The Big Three: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and the Rebirth of the Boston Celtics by Michael Holley

3.86 AVERAGE

reenum's review against another edition

4.0
A good sports book has a few beats it needs to cover to succeed. First, the team is assembled. Second, you talk about the growing pains when the team is first brought together. Finally, you read about how the team achieves it's goals. This book is interesting because it adds another phase: what happens after the championship banners are raised?

Holley's book shows how the post 2008 title Celtics glided from a great team to a rebuilding one. By page 100, the discussion of the title season has concluded. Their core is rent apart by animosity between Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen, as well as the aging of the entire team. Doc Rivers stands by, looking on patiently while trying to keep the group playing at a high enough level to get that next championship. Danny Ainge is back in the lab, cooking up trades to try and patch holes in a roster that develops them at a breakneck pace. But it isn't meant to be.

Holley did a great job of being fair and even handed in his treatment of Allen and Rondo. We see a different side of Allen that really hasn't been portrayed in the media, that of a lonely craftsman who just wants to find his place in the league. Rondo is given the keys to the team and proves that the contract extension he received was a mistake. He's eventually shipped off to Dallas, and becomes a journeyman who finally won another title with the 2020 Lakers. But we also see the passionate side of Rondo. He's a proud man who's unable to properly express his emotion. He's not immature; he just can't bear not to win.

I recommend this book to all sports fans. It's not often you get to read about how a team dies after achieving the greatest success.