2011 book 18

18. the jordan rules by sam smith

back in 1992, michael jordan's bulls were in the process of defending their first title and nobody knew they'd win six in eight years.¹  smith's book is a look back at their first title and what it took to get there.  here are my thoughts:
1. in 2011 phil jackson is an 11-time champion coach known for his zen-philosophies and dating jeanie buss.  twenty years earlier, before he'd won as a coach, he was 20 years deep into his second marriage and raising a bunch of kids.  he had some interesting ways of thinking - influenced both by leftists and native americans - but still referenced and seemed directed by the christian principles by which he was raised.  i'd really be interested to know more about what in the world happened in between.
2. everybody knows michael jordan is a ridiculous competitor.  the stories of his all-night, high-stakes gambling jags and constant, biting teammate ridicule are well known.  oddly, however, nobody seems to care that much about the impact of those things.  he was the greatest nba player ever and he worked hard to be the best, but what would he have been like if he wasn't playing 36 rounds of golf before practice, staying up all night to play cards with his entourage, belittling teammates, and gunning for his own points over the good of the team?  add to that stories of cheating on his wife, his post-career divorce, and a fuller picture of his enormous appetite for gambling and you start to wonder if anybody would have liked jordan had he come up in the youtube/tmz era.
3.it's amazing how player salaries have escalated in the last 20 years.  back when this book was written, a $3 million per year contract was enormous.  to the average working man that's still huge, but kobe bryant is making at least 8 times that this year in spite of a salary cap.

¹ the two they lost were when jordan took off to play minor league baseball.  hakeem olajuwon and the houston rockets owe jordan a fruit basket or something because they wouldn't have sniffed those titles with jordan in the league.