Title/Author:
“This Book Has Balls: Sports Rants from the MVP of Talking Trash”
by Michael Rapaport
Tags:
Basketball, essays, humor
Publish date:
October 24, 2017
Length:
305 pages
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
Michael Rapaport is an
actor who knows his sports, especially basketball. He has a very popular podcast in which he
rants on many different sports topics. Sometimes
he is crass, often his commentary is laced with colorful language but he also
emphatically makes his point and if doesn’t matter if you agree or not, it’s his
way or the highway.
This book is a
collection of essays written in the same manner as these commentaries. Therefore, if a reader is familiar with Rapaport’s
style, then he or she will love this book.
For a reader like me, who knows of it and has seen him on television in
various roles, then this will be an introduction to his sports side.
The first impression I
had was that is basketball cred is outstanding, despite never playing in
college or professional basketball. He
writes great essays on Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Allan Iverson, the New York
Knicks and Madison Square Garden, the “mecca” of basketball. These were my favorite ones and I found
myself agreeing with him on just about every story about this sport.
The book is not limited to basketball, however, as he also writes about Tiger Woods, Lawrence Taylor (which I thought was the funniest story), athletes whose prowess in the bedroom as well as the playing arena was legendary, and, in a non-sports rant that surprised me, the Real Housewives series which he believes was great television.
Since his calling is comedy,
of course the book is filled with humor, from the beautifully sublime to the crude
and obvious. I mentioned the Lawrence
Taylor story, in which Rapaport believes LT is the greatest player in football
history because he played while under the influence of cocaine. That was hilarious as well as some other stories
and excerpts.
I will give one more
example of this comedy that left me in tears.
To put it in proper context, this is about Shawn Kemp, a star NBA player
in the 1990’s who was as well known for fathering children with numerous women
as well as his play on the court. This
is about a dream Rapaport had: “I actually had (a dream) a few nights ago that
I was playing for the Seattle Supersonics during the Nineties and Shawn Kemp
and I were having an extensive conversation on the layup line about getting
vasectomies.”
While certainly this
book has to be read only by adults because of the language, it is a very funny
and entertaining book that is recommended for fans of Rapaport, basketball
fans, or those who want to just laugh out loud while reading a book with sports
content.
I wish to thank
Touchstone Publishing for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in
exchange for an honest review.
Book Format Read:
E-Book (Kindle)
Buying
Links:
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