№ 01
“Breaks of the Game was the first big-boy book I ever loved. There hasn't been a better basketball book before or since.” source
Founder of The Ringer and podcast host
Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons founded Grantland and The Ringer, hosts The Bill Simmons Podcast and The Rewatchables, and wrote The Book of Basketball. Before that he spent a decade as ESPN's Sports Guy. The picks below come from his ESPN Page 2 best-sports-books column, his Halberstam eulogy, and his Sports Guy Seal of Approval roundup.
10
Recommendations
2007
Most recent list
Sports
Most-recommended
On the record
All Bill Simmons book recommendations.
№ 02
“One of my favorite sports books, and it captures what a sport can mean to a city.” source
№ 03
“It's a riveting book, and Pearlman had a wealth of information to work with. After finishing it, Bonds seemed infinitely worse to me than I realized.” source
№ 04
“I think it's a top-20 sports book.” source
№ 05
“This was my favorite Halberstam book since Playing for Keeps.” source
№ 06
“It's an amazing book, with one overriding theme: when you're a talented basketball player from the projects, there are a million things that can go wrong, and only one thing that can go right.” source
№ 07
“It's still one of the best 40 to 50 sports books ever.” source
№ 08
“A unique, well-written, entertaining, fascinating, thoughtful sports book that still holds up four years later.” source
№ 09
“I think it's one of the five best NBA books ever.” source
№ 10
“One of my ten favorite books of all time, as well as the book I probably have read the most over the past 20 years.” source
Readers with overlapping taste
