When The Game Was War: The NBA’s Greatest Season

“Rich Cohen writes about basketball the way an artful astronomer would author a book about the cosmos. The stars—the Birds, Magics, Michaels and Isiahs—are aligned in knowledgeable, insightful, colorful, dramatic and appreciative order, while other NBA players—and meaningful games—of the era are fitted into their proper orbits. It’s not necessary to be a basketball fan to relish this book: It’s simply good stuff, beautifully composed.”

—Ira Berkow, Pulitzer Prize winner and former New York Times sports columnist

“Rich Cohen offers a rollicking ride through the 1987–88 season, and makes a compelling case for why this is the greatest season in NBA history. Magic, Michael, Larry, Isiah, and friends—they’re all here and in their primes, and their clashes are brought to life in this richly reported book. No basketball fan should be without it.”

—Seth Davis, senior writer for The Athletic and author of the New York Times bestseller Wooden: A Coach’s Life

“I’ve seen many years of NBA basketball, and I was highly skeptical of Rich Cohen’s premise that the 1987–88 season was the greatest ever. But now, like a chastened sinner, I repent. I apologize. Jordan, Bird, Magic, Kareem, Isiah, Rodman, the ‘Bad Boys,’ the good guys, the dynamics between the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Pistons—that season was a carnival of wondrous hoops and competition. Most of all, it is Cohen’s warm and easy writing combined with his deep research and personal recollections that move the premise on to fruition. I surrender. He’s right. It was the greatest.”

—Rick Telander, senior sports columnist, Chicago Sun-Times and author of Heaven is a Playground