The Breaks of the Game

I heard about The Breaks of the Game under tragic circumstance.  The author, David Halberstam, died in a car accident about three years ago.  The passage in Sports Illustrated that mentioned his death also mentioned that Breaks was the best book about the NBA.  I heard that Halberstam wrote the book after spending a season with the Portland Trail Blazers in the late 70’s/early 80’s.     Initially, I thought it was about the Blazers’ championship season but that was actually during 1976-1977.  The book covers the season during 1979-1980, though it does refer back to the championship season frequently.  Reading the book fit with the Portland “theme” of January for me that I described in an earlier review.

Halberstam had a journalism background.  He wrote a book about the Vietnam War called The Best and the Brightest.  In The Breaks of the Game he applies his journalistic intensity to the NBA.  He dissects it from all angles, even giving his own opinions.  He doesn’t just write about the Blazers but gives the history and status of many of the teams they play.  He gives the back stories of all the major Portland players including Bill Walton who by 1979 had signed with the San Diego Clippers.  He describes the changes the league has gone through since it began in the late 40’s with the greatest changes taking place between the 60’s and the 70’s when television ad money flooded the owners’ and the players’ pockets.  Contracts became guaranteed.  Players looked out for themselves more than their teams.  They made more than their coaches and their coaches had lost most of their power over them.  In some ways, the league had evolved into much like it is today.  The only differences were that players made about 1/10 of what they now make (still a lot, I wouldn’t mind making $300,000 per year for four years), wore the “hot pants” style shorts, and, though players were famous, they weren’t the superstars they are now.  The book also delves into the roles of the scouts, assistant coaches, trainers, other teams’ staff, and players’ agents, owners, even CBS TV executives.  “The Game” in the title doesn’t just mean basketball but the entire business of the NBA.

The book is written with an intense, though also digressing style.  Halberstam goes through the entire Blazers season from training camp to the playoffs.  The book only has a few chapters with the one called “The Season” far the longest.  He doesn’t go into the details of the individual games much but instead focuses on the back stories of the teams, coaches, players, and other key roles.  When the Blazers play the Knicks he describes how New York went from the epitome of team basketball in the early 70’s to a quarreling mess of selfish superstars by the late 70’s.  A single paragraph can go on for multiple pages.  There isn’t very much dialogue but when I was reading I had trouble stopping.  Every background story just drew me in.  Sometimes I couldn’t remember how the book got off on a particular tangent, but it didn’t matter because it was so interesting.

Since much of the season took place in Oregon and I went to college 40 miles south of Portland, I could relate to many things mentioned in the book.  The first sentence of the book mentions Gresham, Oregon, a suburb of Portland as the location of the motel where the players stayed during training camp.  One of my first college roommates was from Gresham.  Later the book mentions Salem, OR as the location of another camp in which Moses Malone participated.  Salem is where the college I attended is located.  The book never mentions the school specifically though it mentions its name in other contexts.  The Willamette Week is the counterculture’s weekly newspaper through which single Blazers fans seek other single Blazers fans.  Later in the season, Blazers trainer Ron Culp and newly signed guard Billy Ray Bates drove by the Willamette River.  Billy asked Culp if there were any fish in the river and why Culp has never caught any, genuinely perplexed.  Culp was perplexed at Billy’s perplexity.

The book mentions a few other places I’ve lived.  One of the players cut after training camp goes on the play in the continental league in Alaska.  After the Blazers won the NBA championship, the residents of Portland felt they had achieved parity with that hated metropolis to the north, Seattle.

Though Halberstam’s research is meticulous and thorough, he does add humor to some parts and makes one typo.  In the sentence, “At the end of the season, Lakers owner Irv Levin switched teams with San Diego owner John Brown and (Kermit) Washington came to San Diego.”(p. 215), I think he meant to say “Celtics owner Irv Levin”.  But with all the switching going on at the time, I can understand the confusion.  The book gets humorous when describing Philadelphia player Darryl Dawkins who invented a planet and called it “Lovetron”.  He also liked to name his dunks and once smashed a backboard causing rival player Bill Robinzine to run for cover.  Dawkins called that one his “Chocolate Thunder Flyin’ Robinzine Cryin’ Teeth Shakin’ Glass Breakin’ Rump Roastin’ Bun Toastin’ Wham Bam Glass Breaker Am Jam.”  The most humorous parts are anecdotes of then-Indiana University coach Bobby Knight’s antics.  At an alumni group gathering someone asked Knight, “What do you think about Ohio State?”  “Are you from Ohio State?” Knight asked the man back.  “No,” he answered.  “Then why did you ask a stupid g****** question like that?” Knight asked.  There’s also a very funny anecdote about a drill Knight used to instill respect for the coach.  I’ll leave that for you to find.

Even though the book came out about 27 years ago and is about a season 29-30 years ago, many of the names and personalities are familiar.  It’s great to read about the players of the past when they were in their prime or, at least, still playing such as Dr. J, Kareem, Bill Walton, Dave Cowens, Lionel Hollins, Mychal Thompson, and more.  I also enjoyed reading about the role players and journeymen such as Larry Steele, David Twardzik, and Bobby Gross.  I already knew of Kermit Washington from reading The Punch by John Feinstein, but it was still interesting to read about this stage of Kermit’s career.  The punch incident still haunted him but he was clearing trying to move on, playing well, even making the All-Star team in 1980.  The lives of NBA players and teams are very transitory and yet there’s continuity.  Most people mentioned in the book are still alive, though much older, as expected.  The only one I know of who has died is Coach Pete Newell who died last year.  Many are still involved in the NBA.  Then-player Paul Silas has recently served as a coach of a couple teams.  Then-young coach Lenny Wilkins has coached many teams since then and become the NBA coach with the most wins and losses.  Bill Walton is now an announcer for ABC.  Back in the 1980 he named his son, Luke, after his former Portland teammate Maurice Lucas.  Luke Walton now plays forward for the Lakers who are currently vying for the best record this NBA season and will likely contend for another championship in April-May.

The Breaks of the Game is one of the best books I’ve read about the NBA.  I rank it equal to John Feinstein’s The Punch and Phil Jackson’s The Last Season, perhaps slightly better than those two making it the best by a slim margin.  It’s set with one team in one season but touches on many teams and many seasons.  It examines the league as a whole: where it’s been, where it is, and where it’s going.  Though there are conflicts between players and owners, coaches and owners, players and coaches, and other permutations, everyone’s story is told completely making it difficult for the reader to choose sides.  Thanks to Breaks I have a greater appreciation for players, coaches, and the others involved.  They have tough jobs: getting players to buy into a system; trading and drafting the right mix; for players, showing what they can do and at the same time helping their team win.  It’s all a big business, a game in which everyone is hoping and working for the big breaks.