A nice book on the 2010s in basketball (and particularly the 2011-12 season) which, I think, will be eventually defined as the LeBron decade. The oral history/bits and pieces of an interview mishmash tired me a little after the first half of the book, but there is still a lot of enjoyable material to read (and who guessed a book can be written about what happened in sports 6 years ago?)

As an avid basketball fan, I was excited to read this book. I had much anticipation. I was not let down. What a read!!!! Great look at the 2010-2011 NBA season. Highly recommended.Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Although I received the book in this manner, it did not affect my opinion of this book nor my review.

Immensely well researched book looking at all facets of the growing emergence of NBA from the third best team sport to over-taking MLB and going toe to toe with the NFL for superiority.
One for fans of NBA and not looking mostly at the career of LeBron James but giving kudos to luminaries such as Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki.

There is a lot of in depth reporting in this book, but "the soul of basketball" seems to have been birthed in Boston and died in AAU basketball where entitled players are spoiled. There was really no need to re-litigate The Decision.

The Soul of Basketball tells the story of the 2010-2011 NBA season – the season after LeBron James ‘Decision’ to move to Miami. It paints that year as a pivotal season – the changing of the guard as LeBron’s generation seized control of the NBA.

It isn’t simply a book about the season, but rather about the changing role of the NBA in American life as a new generation of players build on Jordan’s legacy and capture the public’s imagination. The NBA was trying to find its way in the post-Jordan era but LeBron had turned himself into public enemy number 1 with his handling of the Decision and his promises of a decade of glory in Miami. Players were arriving in the NBA already famous and already entitled.

Thomsen paints a compelling and illuminating portrait of the key individuals in that season’s NBA. He takes readers inside the Heat, the Lakers, the Celtics, the Spurs, and the Mavericks and focuses on a key individual in each of those teams. For me the most compelling figures throughout the book are Dirk Nowitzki, Greg Popovich and Kobe Bryant. Dirk Nowitzki was much less well-known to me and emerges as the most fascinating figure in the book.

Thomsen shows us who the players, coaches, scouts and executives really are, what motivates and drives them to succeed. Thomsen’s ability to get key people to open up and share revealing insights is a real asset to the book. There is also extensive and fascinating detail on the inside workings of team’s front office. Thomsen also captures the between old-school owners and the newer generation of owners like Mark Cuban at the Mavericks.

It is arguable that LeBron is treated a bit harshly at times in the book although the epilogue does recognise his achievement in returning successfully to Cleveland. By detailing LeBron’s toughest year, Thomsen attempts to show some of what LeBron went through before becoming a champion.

It’s a detailed, engrossing and brilliant read which I highly recommend. If there has been a better book written about the modern NBA, I’d be delighted to find it.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review on Netgalley.

4.5. This is a really solid account of the 2010-2011 NBA season, especially Kobe, Dirk, Doc Rivers, and Lebron’s first season with the Heat. Weaved together really well and was a fantastic read. Highly recommend!

"The Soul of Basketball" is an extremely entertaining look at the 2010-2011 NBA season, especially from the lens of 2018. Over the last few years, the NBA has undergone a radical change in style of play and in terms of player activism, and we can start to see the seeds of it here in this book. Thomsen goes in depth into a large number of players, coaches, and executives throughout the book, and his in depth reporting on each of them made me want a full length book on a great deal of the people he talks about. Thomsen did an excellent job of connecting players to the past, especially Kobe and the Celtics. When I first started, I was a little skeptical of Thomsen's tone, because he seemed to be vilifying LeBron and sanctifying Kobe and the big three of the Celtics. However, it turned out to be a pretty even handed look at all characters involved, and demonstrated in a few ways how much some of the players have changed over the years. One thing that seemed to be missing was a more in depth look how that season connected to the current basketball climate, and how it caused some of the people involved to change. The last chapter did this extremely briefly, but from the title and description, I was expecting more of a connection to the current day, and how the look of the NBA now would be totally different if it weren't for that season. If nothing else, the book does an excellent job of describing the NBA during the late 2000s, and helps us to see how some of the players have changed and developed over the last few years, particularly LeBron. Very good read, and I recommend it to others!

Are you a casual basketball fan? Read this book. Are you a hardcore basketball fan? Read this book.

Thomsen does an excellent job of capturing the vibe and essence of the NBA and its culture by showcasing four superstars (three players, one coach), are various levels of their careers. By weaving together the impacts of each man on the NBA, and culture overall, Thomsen is able to highlight the key factors that have led to the 2010-2011 season being so pivotal for the NBA and its influence on the sports landscape.

The 2010-11 basketball season turned out to be one that was very pivotal for the sport and the league. Why this season was such an important one is explained by author Ian Thomson in this excellent book about not just LeBron James and the Heat, but also about other key player and teams.

It started during the summer when the game’s biggest star, LeBron James, announced “The Decision” to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat and in doing so, became a villain in the eyes of many fans, not just those in Cleveland. From there, the season was a topsy-turvy affair for the top teams. Not just for the Heat, who now had three stars (they also signed free agent Chris Bosh to go with their star guard Dwayne Wade), but also for the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks.

Thomson takes the reader inside these teams and one key person for each team. For the Celtics, that is their coach Doc Rivers, who led the team to the championship in 2008 and lost a heartbreaking seven game series to the Lakers in the 2010 Finals. This has weighed heavy on Rivers’ mind and he wants to make sure this does not deter from his team’s goals. The Celtics had good success against the Heat during the 2010-11 season and they meet in the playoffs. Through the stories of not only Rivers, but also Paul Pierce and Rajan Rondo, the reader will experience the ups and downs of the season up to their elimination by the Heat in the playoffs.

Speaking of Miami, the Heat’s adventures are covered with the same extensive detail about their key personnel. The reader will learn about James’s inner turmoil about becoming the player everyone loved to hate. He realized that announcing his joining the Heat in the manner that he did was not popular, that the rally held soon afterward in which he, Wade and Bosh predicted multiple championships added fuel to that fire, and that he was realizing that he was not the only cog that made Miami a good team.

Not all of the material about the Heat is about the players, however. The reader will learn a great deal about the inner workings a team will execute when attempting to sign a star player when he or she reads about Pat Riley’s wheeling and dealing to sign James. These passages were very informative and helped the reader understand why James eventually chose Miami – and late in the book, also why James left Miami to head back to Cleveland. These are part of the “self- corrections” that Thomson illustrates as an important part of the NBA culture.

The Los Angeles Lakers were the defending champions during the 2010-11 season, and the determination and drive to succeed exhibited by their superstar, Kobe Bryant, is well documented. However, the best writing about a player who is exhibiting a special talent to win is saved for Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki. What is especially entertaining about Nowitzki’s story is how he worked closely for many years with Holger Geschwindner. Holger worked with Nowitzki on everything from his footwork to his shot selection to his mental game. Like his team, Nowitzki didn’t start the 2010-11 season with a lot of fanfare, but by the time the NBA Finals were done, the Mavericks were the champions, defeating James and the Heat with Nowitzki being the dominant player in the Finals. His reaction to winning was interesting – he lifted both fists up in triumph, then ran into the locker room where he was crying hard while being urged to come back out to the arena to accept the award of being named the MVP of the Finals. It made for great drama.

The book is certainly one of the best basketball books one will find about recent NBA history and one of the best I have had the pleasure to read. The NBA is carving out its own identity, according to Thomson, as the sport of the American Dream as Major League Baseball is drawing criticism for its slow pace and the NFL has issues with the violence of the game and the dangers of concussions. The book is a compelling case for arriving at this conclusion and is one that any NBA fan will want to add to his or her library.

I wish to thank Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.