The Breaks of the Game
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Narrated by:
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Brian Troxell
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By:
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David Halberstam
About this listen
A New York Times best seller, David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game focuses on one grim season (1979-80) in the life of the Bill Walton-led Portland Trail Blazers, a team that only three years before had been NBA champions.
More than six years after his death David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII. A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them best sellers. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by which all journalists measure themselves.
The tactile authenticity of Halberstam's knowledge of the basketball world is unrivaled. Yet he is writing here about far more than just basketball. This is a story about a place in our society where power, money, and talent collide and sometimes corrupt, a place where both national obsessions and naked greed are exposed. It's about the influence of big media, the fans, and the hype they subsist on, the clash of ethics, the terrible physical demands of modern sports (from drugs to body size), the unreal salaries, the conflicts of race and class, and the consequences of sport converted into mass entertainment and athletes transformed into superstars - all presented in a way that puts the listener in the room and on the court, and The Breaks of the Game in a league of its own.
©2012 David Halberstam (P)2016 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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By: Jeff Pearlman
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Playing for Keeps
- Michael Jordan and the World He Made
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Playing for Keeps, David Halberstam takes the first full measure of Michael Jordan's epic career, one of the great American stories of our time. A narrative of astonishing power and human drama, brimming with revealing anecdotes and penetrating insights, the audiobook chronicles the forces in Jordan's life that have shaped him into history's greatest basketball player and the larger forces that have converged to make him the most famous living human being in the world.
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If You Liked "The Last Dance," You Will Love This
- By John on 06-13-20
By: David Halberstam
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LeBron
- By: Jeff Benedict
- Narrated by: Chris Jackson
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of the twenty-first century, and he’s in the conversation with Michael Jordan as the greatest of all time. The reigning king of the game and the first active NBA player to become a billionaire, LeBron wears the crown like he was born with it. Yet his ascent has been anything but effortless and predetermined—the truth is vastly more interesting than that. LeBron tells the full, riveting saga of how a child adrift found the will to become a titan. Jeff Benedict paints a vivid picture of LeBron’s epic origin story, showing the gradual rise of a star.
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Anyone could have written this book
- By Kevin Crane on 05-01-23
By: Jeff Benedict
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When the Game Was War
- The NBA's Greatest Season
- By: Rich Cohen
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1980s were a transformative decade for the NBA. Since its founding in 1946, the league had evolved from a bruising, earthbound game of mostly nameless, underpaid players to one in which athletes became household names for their thrilling, physics-defying play. The 1987–88 season was the peak of that golden era, a year of incredible drama that featured a pantheon of superstars in their prime—the most future Hall of Famers competing at one time in any given season—battling for the title, and for their respective legacies.
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Phil Jackson accuses Red Auerbach of cheap tactics
- By Sean on 01-03-24
By: Rich Cohen
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The Teammates
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Tate Donovan
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The Teammates is the profoundly moving story of four great baseball players who have made the passage from sports icons - when they were young and seemingly indestructible - to men dealing with the vulnerabilities of growing older. At the core of the audiobook is the friendship of these four very different men - Boston Red Sox teammates Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams - who remained close for more than 60 years.
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The clarity of the story
- By Robert Phillips on 08-13-24
By: David Halberstam
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War in a Time of Peace
- Bush, Clinton, and the Generals
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: James Naughton
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Abridged
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In this long-awaited successor to his #1 best seller The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam describes in fascinating human detail how the shadow of Cold War Vietnam still hangs over American foreign policy, and how domestic politics have determined our role as a world power.
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War in a Time of Peace
- By Tina DeLeonardis on 03-17-03
By: David Halberstam
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The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality
- By: Mike Sielski
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson, Mike Sielski
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Kobe Bryant’s death in January 2020 did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. The tragedy of that helicopter crash, which also took the life of his daughter Gianna, unveiled the full breadth and depth of his influence on our culture, and by tracing and telling the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of his early life, The Rise promises to provide an insight into Kobe that no other analysis has.
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I didn’t think I would learn a life lesson…
- By TE on 01-25-22
By: Mike Sielski
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Boys Among Men
- How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution
- By: Jonathan Abrams
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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When Kevin Garnett shocked the world by announcing that he would not be attending college - as young basketball prodigies were expected to do - but instead would enter the 1995 NBA draft directly from high school, he blazed a trail for a generation of teenage basketball players to head straight for the pros. That trend would continue until the NBA instituted an age limit in 2005, requiring all players to attend college or another developmental program for at least one year.
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Bad pronunciation
- By K. Spearman on 07-03-16
By: Jonathan Abrams
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Showtime
- Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end - marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV - Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.
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Offended at the style used to voice black characters.
- By NP on 01-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Seven Seconds or Less
- My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: B. Jay Kaplan
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Sports Illustrated's chief NBA writer, Jack McCallum, only planned to spend the preseason with the Phoenix Suns as an "assistant coach" - and then write a story about his experiences. Instead, he stayed on with the Suns throughout their exciting and controversial 2005-2006 season. Gaining access to everything from locker-room chats with superstar point guard Steve Nash, to coaches' meetings with maverick coach Mike D'Antoni, McCallum learned what makes this wildly popular, innovative, and international assemblage of talented players and brilliant coaches tick.
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Robot Narration with Clueless Word Emphasis
- By Pick and Papi on 05-15-17
By: Jack McCallum
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Blood in the Garden
- The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks
- By: Chris Herring
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive history of the 1990s New York Knicks, illustrating how Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason resurrected the iconic franchise through oppressive physicality and unmatched grit. Blood in the Garden is a portrait filled with eye-opening details that have never been shared before, revealing the full story of the franchise in the midst of the NBA’s golden era. And rest assured, no punches will be pulled. Which is just how those rough-and-tumble Knicks would like it.
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A Bit Disappointing
- By Justin Aultman on 11-29-22
By: Chris Herring
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Unguarded
- By: Scottie Pippen, Michael Arkush
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Scottie Pippen has been called one of the greatest NBA players for good reason. Simply put, without Pippen, there are no championship banners - let alone six - hanging from the United Center rafters. There’s no Last Dance documentary. There’s no “Michael Jordan” as we know him. The 1990s Chicago Bulls teams would not exist as we know them. So how did the youngest of 12 go from growing up poor in the small town of Hamburg, Arkansas, enduring two family tragedies along the way, to become a revered NBA legend?
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Unfortunate
- By Lisa A Bartruff on 11-22-21
By: Scottie Pippen, and others
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Ball Four
- The Final Pitch
- By: Jim Bouton
- Narrated by: Jim Bouton
- Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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When Ball Four was published in 1970, it created a firestorm. Bouton was called a Judas, a Benedict Arnold and a “social leper” for having violated the “sanctity of the clubhouse.” Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book wasn’t true. Ballplayers, most of whom hadn’t read it, denounced the book. It was even banned by a few libraries. Almost everyone else, however, loved Ball Four.
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Three Ten Year Updates Give Bouton a 5th Star
- By Byron on 08-09-12
By: Jim Bouton
What listeners say about The Breaks of the Game
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James E McCormick
- 06-02-20
A look at the past in the NBA
Great look at the Blazers and the NBA era in the late 70s. Halberstam weaves in interesting stories on some famous and not so famous players while illustrating the challenges the league had prior to Bird and Magic coming into the league.
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- Jack M
- 05-10-22
Loved it!
Brought back so many memories of that era and watching these players as a young fan. Really enjoyed both the story and the excellent narration.
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- Ray Shaka
- 11-28-22
Fifty-five 5’s
Great analysis of the building and breaking of a great team and the league in transition.
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- Ed
- 03-11-16
Truly one of the all time great sports books
The fact that Halberstam, a world renown American historian, put as much effort into chronicling an era of the NBA as he did with wars and presidential administrations makes this a must read for any sports fan, even if basketball isn't your thing.
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4 people found this helpful
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- vn
- 11-28-21
Great!
A classic from David halberstam. Takes you back to the days of the early NBA what a great read!
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- LARRY DINKIN
- 05-12-20
The best book about pro basketball
Great behind the scene story of pro basketball in the Walton era. The portraits of the players and coaches are revealing.
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- Michael D. Morris
- 12-05-23
Patience
It starts out a bit slow, but builds in interest and story telling until you get to the point that you’re sad the book is about to end.
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- Mark Davidson
- 04-24-21
Early NBA Lore
Loved the book, especially the parts about Walton and the San Diego Clippers. I was first introduced to basketball in San Diego in late 1978 as a first grader. Was obsessed with the sport especially the high scores and the even taller players. Brought back excellent memories of my early years of fandom.
The writing was excellent and the back story on the players and the league was phenomenal.
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- Books
- 11-19-23
The NBA of 1979-1980
David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game joins Terry Pluto's Loose Balls as my favorite books about basketball, and my favorite portraits of professional sports leagues. They also benefit from having excellent audio productions.
Breaks does so much well, and it's interesting to read about the successes and anxieties of the time. Interesting to see which successes and anxieties of the league remain the same & which successes and anxieties remain different.
If anyone is hesitant to read because of the fact that this book is about a team that ultimately limped into the playoffs in 1979-1980, I would tell you to put your concerns down, because the 1979-1980 Portland Trail Blazers, while clearly being the focus of this book, ultimately serve as a vehicle that tells the story of many. You get portraits of rookies such as Magic Johnson & Larry Bird, the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Marvin "Bad News" Barnes, Dennis Johnson, the early 1970s Knicks, and how some thought they would eventually be the next dynasty after the Celtics of the 50s & 60s, and so much more.
Time Well Spent.
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- Kyle
- 06-13-18
This book is a must read for all NBA junkies.
This book is a must read for NBA junkies. This covers an in-depth look of the Portland Trail Blazers from 1977-1980. Led by Bill Walton, the '77 Blazers thrilled many basketball purists with their unselfish style of play. Following the '77 season, injuries and chemistry problems led to decline of the team and their unsuccessful pursuit of a potential dynasty.
More importantly, the story also tackles many topics such as race, racism, contract disputes, loyalty, television advertising, team chemistry, team politics, Bill Walton, corruption in college basketball (this is in the 70s which is crazy!), college vs. pros, the Blazers making one of the WORST trade of all time by trading Moses Malone to the Houston Rockets for a bag of chips, a player by the name of Marvin Barnes who could've been the GOAT but ruined his career by doing drugs and many more.
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4 people found this helpful