Shooting Stars by LeBron James & Buzz Bissinger
October 5th, 2009Title: Shooting Stars
Author: LeBron James & Buzz Bissinger
Publisher: Penguin Press (2009)
This is the greatest book I have ever read in my entire history of reading. It is pure artistry…the words flow through your brain like a Bach symphony. When I was finished reading, I cried. [OK, think that's enough to get them to send me a signed LeBron James jersey? No? Ok, I'll just do the normal review then.]
Shooting Stars by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger is an OK book about Lebron James’ back story and his years of high school basketball. It is also the first book I have reviewed for Letters on Pages that did not have a subtitle! The book itself is fine. It is written in the voice of James telling everything that has happened to him up until high school graduation. I think it was very difficult for me to give this book a fair shot though because it was associated with Buzz Bissinger. For those who don’t know, Bissinger is a pretty famous sportswriter who became even more famous recently for exploding in rage about blogs and bloggers. He HATES them/us, especially sports bloggers. He went on an HBO round table a little while ago and verbally assaulted a sports blogger. It was embarrassing to watch. Plus, he very recently started a mini-feud with my man Joe Posnanski. Needless to say (but I will anyway), I don’t particularly like Bissinger.
That said, it is an interesting story to say the least. LeBron James is quite the character and has lead a pretty interesting life so far. He grew up very poor in Akron, Ohio. He moved around a lot, but eventually found his true love in basketball. But LeBron James is not just a basketball player. He sincerely appears to be a pretty good guy. He is famous for being extremely loyal to his friends, and that is really what this book is about. He, and his 4 best friends, pretty much ran through high school basketball. Of course, it helps that James is the best player in the game…but one person can’t win a championship himself.
Now, James is still very good friends with those guys from his high school team. He says they keep him grounded…something that would probably be kind of tough to do…considering he signed a $100 million Nike contract before he ever played a professional game. In fact, I think the reason he even “wrote” this book is because it would give some limelight to his buddies.
It’s just too bad Bissinger had to be involved!
Rating: 3 out of 5
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