rest of the NBA. Fine. I still enjoyed reading it for the well researched passages tracing the four iconic teams. Let’s just agree that 1988 was a very interesting season, fun to watch and remember, and that Isiah is under appreciated today, particularly since he had to overcome three all time great players and teams, even if he didn’t do it to each of them in the same season.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading about the NBA star players from the 1987-88 season. Cohen goes into the back story of the star players on each of the major dynasty teams. He talks through the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons, and Bulls. He explains how each of the teams was put together, draft picks, trades, free agency. He also goes into the back story for a few of the players from each team. Cohen grew up in Chicago and watch Isiah Thomas play in high school and followed him through college. He seems to be one of the few Chicago fans that loved Isiah. He wrote this book in part to try to bring some of the deserved glory back to Isiah, trying to convince people how great he really was.

Isiah Thomas was a great player, but he didn't do himself any favors by spear heading the "Bad Boy" teams from Detroit. He alienated so many NBA players that the Olympic committee was forced to leave him off of the 1992 Dream Team. He also did poorly as a coach, GM and then had sexual harassment charges filed against him as he left the Knick's organization. The other major stars from those teams: Bird, McHale, Johnson, Worthy, Abdul-Jabar, Jordan, Pippin, Rodman were not without their blemishes, but none of them got the same tarnish as Isiah for some reason.

Overall, I loved the book. The season he analyzes is actually a little before I really started to follow basketball, so it was fun to learn a bit more about it.

[Carleen Harring · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a while I forgot I was reading a nonfiction book. I would recommend this book to any basketball or sports fan!



“Of course, it might be more than just basketball I am remembering. It might be my childhood, when my parents were young and my life was new and the players I loved were in their prime. It was a time when the games really mattered.”

[Marilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure nostalgia for me. This is right during the time I started paying attention to the NBA and watching games with my dad.

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book more than the execution. It wasn’t long enough and focused on too many players to get into depth on anything and seemed scattershot in focus (and fast and loose with timelines in the afterword).

As a pandemic project, it beats starting sourdough like everyone else. As an NBA book, it was just OK.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich Cohen claims — kind of half-jokingly — that the 1987-88 NBA season was the greatest season in NBA history. He makes this claim half-jokingly because ranking seasons is pretty subjective, as we all have the tendency to favor those seasons that meant the most to us personally. Cohen came of age during the 1980s, and if you came of age during that time, as I can personally testify, then oh my goodness, what a time to be alive, what a time to be a basketball fan.

But the claim is only half-joking because, well, objectively speaking, as objectively speaking as a subjective entity can speak, the 1987-88 was a truly special time, with four of the greatest basketball dynasties of all-time colliding with one another, the Larry Bird Celtics in decline, the Magic Johnson Lakers playing dominant basketball, the Isaiah Thomas Pistons playing even more dominant basketball (Cohen reminds us of the Game 6 phantom call on Bill Laimbeer), and the Michael Jordan Bulls starting their ascent.

More than just being a fun read, this book, as Cohen admits, is a work of historical revisionism. Isaiah Thomas, he argues, really has gotten a bad rap in recent years, being cast as the villain in all those hagiographies about Michael Jordan and his Bulls, the most recent iteration being Netflix’s The Last Dance. The victors really do write the history books, and Cohen convincingly demonstrates that all these heroes of our youth were both transcendent and flawed. Isaiah, he reminds us, was one of the greatest players in history and no more nor less flawed than the rest.

[Steven Dunczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ryan gave me this. Really enjoyed the Larry Bird Chapters.
Lowkey funny how two former NBA competitors would kiss each others cheek before games. Isaiah’s chapters were rewarding. Could have replaced Magic’s with more Larry Bird imo

[Danny™️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting great read for basketball fans

[Derek Brody · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good book for making small talk with your uncle

[Timothy Smallwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun Read

There is an obvious bias toward the Pistons and Isaiah Thomas in this book. The author must have been a fan. Although they were great and worth the mention in this era, they are not on the same level as the other three teams and the other stars mentioned as the focus of the book. However, without the “Bad Boy” Pistons, there is not as much “war.” So it is necessary to include them in a book titled as such.

One star reduced for the inclusion of all the foul language in dialogue. I know that it exists, I just don’t like reading it and it could be left out.

[Greg Talbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1988 NBA finals, game 6 specifically, in Inglewood, California was the match that made Cohen fall in love with basketball. Lakers vs Pistons. Showtime fun vs the hardened bad boys of Detroit. The young great hope, Isiah Thomas, pushed against the hub and spoke machinery of the Kareem/Johnson Lakers. Cohen writes evocatively about this matchup, and the critical moments that would determine yhe champions. A particular injury and penalty call changed the course of NBA history. The season ended with the Lakers crowned champions among worthy opponents.


 The 1988 NBA championship incorporated the mythic dynasties of the Celtics, Lakers, Pistons and Bulls. In sportswriter Rich Cohen’s estimation, there had neer been a year of many established and emerging players. More than 'hall of fame' players were active than any other time (p.11). General Managers would build teams around charismatic superstars like Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. These legends stand tall, even in our time, for their uncompromising athleticism and unparalleled grit. The elevated level of play gave a season of matches that demonstrated what basketball could really be.


This is a passionately written book. There are interviews with old players, coaches, executives, writers, and broadcasters. Cohen was imbued in the culture of basketball. As a son of Chicago, and son to a diligent basketball-loving father, he had the honor of seeing high school student Isiah Thomas make his catholic school state champions. Describing the ecstasy of Thomas’s skills he writes "electric that evening, scoring from inside and out, securing the win on the last shot" (p.8). In other passages he illuminates Chicago's turf. As someone who knows the I-290/I-294 highway merge very well, I appreciated him detailing Michael Jordan’s journey from the Chicago United Center to his Northbrook suburban home. We even get some wonderfully specific detail about the westside courtyards that Isiah Thomas built his skills on.


There are so many gems in this book. Dennis Rodman’s transformation both on and outside the court. Thes seeding of the Bulls 90s legacy, Jordan would lead the team to six championships. The storied Celtics/Lakers rivalry, and the way Bird proved a foil and ultimately a friend to Johnson. There are so many great moments about the transition from student athlete to pro, and the usual hindrances with great wealth and youth. The much hated Bill Laimbeer is given a lot of territory in this book, embodying the Detroit Piston’s hardscrabble image.  Shut your eyes, you can see it, hear it, taste it, and be it, Cohen’s writing is superb, leaving you wistful about your neighborhood hoop haunts.


Sports, like all theater, has the potential to stir hearts, through the grand narratives of friendships, ambition, betrayal, pride, surrender and redemption. Through the eyes of a hungry Jordan, or transcendent Johnson or steely Bird, we hear their stories, understand their drive, and relive these transcendent moments.  Writing on Michael Jordan’s college prowess, Cohen states"at nineteen Michael hit the winning basket of the NCAA final with fourteen seconds left. that's the stuff of legends (p.50).  Cohen has an excellent way of amplifying the excitement of the crows and the fevered determinism of the players into this peak of the glory days. The 1987-1988 season was the myth making season, one Cohen relives with masterful storytelling.

[Jim Castine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was too young in the 80s to appreciate the NBA then, but a huge fan in the 90s. This book serves as a good bridge between the eras. (Despite a very obvious bias towards Isiah Thomas)

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vivid rendering of the 1987-1988 NBA season, a time when ballers balled. Brought back great memories and longing for some old school NBA. Good Read!

[Daniel Montague · Rating 4 out of 5]

p. 187. Isiah’s reputation has been diminished by his spotty post-retirement coaching career and by his woeful record in the front office, mostly with the Knicks. He’s been fired for poor performance and sued for sexual harassment.

Fantasizing about shooting baskets on the big hoop (10 feet tall!), I would run around the room creating scenarios in which I, at 7 or 8 would lead my team to victory. Shooting with my off-brand Nerf foam ball on the ramshackle rim attached to my door, the floorboards weakening as I jumped, or whatever approximation of a leap I attempted, I would savor the sweet sound of a made shot. If it did not go in; well, there was always the option of a do-over, invariably I was fouled. One constant during these “games” was my set of teammates. They were always the Detroit Pistons circa 1990, the “World Champion Detroit Pistons.” Living roughly 60 miles from Motown, I was inclined to cheer for the hometown squad. However, my fandom did not seep down to the perennial losers that were the Lions and Red Wings at the time. The Bad Boy Pistons were the first team I cared about, the first team I loved, the first team that broke my heart. The names become legion in my mind and my heart, I even cherished the nondescript, such as John Long, a player as anonymous as his name suggested. Needless to say, this book, written about the season two years preceding my first taste of fandom, and heavily featuring the leader of the lovable rogues, or for the majority of fans, the baby-faced lead asshole, Isiah Thomas, felt like a golden trip down memory lane.

This pandemic passion project by Rich Cohen is full of insight and personal remembrances of a time which he felt most free. As a young man of 19, Rich ties this transformative season with his own blooming adulthood. During this age, he was filled with hope about the future, yet unsure about so much of life. While he is able to tie his own burgeoning manhood with the 1987-1988 season, he never makes himself the focal point. For better or worse, his focus largely remains the four pillars that made up that season: Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiash Thomas and Michael Jordan. Though this approach is not groundbreaking in any manner, it still made for an enjoyable read.

This season, in which there were more Hall of Fame players in action than any other single season, was not only blessed with beautiful basketball, but a seismic shift to come. When fortunes would change and a cultural icon would start building steam towards his legacy, as the “greatest of all-time.” When the most consistent franchise in sports, the Celtics would start showing their age, and the tragic death of Len Bias, from years ago, would still haunt them, as their stalwarts were breaking down. This was the season in which the foundational shift from a game in which speed and beauty would be replaced with strength and brutality. Though the Lakers won yet another title, becoming repeat winners, they were far from dominant taking 7 games to close out their last 3 series. In spite of their victory, there was a growing undercurrent of resentment. Clearly, the team was now Magic’s, in spite of Kareem being still the “Captain,” but would he have the fortitude and ruthlessness to fulfill the role? Would his happy demeanor and eager to please personality, be his downfall? One of the more intriguing storylines was the relationship between Magic and Isiah. Magic took the role as mentor of Isiah very seriously. Inviting him on vacation and various events, he wanted to pass the torch to him eventually, but was that time now? The relationship between these two who would infamously smooch each other pregame, would also see its foundation starting to show cracks. The viciousness that both teams exhibited in the Finals would culminate in Magic and Isiah becoming rivals, but of the kind that was not based on respect, but of animosity. Of course, this season would set up the rise of Michael Jordan from basketball superstar to global star, transcending sports. It would be his first season, with Scottie Pippen, his Robin to his Batman. Though they were not the class of the NBA this season, it was clear that something was brewing in Chicago. This leads to Isiah.

Rich Cohen spends an inordinate amount of time on Isiah Thomas. One of, if not the primary goals in authoring this book, is to remind people of how great Isiah was. As a native Chicagoan, Cohen feels a kinship with Thomas, who grew up one of 12 kids on the Southside of Chicago. Cohen recalls going to watch Thomas play in High School, when he was barely out of diapers, and his father’s profound and deep respect for how Thomas played. He felt that he was the consummate basketball player, willing to elevate his teammates, even when it negatively impacted his scoreline. He repeatedly mentions his Game 6 performance, in which he scored 25 points, an NBA playoff record on a severely sprained ankle. This performance, in which Thomas could barely move, has largely been downplayed due to his team losing the next game. The elephant in the room in regard to the legacy of Thomas, was his less than stellar post-playing career. Magic built an entertainment empire, demonstrating his acumen at building relationships, Bird coached fairly successfully when he was not leading a life of quiet domesticity, Jordan became the most prominent athlete of all time and Isiah…well, to say a mixed bag would be generous. He seemed to do worse than his cohorts at everything. While Magic was becoming an entrepreneur, Thomas bought a minor league basketball league the CBA, which almost immediately folded. After Bird coached the Pacers to the NBA Finals in 2000, he retired and was replaced by Thomas, who subsequently did not do nearly as well, and was eventually fired by Bird, who took a job in upper management. The list of Michael Jordan’s accomplishments on and off court are legion, and Isiah clearly never attained any of Jordan’s pop cultural significance. I recall watching a mediocre biopic about his mother, Mary, in which she confronted a gang leader who tried to “recruit” Isiah by pulling out a shotgun and yelling, “We only have one gang around her, the Thomas gang.” I also remember watching him in a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” episode. His legacy was further tarnished by his reaction to Magic Johnson’s HIV announcement and his many lawsuits filed against him when he was general manager of the Knicks. Perhaps, the greatest issue with Thomas, was he was not as successful as his predecessors Magic and Bird or those who followed, like Jordan. As such, he is merely seen as good, a bridge between the transformative.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this work. No doubt, I am greatly biased, but even with that admission, this book was quick and had a good flow. Though it regurgitated some facts, and at the end tried a little too hard to further its scope, it did a swell job in attempting to reconcile how dynamite of a player Isiah Thomas. He did not try to rehabilitate the man, which would have felt disingenuous, but did a fabulous job of elevating Thomas to what I consider his rightful place. I give this 4 solid stars.

[RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN · Rating 3 out of 5]

RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: PERHAPS THE WORST MISTAKE/TYPO IN A SPORTS BOOK IN YEARS!!
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In discussing the worst trade deals in NBA history… the author states: “THE 1998 DEAL THAT SENT ROBERT “TRACTOR” TRAYLOR FROM THE BUCKS TO THE MAVERICKS FOR PAT GARRITY AND DIRK NOWITZKI.” Was one of the worst… the only problem is… his description of the trade is wrong… and backwards! Garrity and Dirk went from the Bucks to the Mavericks for “Tractor”. I don’t know what kind of editor proofed this book… but since Ray Charles passed away in 2004 it wasn’t him.

Now after hurdling that embarrassing obstacle… the concept of this book is that the author decided that in his opinion that the 1987-1988 season was the greatest season in NBA history. He also states that the game back then… compared to now… was like a war zone when it came to on the court physicality . Starting with the latter premise… I agree with him 1,000 PER-CENT… but if you go back further… it was even tougher… rougher… and more manly. The game today could easily be played in dresses… instead of baggy… three sizes too large “short” pants. I also can’t even comprehend how much higher the scoring totals would have been back in the day… if the almost no-contact rules of today were observed back then.

His other overriding reason for selecting 1987-88 as the greatest season is due to the fact that the most future hall of famers (TWENTY-NINE) were active that year… another good logical bench mark.

The author picks four teams to build the entire book around… The Lakers… who would actually win the highlighted season… thereby completing a back to back championship run… the fading… from their dynasty… Celtics… and the ascending “Bad-Boy” Pistons… and the Bulls… still paying their dues… before their dynamic reign. And of course the four all-time greats of each team… Magic… Bird… Jordan… and Isiah Thomas. And it must be noted… that the author… goes so overboard promoting Isiah Thomas because of his personal perceptions… that it almost becomes laughable… as it passes nauseating.

Enjoyably… as a byproduct of the emphasizing of the greatest season… comes a discussion of the greatest team ever. And that… like the greatest year… creates a very healthy debate… that has… in my opinion… gives birth to numerable… acceptable choices. I happen to believe that the back-to-back-Lakers-of 1986-1987… and 1987-1988… were the greatest considering that Mychal Thompson came off the bench to back up Kareem… and the Defensive Player of the Year… the guy that Larry Bird… in his aut0biography stated… was the greatest defensive player that ever guarded him… Michael Cooper (who by the way…. Should be in the Hall of Fame… and as a by-product would increase the author’s active Hall of Fame figure for that year to THIRTY!) came off the bench! The author has a great quote from famous sports author Jack McCallum on this very subject:

“THE LAKERS WERE THE TOP,”.. “MJ WAS THE BEST PLAYER BUT THE LAKERS WERE THE BEST TEAM, THE GREATEST OFFENSE OF ALL TIME. THEY COULD RUN THE FLOOR, OR FALL INTO AN UNSTOPPABLE HALF-COURT OFFENSE WITH MAGIC FEEDING KAREEM.”

The author… also decided to zero in on only a very… very limited amount of games… from the regular season… and very few from the playoffs. In fact the entire book was broken down into six chapters/sections… PRE-GAME… THE PLAYERS… THE SEASON… THE PLAYOFFS… THE FINALS… POST- GAME.

In the post-game section he unleashes an almost unmerciful accounting of Robert Parish’s post career issues… which included domestic violence against his pregnant wife. He goes pretty light… all things considered… on his deity-like –worshiping of Isiah… considering his being the subject matter of a multi-million dollar settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit while an executive of the New York Knicks… along with his failed coaching attempts. Though I like analogies in writing… and I certainly use them in my reviews… the author uses them so abundantly… the reader will find themselves… feeling like Noah after forty days of rain! He also makes a TASTELESS STATEMENT in yet another defense against… opposing teams… writers… fans… because they don’t worship at Thomas’s “CLAY FEET”… like he does:

"What happened to Zeke is like what happened to the Jews when Rome converted to Christianity. What had been a local rivalry between sects - one side of the story - was canonized into an immortal battle of good and evil."

Another time he relates to a time period comparison thusly: “THAT WAS THE NBA’S VERSION OF MICKEY, WILLIE AND STAN THE MAN”. Actually… the historically famous baseball “ditty”… is “WILLIE-MICKEY-AND-THE-DUKE!”

Perhaps… the best part of this… “could have been better book”… to me… was when he described how his Brooklyn-born Father… got him ready for basketball and life. (It must be noted that I am Brooklyn born… and I raised my son for life and basketball with “OUR-FAMILY-MANTRA””… that has literally… been printed out… laminated… and mounted in both our homes… *** THE –GOLDSTEIN- FAMILY MANTRA—NEVER- LET- ANYONE- GO- BASELINE… ON- THE- COURT… OR- IN- LIFE!! ***)

“Having spent his childhood on outdoor courts in Bensonhurst and Coney Island, he recognized in the Pistons what he called the “playground” or “Brooklyn” style. He demonstrated his style during our driveway contests by moving me around with his butt, hitting from the same spot again and again, and getting into my head by spewing a series of not-very-nice comments about my mother and my manhood. “HEY MAMA’S BOY. I THINK YOU’VE GOT A LITTLE DROOL ON YOUR COLLAR. WANT ME TO GET MAMA TO WIPE IT UP?”

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love sports books in general, and one about the 1987-88 NBA season has lots going for it from the outset. Cohen argues this was the best season in NBA history because so many all-time greats were playing and many were at (or right before or right after) their prime. A book on this season has potential.

While a fun read, this book doesn't adequately capture the season, the players, or the teams. It's an appetizer that leaves you hungry for substance, particularly because the chef's true intention is for you to have a salad. Most people like salads, some love them, and the chef wants you to appreciate and love them more, even if you didn't go to the restaurant to order a salad. In "When the Game was War," Isiah Thomas is the salad. He's the reason Cohen wrote this book.

Cohen frames this book in an odd manner: he focuses on four players (Bird, Magic, Jordan, Isiah), their respective teams (including one game from the season, not sure the intent), a cursory look at the playoffs (the Lakers' entire run to the finals covered in less than 2 pages), and a more expanded look at the finals between the Lakers and Pistons. He closes with an afterword ("Post-game") that covers many of the players on the four teams, which doesn't fit his conceit of focusing almost exclusively on the four. There's little new insight or analysis, and his limiting framing means he can't support the larger argument about the quality of the season he wants to make.

Even with the inherent limitations of focusing on four teams, this book is sparse. It moves quickly, with brief biographies on the players and even briefer ones on the teams, and perhaps it's audience is people who didn't follow the NBA at the time and would benefit from a cursory overview versus those of us steeped in the era who know everything Cohen describes (as well as much of what he omitted).

Cohen's biases are evident throughout the book, but he gives away the game in his Post-game: "Consider this book a revisionist history. It's not that I wish to devalue Jordan or Johnson or Bird, all of whom were just as great as people say, but that I aim to return Isiah to the pantheon, where he belongs." Cohen hinges his argument largely on a single quarter: "Considering the circumstances, Isiah's effort in Game 6 of the 1988 finals might be considered the single greatest performance in NBA history. If you erased the rest of his career, all the titles and accomplishments, that game alone would be enough to earn him a spot in the pantheon." and "The third quarter of Game 6 of the 1988 NBA Finals alone should put him in the top ten (of all-time players)." This is absurd. One quarter of a game--that his team lost--isn't sufficient to put anyone near the top of the all-time greats list. History is full of athletes in all sports who had a magical moment, none of which result in that person being a Hall-of-Famer. Yes, Isiah was a phenomenal player. But trying to "revise history" by focusing on a single season is inherently flawed and represents a major weakness in this book.

I have my biases as well. The "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons of the late 80's were dirty players, cheap-shot artists whose stated intention was to hurt their opponents. Cohen frames this as an indication of the tougher times people needed to grow up during the Cold War and the importance of persevering through injuries if you want to be a great player. The Pistons were also notoriously poor sports, delivering kidney punches and blows after fouls while complaining about missed or wrong calls (Cohen leans into this with the Pistons, suggesting a few of these calls were what allowed the Lakers to win the series that year). They spoke poorly about their opponents (Rodman and Isiah's comments about Bird get some airtime) and Cohen leaves out the poor sportsmanship of the starters leaving the court after losing a series to the Bulls (except for John Salley, who stayed and congratulated the Bulls). Cohen also omits Isiah freezing out Jordan in MJ's first All-Star game, though he reports that Isiah also ghosted Magic after the latter's HIV diagnosis. This was not an honorable team nor was it a fun team to watch.

Cohen promises a feast and gives you a few appetizers...and lots of salad.

[Joe Kraus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been exploring more basketball books of late, and I’ve been catching up on my Rich Cohen, so this was a no-brainer.

Cohen and I share a lot of interests. We’re both Chicagoans. We both love the Cubs. (His Sports Illustrated story on the World Series win was probably the best thing I read on that once-a-century event.) We both enjoy the intersection of Jews and sports. He’s got a book on the Rolling Stones that I’m excited to get to soon. And, believe it or not, we’ve both written books on Jewish gangsters.

On that last, I resented that he got his book out before I did. As it turned out, it took me another 15 years after his, so the market space had opened up. And I’ve forgiven him…in part because he’s a hell of a writer.

Anyway, this is a book that many kids who grew up with me would have wanted to write. It’s a celebration of the NBA in the era when Michael Jordan was ascending, Isiah Thomas was right at the end of his peak, and Larry Bird and Magic Johnson reigned. It’s all our NBA heroes – and, with Isiah, our NBA villain – and it’s more or less one full season of them.

As I’ve reflected elsewhere, it’s tough to write about basketball. There are a lot of early models for writing baseball and boxing stories, but basketball moves too quickly. It takes at least five simultaneous perspectives to give a sense of the full court, and it means following not just the ball but the way guys cut without it.

In that space, Cohen begins to develop a narrative vocabulary for describing the game. He has some great snippets early where he describes individual games giving us quick scores from the third, early fourth, late fourth, and closing seconds. It’s hard to describe but easy to follow. And it gives a sense of the electricity of the sport as it plays out.

Cohen tells us that he organizes this around one season and four teams, and then he focuses on each team for its star. It works reasonably well, though it’s less original than other parts since it recalls some of what David Halberstam did in Breaks of the Game.

For me, though, since I lived through these seasons as a fan, it’s fun to relive the tension and drama. I’m all in for Jordan, always, since I was there (in Chicago!) for almost all his career. And I admired Bird and Magic, and I enjoyed seeing Cohen paint the way they played the game.

But Isiah?

Cohen is a good enough writer that he almost persuades me in a few spots. I mean, he was a small man doing big things in a big man’s game.

But I remember that smiling, smirking cheap-shot artist, and I remember the Bad Boy Pistons who worked to uglify the beautiful game that Jordan and Pippen personified.

There you have it, though. I’m feeling that passion again, and that’s to Cohen’s credit.

Let’s Go Bulls, even as the recent news hasn’t been as much fun.

[Helen S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is cool, brilliant, funny, alive, very human, and just plain thrilling. No one writes about sports the way this author does. The book is about basketball. But like all the best sports writing—all the best writing—it’s really about character. It's about what you're willing to do, to make yourself do, when everything is on the line. If actual non-locker-room life stuff being on the line is accretive. It's sort of on the line a little bit every afternoon across a multi-decadal scale. Sports, especially the playoffs, especially the playoffs in the year(s) the writer covers, everything is on the line every night. Here's the kind of moment I mean: "The Forum got quiet—it was the kind of uncanny silence only a crowd can make.”

That's the thrill of it. ( Who else but this author could make you feel a thing like that?) And Cohen is able to get the magic and drama of that across: of Isiah Thomas, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, finding out just what it is they have inside themselves. What kind of engine, how much mileage, how much drive. It makes you consider what you might—or might not—have inside yourself. You walk on the court with these players, stagger back into the locker room, celebration or hurting; you see how they became the people they are. (I loved Larry Byrd's story: very, very different from what I imagined. I hear "midwest" and think like haylofts and grain silos. Larry Byrd is like the diner-back-alley Midwest, the Elmore Leonard Midwest; his rivalrous friendship with Magic is one of the book's most magical effects.)

He brings to life famous games and famous fights. He writes about Isiah Thomas setting a post-season record playing on a bum ankle. "He moved like a supermarket cart with a punk wheel." Going back into the game, finding it himself to dominate: it's a Luke Skywalker scene, a John Wayne scene. "Isiah became a symbol in those twelve minutes, an embodiment of everything that a person who wants to live ecstatically should be. He played with fury and joy. He loved his teammates and his opponents—you could see it in every move."

Fury and joy. The book is written with fury and joy.

Who else could produce a book like this? It's a brilliant story being lived by these superheroes: we learn from both their cape selves and the alter egos. And in both guises, Cohen relates, they are versions of us. It’s us out there, learning how much we can take, and how much we can give.

Also, the story about Chuck Nevitt—one of the most famous "twelfth men” in the game—is just about the funnest, funniest thing I've read this year.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my vivid memories from childhood is watching the NBA playoffs at my aunt’s house. My brother and I were the only 2 really interested in the games, but I loved it despite the fact that “our” team, the Lakers, seemed to be perennial runners-up to the Celtics. During the 1980s, after I had moved away from Southern California, I went to games when I could, and still loved watching the amazing players perform…and possibly the best years for me as a fan were the Showtime Laker teams that peaked in the latter half of the 1980s. So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read Rich Cohen’s When the Game Was War, thanks to Random House and netGalley who provided a copy in exchange for this honest review.

As well as being a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Rich Cohen is a bestselling author who is about twenty years younger than I am, so he has a generationally different view of the NBA. Despite his Chicago roots, he appreciates the game in geneal and chose to tell the story of the 1987-88 season, focusing on four teams: the Boston Celtics (with Larry Bird), the Showtime Lakers (Magic Johnson), the Detroit Pistons (Isiah Thomas), and the Chicago Bulls with young Michael Jordan. These four superstars all took different routes to the NBA, and Cohen traces each of them. In addition to the big four named above, Cohen covers Bill Laimbeer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Danny Ainge, and Charles Oakley – all terrific players in their own right, each of whom played a huge role in the success of the more celebrated individuals with whom they played. Cohen also includes fascinating details about how those players made their way to successful careers, both as individual stars and members of champIonship teams.

Cohen was 11 years old in 1988, and his favorite player of those listed above was Larry Bird. Rather than cover every single game of the season, he went in depth to bring four individual games to life: Lakers – Celtics 12/11/1987, Pistons – Bulls 01/16/1988, Pistons – Lakers 02/21/1988, and Bulls – Pistons 04/03/1988. Finally, he goes over the playoffs and the finals between the Lakers and the Pistons.

I loved it. I’m curious as to how the book will be received by people who didn’t experience that season, or don’t particularly care for any of the four teams or their superstars. It’s a fun read, and I’m sure any basketball fan would enjoy it. (I’ve always said that anyone who says they don’t like professional basketball has never been to a GOOD NBA game). Four stars.

[Sanjuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has divided readers, and I see why. It's loaded with errors (I've caught a few myself, and other reviewers have caught far more than I did), and Cohen's love affair with Isiah gets obnoxious at points. At the end of the book, Cohen says that Isiah is one of the top ten players in NBA history. I agree with Cohen that Isiah often is underrated, but he isn't close to top ten, and he's probably not top 20. Somewhere between 21-25 is right where he should be, which is VERY high in the pantheon of all-time greats. Saying that Isiah is, say, the 25th best player ever is not a slight. It's a testament to his greatness.

Despite the errors and slanted narrative, I have to say, I still really enjoyed reading this book. It flowed well, hit on a lot of major moments, and beautifully captured why I (like Cohen) think the 80s and early 90s was the absolute best era of the NBA. I'm only 43, so I'm not some out of time old-head; I love the current NBA and I watch about 75-80 games per year - but the personalities in the late 80s and early 90s were electric to watch, and we've not since had anything like it. This book helped me relive those days, as an 8-16 year old, falling in love with the game.

For what it's worth, here are a few of the errors I've noticed. I found other reviews that logged far more errors than I've found.

1. At one point, Cohen discusses Bob McAdoo's "final season" in Boston, and he made it sound like the team took a turn with McAdoo's departure. Well, he only played one season in Boston, and only for 20 games. Was that then technically his "last season"? Sure, but he wrote the paragraph as though McAdoo had played there a while and that his departure had meaning for the changes to the team. It didn't.
2. On page 76 he says that, when Boston played the Lakers in December 1987, Bird was 32. In fact, he'd just turned 31 a few days before that game.
3. On pages 31-32, he writes that, when the Lakers drafted Magic, they had to trade Nixon for the sake of team cohesion, and that Magic taking his place on the hierarchy as a rookie made the other veterans respect him more. The paragraphs are clearly written to imply that Magic and Nixon couldn't play together, and that Nixon was shipped out immediately. In fact, Magic and Nixon played together for four years, both made all-star teams, and they won two championships together. Magic didn't come in and push Nixon straight out the door.
4. On page 6, he writes that Isiah scored 25 points in the third quarter of game 6, and this "remains a playoff record." No, it doesn't. It's a finals record, but not a playoff record. Then, on page 193, he writes that Isiah had 21 points in the third, before hitting a 3 at the buzzer. That would only equal 24 points, not the 25 Isiah scored, so the math here is off.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cohen is a wonderfully fluid and at times poetic writer with a real gift for fluid abstraction and an ability to sketch a scene in flashes that occasionally evokes Joan Didion. And I remember watching the 1989 finals with a vague sense of loyalty to the Pistons (I didn't particularly care about the NBA at the time) since I'd just finished my freshman year at UM. He makes an argument for the unsurpassed greatness of this one season (1987-88) as an intersection of old and new--the Celtics decaying fast, the Lakers holding on for one more ride, the Pistons and, more slowly, Bulls, ascendant--and particularly for the greatness of Isiah Thomas. But this feels like a rush job. He did a lot of interviews but doesn't seem to have gleaned a ton of great revelations from them, as we're treated to extensive clips from Phil Jackson's books instead that stand out due to their differences in tone; nor do we get many yeasty bits from the local sports pages. He's got some good stories about the breakdown of the Magic/Isiah relationship in particular (as well as great players' emotional struggles in the shadow of even greater ones, Jordan most especially), but also not much in the way of analysis--we've got Rodman and Thomas famously running down Bird as overrated because he's white, and Cohen's position on this seems to be...not really clear, though he's agin it on the grounds that, possibly, you weren't allowed to mention race, but maybe also that objectively Bird was an all-timer. (As I said, not clear.) He seems to be completely uninterested in statistical analysis of any sort, aside from one weird line where apparently James Worthy is leading the league, or close to it, in every statistical category. And some appallingly slovenly copyediting, culminating with a vague, careless mention of Jordan's notorious refusal to endorse Harvey Gantt against Jesse Helms in 1990 that does not mention any names and, worse, dates it to...2020. I mean, come on.

[Scott Vout · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first experience with this author.
This is also my first book through the Netgalley program.

I used to be a huge Larry Bird/Boston Celtic fan. I am old enough to have lived through this book. I experienced the events through TV, newspapers and Sports Illustrated. I loved watching the Bird/Magic rivalry. My mother was a huge Magic fan so it was always a heated three hours in my house when they went head to head.

I was never a Detroit fan. I also thought of them as "the bad boys" of basketball. They were dirty and I do believe they truly did try to hurt the stars of other teams.

Then there was Michael. I was not a fan of Michael Jordan. How could I be? I was a worshipper of Larry Bird. It was hard to watch the decline of the Celtics and Bird and for Michael to be the "next one", how could I possibly be a fan. Don't get me wrong, I acknowledge his greatness but that doesn't mean I have to be a fan.

This book reveals some wonderful behind the scenes information that I did not know of the events of the time. It brought back a lot of memories for me reliving that season and earlier ones as well. It sparked the memory of the fun rivalry my mother and I had watching the games.

I am no longer an avid basketball fan. Once Bird and Magic retired I was done. Not a Jordan fan there really wasn't much to hold my interest. Basketball today is a totally different animal. It is in a worse place as far as I am concerned. But I don't want to go off on a rant and detract from this book.

This is a very good read. If you are a fan of the game give it a go. Learn how the game was played in the 80's. Feel the passion the players had for the game and their teams. Team first, personal achievements last. It was a different game then, a much better game and this book does a great job of bringing that back to life.