The story:
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (* 17. Februar 1963 in Brooklyn, New York) war ein US-amerikanischer Basketballspieler. Zwischen 1984 und 2003 spielte er – mit Unterbrechung – in der US-Profiliga NBA, zunächst bei den Chicago Bulls, später bei den Washington Wizards. Er ist 1,98 m groß und spielte auf der Position des Shooting Guards. Jordan wurde fünfmal als MVP der NBA ausgezeichnet, gewann sechs NBA-Meisterschaften mit den Chicago Bulls sowie zwei Goldmedaillen mit den USA bei den Olympischen Spielen. Bei den Olympischen Spielen 1992 war er Teil des US Dream Teams und galt seitdem als populärster Sportler weltweit. Von einem Großteil der Basketballfans wird er heute als bester Basketballspieler aller Zeiten angesehen.
This is a sweeping, smart analysis of the full story of Michael Jordan from one of the countries most thoughtful historian-journalists. Halberstam covers Michael the teenager, Michael the rising star, Michael the champion, Michael the brand, and Michael the man in his effort to build a portrait not just of one player, but of the larger picture of American sports today and the larger social role of Jordan as the most recognizable man on the planet. It's a book about basketball, and, as with great moments in sport that transcend their playing field and tell us something about ourselves, it is a book about the nation.
David Halberstam has written a remarkable book about the changes in American society over the last 25 years. On one level, it is about basketball and the game's greatest player, Michael Jordan. On another level, it is about how an entertainment culture envelops Jordan and makes him its own. But on its deepest level, it is a story about working to overcome the odds, honoring parents and family and striving to become a positive social force. This book is a must-read for basketball fans, admirers of Jordan and anyone who seeks to understand sports in America today.

About the author:
David Halberstam (born April 10, 1934), American journalist and author, was born in New York City, his father a surgeon and his mother a teacher.
Halberstam graduated from Harvard University with a degree in journalism in 1955 and started his career writing for the Daily Times Leader in West Point, Mississippi. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, writing for the Nashville Tennesseean, he covered the beginnings of the American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968).
In the mid 1960s, Halberstam covered the Vietnam War for the New York Times, where his reporting caused U.S. president John F. Kennedy to request he be transferred to another bureau. At the age of 30, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the war.
Later in his career, Halberstam turned to the subjects of sports, publishing a book on Michael Jordan in 1999 called 'Playing for Keeps' and on the pennant race battle between the Yankees and Red Sox called 'Summer of '49'.
Halberstam is currently working on a book about the Korean War.

Excerpt from book:
In the fourteen years that Michael Jordan played in the NBA, no one other than a handful of players benefited more from the league's rising affluence and the shift in power from owners to players than David Falk. A relatively junior sports agent in the beginning of the era, Falk was by 1998 not merely the most affluent agent ever to represent basketball players but one of the two or three most influential men in the sport of basketball, a man whose power was said to rival that of David Stern himself. If the legal, economic, and technological changes that took place in the eighties and nineties had been good for players, they were arguably even better for agents. Since he first surfaced as an agent, he had split twice with partners: Early on, even before he was part of Jordan's team, he and Donald Dell split from Frank Craighill and Lee Fentress, and eventually he split off from Dell in what was considered a rather bitter professional divorce. In 1998 he sold his company to a larger firm, one that specialized in producing live entertainment in arenas around the country. The price was an estimated $100 million, and as part of the deal, Falk stayed on to run his part of the company. A press release announcing the sale noted that Falk's old company, FAME (Falk Associates Management Enterprises), "represented an unprecedented 6 first-round draft picks in the NBA, negotiated over $400 million in contracts for its free-agent clients, and negotiated four of the five largest contracts in team sports history."

Buchdaten:
PLAYING FOR KEEPS
Sprache: Englisch
Taschenbuch - 448 Seiten - Broadway Books
Erscheinungsdatum: März 2000

ISBN: 0767904443
Preis: € 14,95