Customer Review: Entertaining but very weird
Phil Jackson groupie and sometime ESPN.com writer Charley Rosen turns in a fun, but sometimes off-putting fictionalized account of minor league basketball life. He develops the characters well and puts forth a decent plot. However, Rosen's personal oddities drag the book down. Rosen is absolutely obsessed with bodily functions and he repeatedly goes into way too much detail about farting, urination, defacation, etc. At times, the book reads like an immature third grader's delight. My roommates and I all read it and the general consensus was that the book was enjoyable, but Charley Rosen is a really weird guy.
Customer Review: Fun, raucous romp through basketball's minor league.
The Commercial Basketball Association (wink, wink) may be minor league, but Charley's novel describing a year there certainly isn't. This is as honest a portrayal as we are likely to see about any sport. Exposing the dark side of the basketball business -- and most of it's participants -- at first left me yearning for a more wholesome, less complicated (and more naive) view of the game. Soon the story hooked me and I was able to look at the ugly, and alongside it the excitement and beauty as well. It is a human triumph that one's love for the game, and for one's teammates, survives assaults of all kinds. Charley's love shines through. If you love hoops, this is one of a handful of books I'd call, "must read."