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Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s

Jeff Pearlman

4.31 · Rating details · 2,238 ratings · 180 reviews

The New York Times bestselling author of Sweetness delivers the first all-encompassing account of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of professional sports’ most-revered—and dominant—dynasties.

The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s personified the flamboyance and excess of the decade over which they reigned. Beginning with the arrival of Earvin "Magic" Johnson as the number ...more

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Hardcover, 496 pages

Published March 4th 2014 by Avery

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Start your review of Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s

Mar 17, 2014 Mario rated it really liked it

Here's an overview of what I learned from the book:

- Magic Johnson basically ran that team throughout the 80's and could get whatever he wanted, including a cheeseburger from Jack Kent Cooke.

- Jerry Buss loved younger women and had a libido on par with Hugh Hefner.

- Jerry West likes to swear a lot.

- Kurt Rambis enjoyed living like a transient and hoarding soft drinks.

- James Worthy is a morose person and thought paying $150 for a blowjob in Houston was a good idea. It wasn't.

- Kareem Abdul-Jabba ...more

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Mar 19, 2022 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: basketball, sports

This was a fun read about the 1980’s “Showtime” Lakers. Several years are covered but I never thought anything was given short shrift.

Pearlman is a great story teller. The highs are a lot of fun and he never glosses over the lows.

Great cast of characters. The book is worth it for the story of Jack McKinney alone. I’d never heard of him.

Pearlman did a lot of interviews for this book and he also used a lot of contemporary sources - magazine and newspaper interviews, etc. It would have been nice to ...more

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Apr 12, 2014 Ruel rated it really liked it

4.5 stars.

Solid, well-written overview of the greatest team of the greatest era in professional basketball. I'm a lifelong Lakers fan and I read, watch, and listen to almost anything Lakers-related, so perhaps my review should be taken with a grain of salt. Many of the stories here have been told before, but Pearlman manages to make it all seem fresh and new. There are even a few new anecdotes in here for die-hard fans.

My favorite part of this book were the early chapters focusing on Jack McKi ...more

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Mar 12, 2014 Shakeia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sportsball

4.5 stars.

I enjoyed this book from the very first page. It doesn't matter if you like the Lakers or not, this is a great read about the 80s Lakers. Lots of stories you may or may not know, and I thoroughly enjoyed how the personal stories of those involved were weaved in to fit chronologically as well as to tell you what was happening behind the scenes during those stellar seasons.

Kudos to telling the story of Jack McKinney! He's often left out and I never really hear much about him. ...more

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Oct 14, 2015 Scott Martin rated it really liked it

(Audiobook). Decided to give this book a try when I came across it. In basketball, I am a Houston Rockets fan through and through, but I can appreciate great teams and talent. In the history of the NBA, you cannot mention the great teams in its history without talking about the Los Angeles Lakers teams of the 1980s. Given the nickname "Showtime" for their uptempo style of play, their star power and the overall ambiance associated with the franchise in LA in that decade, they became more than jus (Audiobook). Decided to give this book a try when I came across it. In basketball, I am a Houston Rockets fan through and through, but I can appreciate great teams and talent. In the history of the NBA, you cannot mention the great teams in its history without talking about the Los Angeles Lakers teams of the 1980s. Given the nickname "Showtime" for their uptempo style of play, their star power and the overall ambiance associated with the franchise in LA in that decade, they became more than just a basketball team, but a separate form of entertainment in a city built on such things. The story starts with how the Lakers, who were not a terrible team in the late 1970s, but were not a great one, started to make the key moves that took them to a new level. Along the way, Pearlman introduces the reader one by one to the key personalities that played their part in the Lakers ascendancy. It is somewhat formulaic how Pearlman, after first mentioning a name in the context of the team will then provide the back story of how their lives and how they came to join the franchise. He take a chronological approach, starting from Buss' purchase of the team to the drafting of Magic Johnson, the 1980 title, the fall of Paul Westhead and the rise of Pat Riley, the start of the arguably the greatest iteration of the Celtics/Lakers rivalries. In between, Pearlman gives time to the superstars (Magic, Kareem, Riley) and the bit players (Rambis, Jones, Williams, etc). He also goes behind the known stories and images to reveal the faults and frailties of the personalities involved. There is a degree of hedonism in this time, with drug use, prodigious sexual activity, fast money and dumb decisions, but there is also some of the greatest basketball to have ever been played. It follows the dynasty of the "Showtime" Lakers, from creation to its apex, to its inevitable decline. Age, ego and an evolving series of opponents will eventually overcome all sports dynasties. While some could argue the end of Showtime came with the retirement of Kareem, or the Pistons sweep of the Lakers in 1989 or the firing of Pat Riley in 1990, but for Pearlman, the end of Showtime came with the announcement of Magic Johnson in Nov 1991 that he was HIV positive. Overall, it was an engaging read, and while the style was somewhat formulaic for sports writing, the stories involved were supremely engaging. For an audiobook, the reader was engaging, and while he would sometimes try to talk in quasi-accents, he did not go over the top. Perhaps the non-sports fan may not quite be as enthralled by this work, but for any sort of basketball fan, this is worth the time spent reading/listening to this work. ...more

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Apr 15, 2014 Tom Gase rated it it was amazing

Once again a great book by Jeff Pearlman, possibly my favorite and he's done a bunch of good ones such as "The Bad Guys Won" on the 1986 Mets, "Sweetness" on Walter Payton and "Boys Will Be Boys" on the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s. This book is about the Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s. Included in this very detailed book are stories about Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Jamaal Wilkes, A.C. Green, Michael Cooper, Pat Riley, Jerry Buss, Norm Nixon, Mychael Thompson, ...more

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Mar 12, 2014 Troy rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Basketball fans, sports fans, Los Angelenos

Shelves: documentary-nonfic, historical

This iwas pretty good. As a kid growing up in Los Angeles during the 80s and 90s, I was all about Showtime. Magic, Coop, Kareem, Rambis. The machinations behind the personnel moves, the interactions, and the mentalities of the men who made all that happen are laid out in great detail. Things I didn't know, things I expected, timelines I only vaguely remember now that I'm old.

This is simply invaluable to anyone who was a basketball fan during this era, as well as anyone who wants a bit more insig ...more

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Jun 21, 2016 Justin Tapp rated it liked it

Shelves: sports, history

I enjoyed this book during the 2016 NBA Finals. In some ways, Golden State's small ball run-n-gun is like a throwback to the early 80's Lakers. There is much time and paradigm difference between them, though. The three pointer was a novelty in the 1980s and it's hard to imagine coaches and pundits so blindly unaware of the inefficiency on offense back then. When you have a guy like Byron Scott shooting over 43% from 3-point range but he only takes a few a game, you're leaving points off the boar I enjoyed this book during the 2016 NBA Finals. In some ways, Golden State's small ball run-n-gun is like a throwback to the early 80's Lakers. There is much time and paradigm difference between them, though. The three pointer was a novelty in the 1980s and it's hard to imagine coaches and pundits so blindly unaware of the inefficiency on offense back then. When you have a guy like Byron Scott shooting over 43% from 3-point range but he only takes a few a game, you're leaving points off the board. No analytics back then, alas. Tempo-free statistics would have been helpful to add to this book, it's a lot easier to get a triple-double when there are 120 possessions a game versus only 90. It is also hard to imagine that in the early 1980s the NBA Finals were not televised live on the West Coast so as not to preempt hit shows like the Dukes of Hazzard. Before Magic and Bird, and NBA highlight films by a more savvy media office, NBA stars were not so "super." I read Larry Bird's autobiography Drive which also looked at this era, but Bird's NBA was much less lecherous. This book is a good, sometimes humorous, chronicle of the Lakers' dynasty.

The story begins with the long-forgotten inventor of Showtime: Coach Jack McKinney, who is senile when the author interviews him. He was almost killed in a bike accident during the season and his brain never fully recovered-- he was replaced by Paul Westhead who won the 1980 running McKinney's fast-break style. Jerry Buss had wanted UNLV legend Jerry Tarkanian to be his first hire (or co-hire with Jack Kent Cooke who was passing his ownership to Buss). Tarkanian's agent sealed the lucrative deal but then was mysteriously murdered and discovered to have many ties with organized crime; Tark backed out of the deal and allegedly never recovered emotionally.

It is hard to imagine the era. Supposedly 80% of NBA players (and half the Lakers) were using cocaine. Magic Johnson was the first Buss draft pick and fit into the playboy Jack Buss' lifestyle. Buss lived like Hugh Hefner with multiple women and a party lifestyle; Magic famously enjoyed that lifestyle as well and paid heavily for it later with HIV. It was Buss who invented the Laker Girls and renovated the Forum Club to be an after-game place where players could engage with women and celebrities away from their wives. Magic (and Kareem) didn't drink or use drugs, but Magic was known to host Playboy-style orgies where profligacy was mandated. The cocaine-fueled downfall of Spencer Haywood and other Lakers is difficult and almost impossible to imagine today. Perlman doesn't chronicle it, but the epidemic seems to fade by the late 1980s. At one point, Mark Lansberger, who had an open relationship with his wife and other women, told his wife about his teammates' exploits on the road. His wife gossipped with the others and internal scandal insued. He was ostracized and later traded.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was always reading, never fooled, and unfriendly with outsiders. He was accused of "hating white people," ignored or belittled autograph seekers, and was the opposite of Magic, who he repeatedly scolded to "calm down" his rookie season. He only mellowed one time in the decade, when his house burned down and he lost his carpets and thousands of jazz records. Fans would send him their antique jazz records and he would show appreciation, but later became angry and distant again.

After Westhead won the 1980 title, he imposed his own odd system that was the opposite of McKinney's to the dismay of Jerry Buss and Magic Johnson. (Westhead would require his players to run the same way down the court every time, to run the same set plays where they stood around; the opposite of Showtime.) It took a whole season for the whole team to hate him, eventually Magic was the bad guy for getting him fired. It is interesting to hear of the rivarly between coach-and-players as well as teammates vying for playing time and positions. Norm Nixon and Magic competed both with the same women and at point guard. The 1981 Laker team basically imploded, which led Laker assistant and afterthought hire Pat Riley to be thrust into the limelight as coach, who was announced by Buss as a "co-coach" with Jerry West, which West vehemently denied. The Lakers wanted to force Norm Nixon out and hired private investigators to follow him, at which point he agreed to be traded. Magic was vilified in the media and roundly booed by Laker fans after signing a 10-year, $25 million contract. That lasted for all of 10 minutes as he reminded them what value he was on the court.

It wouldn't be a Showtime story without Magic versus Bird. The Lakers players interviewed for the book even use terms like "underrated" to describe Bird-- he was unstoppable for many of them. The Lakers' most satisfying championship was probably the 1987 one. Much of this part lined up with my memory of the battles from Bird's memory in Drive.

Perlman chronicles a lot of unsung heroes on the Laker teams like Jamal Wilkes. He gives the reader an idea of how weird Kurt Rambis was. AC Green later became an All-Star and stood out like a sore thumb in his virginity and desire to share the Gospel with his teammates. I was glad to hear that he was legit in his lifestyle. Michael Thompson filled in as a solid replacement for Kareem in his old age, and Michael Cooper apparently was accutely paranoid-- always convinced the Lakers were going to trade him and working to prove himself. Byron Scott was both tough-minded and an able teammate, a better shooter and athlete than often given credit for.

While Pat Riley introduced a grueling pre-season camp and physical practices, which the players appreciated, eventually he took it too far as a personality cult developed. He would forbid wives from coming on the road and demand that they have one mission during the season-- keep their husbands happy. Eventually, his ego got the best of him as he became ever more demanding and took every loss increasingly poorly. After he stole a Lakers' player's phrase "threepeat" and trademarked it, he became obsessed with obtaining it. He cost the Lakers' the 1989 crown by hosting a mini-camp before the series where he wore the aging players out, and then a grueling practice with unnecessary drills in Detroit caused an industry to Byron Scott that left the team undermanned. The team mutineed and Riley was replaced by Mike Dunleavy who did a good job getting the aged and worn-out Lakers to the 1991 finals against the Bulls-- the last gasp of Showtime.

The end of Magic's career is chronicled, along with the scare it put into players (his teammates quickly swapped lists of mutual partners), and Magic's young marriage. I enjoyed the insights into the aftermath of the careers of those who took part in Showtime.

In all, I give this book 3.5 stars out of five. As mentioned above, it lacks adding any analytical component. It is a nostalgic look back on the 1980s NBA and a team and rivalry (Lakers-Celtics) that launched the NBA into the modern era. It is profanity-laced and pretty insightful into the personal lives of highly-paid athletes in Los Angeles. ...more

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Jul 09, 2020 Josh rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, sports

This is a very fun read.

I liked the Lakers in the 80's, especially Magic. I had the Magic Johnson poster. But I didnt love them; with a bunch of family up in New England I quickly started drifting towards the Celtics (having a Minnesota guy like McHale on the team helped) since we didnt have a team in MN any longer. But there was some affinity for the Lakers, since they used to be here. So I saw a lot of the Lakers in the 80's because they were great and all we ever saw was the national games... This is a very fun read.

I liked the Lakers in the 80's, especially Magic. I had the Magic Johnson poster. But I didnt love them; with a bunch of family up in New England I quickly started drifting towards the Celtics (having a Minnesota guy like McHale on the team helped) since we didnt have a team in MN any longer. But there was some affinity for the Lakers, since they used to be here. So I saw a lot of the Lakers in the 80's because they were great and all we ever saw was the national games...any they didnt show the dogs.

This book looks at the whole Laker scene back then, taking a pretty unvarnished look at everything that was Showtime from the perspective of the Lakers. There's no doubt for all that Pearlman is a fine journalist (and excellent storyteller) that he's got some real fondness for these Lakers. That said, he still gets critical and honest enough about what happened, while leaving final judgment on things to the reader. Its a reasonable approach.

This book easily could have come with a sticker saying, "brought to you by hookers and blow" because holy cow. Especially the sex. So. Much. Sex. This crew were the biggest bunch of dogs you can imagine. Outside of the famously virginal AC Green, they all just had so much sex. The way things play out, it seems like the cocaine faded away early in the 80's, and this is where Pearlman's lack of criticism hurts a bit: it just doesn't seem realistic that coke really was banished from Lakerdom after about '82, and he's a little too accepting of fringe Lakers who said, "nah, it wasnt that much, we never let it take over" (except for Spencer Haywood).

The stuff on the coaches is especially interesting in that very few people remember Jack McKinney, who lost his chance to coach the Lakers after a tragic bike accident. Paul Westhead is another figure who comes and goes rather quickly, but still winning a title before Pat Riley comes on board to run the show. None of these guys are obvious choices (McKinney probably had the best rep), especially Riley so see how they work is interesting. And as much as I knew about the NBA, I had forgotten that Riley, winner of 4 NBA titles as a Laker had in fact been fired by the end of the decade. Ego run amok wrecked him.

Kareem probably gets the harshest treatment overall: he was a difficult personality, especially back then, prickly at best something of an asshole at worst. Despite a lot of reasons for why acted like this, he doesnt get a lot of sympathy. He does however still get plenty of respect for his skill as a player, and even when hes being a dick he still commands the locker room whenever he wants it.

Really theres only two things missing from this book: deeper insight into more of the players (worthy is mostly a cipher, for example, and despite tons of emphasis on Magic, there's not a lot of what makes him tick), and a little better perspective on how this team fit in against the rest of the league. Boston and Philly get some attention as worthy rivals, but Houston doesn't get all that much attention, and they probably should, even in a book about the Lakers as one of the only teams to challenge them and their implosion.

The dirty little secret about Showtime is how bad the west for most of their run. Rarely challenged, they were able to cruise through to the finals most years against much weaker teams. Pearlman doesnt have a great feel for this stuff (at one point he refers to AC Green as having developed into one of the best 3 or 4 power forwards in the game...at a time when McHale, Barkley, Malone, Tom Chambers were running around? Green wasn't better than Rodman or Buck Williams either. Its a silly sort of statement that vastly overrates Green, who was a nice player but made 1 all-star team and didnt deserve that one) and it does hurt his ability to put the Showtime Lakers in historical context.

Still a really entertaining and interesting book that's easy to read and hard to put down. ...more

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Dec 30, 2014 Dani Shuping rated it really liked it

ARC provided by LibraryThing early reviews

During the 1980’s the sports world was dominated by one team: The Los Angeles Lakers. Led by number one pick Earvin “Magic” Johnson, featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and led by slicked-back hair, Armani suit strutting Pat Reily, the team played in nine NBA championship series over eleven years winning five of them. The Lakers became known for their “showtime” style of play and entertaining millions across the globe.

While there are countless other books on ...more

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Feb 18, 2016 Byron rated it really liked it

Giving this four stars instead of five because supposedly all of the stories are fake, but there's still plenty of entertainment value. The '80s LA Lakers were one of the best basketball teams of all time and also one of the most ridonkulous. They had crackheads, Magic Johnson banging three or four girls per day, Jerry Buss taking advantage of teenagers at the Playboy Mansion, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar beating up furriners in the mall, and all kinds of crazy shit, all of which is recounted here with b ...more

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Apr 20, 2014 Dennis McCrea rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 09, 2020 Mike Thomas rated it liked it

Fun read but how can so many reporters still be so unforgiving of Kareem.

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Aug 05, 2021 Lucas Dolan added it

Great book.

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Dec 14, 2013 Matt Lieberman rated it liked it

Jeff Pearlman has carved out a nice little niche for himself chronicling the more sordid off-the-field aspects of some of the most beloved teams and athletes of yesterday. From Sweetness, a very complicated portrait of Walter Payton that pulled no punches, to books such as Boys Will Be Boys (covering the athletic, litigious, and criminal exploits of the 1990s Cowboys and their staff) and The Bad Guys Won (doing much of the same for the 1986 Mets) the former writer for Sports Illustrated sticks t Jeff Pearlman has carved out a nice little niche for himself chronicling the more sordid off-the-field aspects of some of the most beloved teams and athletes of yesterday. From Sweetness, a very complicated portrait of Walter Payton that pulled no punches, to books such as Boys Will Be Boys (covering the athletic, litigious, and criminal exploits of the 1990s Cowboys and their staff) and The Bad Guys Won (doing much of the same for the 1986 Mets) the former writer for Sports Illustrated sticks to this rather sound formula for his latest book Showtime, a comprehensive look at the Los Angeles Lakers of the eighties. It is a solid effort that will appeal to basketball fans and readers interested in the glitz, glamor, and excessive amounts of sexual escapades and cocaine in the NBA of the 1980s.

Pearlman's books are generally longer than the average sports book (for what that's worth) and thus finding engaging subjects is especially crucial. The 1980s Lakers certainly deliver on that front.

The team was full of enigmatic and idiosyncratic players and leaders such as the womanizing owner Jerry Buss, the egomaniac head coach Pat Riley, the aloof and curmudgeonly Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the preternaturally charismatic Magic Johnson. I could go on but my sentences run on enough as it is. The book is filled with insights and anecdotes from almost everyone associated with the organization over the period and the first-hand accounts are really where the book shines. Chronicles of past seasons can often devolve into re-hashings of the major events of a few seasons without any real additional material provided. To fans of the franchises in question (presumably the bulk of the target audience for something like this) the entire book can feel like a tired recap of events that are already very familiar to them. Showtime is able to mostly avoid this pitfall by featuring constant commentary from individuals such as Magic Johnson and Jeanie Buss among many others. Some of the subjects are incredibly open with the author, especially Spencer Haywood, who admits to a strong cocaine addiction and attempting to have head coach Paul Westhead killed. So while there were certainly times where the season summaries blended into each other and I lost some of my interest, these instances were usually quickly ended by a truly entertaining story or trivia tidbit and the book would then get back on its rails.

Showtime is structured as a chronological history of the Lakers during the period ranging from 1979 (when Jack McKinney took over as head coach) to Magic Johnson's 1991 retirement announcement. It is equally interested in the team's on-field performance as it is with its extracurriculars, of which there were plenty. In addition to winning several championships and introducing "three-peat" into the sports lexicon (and US Patent office) the team engaged in heaping quantities of marital infidelity and featured a seemingly revolving door of truly strange characters (and I'm showing some restraint here by avoiding steering clear of an obvious central casting reference). The team once employed players such as Mark Landsberger who upon joining the team asked Pat Riley "do you guys have any rebounding plays?" and Earl Jones, a two time high-school All-American who decided to attend the Division II University of District of Columbia. Recollections such as how Jones decided to skip a practice and take a $100 fine rather than pay $50 for a taxi to the arena (interesting cost-benefit analysis there) were some of my favorite sections of the book. Pearlman also predictably devotes significant quantities of ink to stars such as Kareem and Magic and he is so meticulous with his research and approach that he is able to share quality material about them as well.

Overall, while Showtime lacks the shock value of a book like Sweetness (its not like there was ever a Spencer Haywood Man of the Year Award), it is a worthwhile read for basketball fans. Pearlman is a strong writer who diligently mined the media of the era to fill in any gaps from his plethora of interviews. I found some of his on-court descriptions to be generic at times which made the book drag during some portions but on the whole the book was an enjoyable read. There is also definitely enough new information here to appeal to even the most die-hard Laker fans.

In Sum

Readers familiar with Pearlman's other books will know what to expect here. Showtime is a readable, informative, and entertaining look at the 1980s' greatest NBA team and their associated exploits. There may not be enough interesting material to propel a general sports fan through all 450+ pages but basketball fans will get a lot out of Showtime.

7/10 ...more

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Feb 18, 2022 Patriciaw rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If you were here for the Showtime Lakers, you want to read this book!

I like a good story. I love a good behind-the-scenes story. Given my husband's and sons' involvement in sports, if we're not watching a sports contest, ESPN is undoubtedly on in the background. Yet, my love for basketball precedes my 30+-year marriage, in part because of the Showtime Lakers. You couldn't be a fan of the game in the 1980s and not love watching the Los Angeles Lakers do their thing (even if it was against your te ...more

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Oct 13, 2019 Sandra rated it really liked it

I loved the Lakers in the 80's. I mean really, really loved them. I was devestated when Magic announced his retirement. I ditched school and headed to the DTLA celebration when they won the championship in 1985. I was at a Laker game when the officers who beat Rodney King were acquitted and LA rose. My friends were prohibited from calling me when the Lakers were playing back when people actually called each other. I picked up this book as soon as I heard of it and it did not disappoint. It's fil ...more

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Dec 08, 2021 Kyle Wilkinson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, sports

A thorough and compelling read about one of the NBA's greatest dynasties. What puts this book into the category of great sportswriting IMO is it focuses on some of the lesser-known names associated with Showtime, like Jack McKinney to even the draft busts like Billy Thompson. Showtime understandably gives the well known names of the 80's Lakers like Magic, Kareem, Riley, Buss and Worthy its fair share of attention, but it also excels in presenting insights and anecdotes from almost everyone asso ...more

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Mar 10, 2018 Gary rated it it was amazing

I am a hugh basketball fans and I love LA SHOWTIME lakers very much. It have three HOF players. Not only it is fun to watch but also it can win championship. Perhaps 80 becomes the best basketball time because it has Dr J, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan for their competitors. Magic Johnson no look pass become the signature of Showtime. And Pat Riley probable the greatest coach in the 80 to win 5 championship.

I would recommend those who love basketball and want to understand more.

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Jul 13, 2017 Chris Stevens rated it it was amazing

Jeff Pearlman, the veteran sports writer (and Delaware-adjacent homeboy), has a masterpiece with "Showtime" an amazing look behind the life and times of the 80s LA Lakers dynasty - all the gory details included! Magic Johnson's partying and locker room politicking, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's aloofness, and of course - championship basketball, sex, drugs and strife. You don't even have to be a Laker fan to enjoy this books, it's SO well-written. ...more

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Mar 06, 2019 Grindy Stone rated it it was amazing

Lots of these team histories are hagiographies, published only to be bought as props for a mancave. Pearlman's history of the Lakers is genuinely sports as history - critical, lucid, enlightening. He has a good ear for an anecdote, too. The only quibble for me would be that there is hardly a mention of Chick Hearn, who is just as key a part of showtime as Kareem, Magic, Rambis, Riley, Worthy, etc. ...more

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Jun 18, 2019 Brent Soderstrum rated it it was amazing

I have loved every book that Jeff Pearlman has written. This one is no different. I grew up as a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers. This book tells you how the Lakers became THE dominant team of the NBA and how they, along with the Boston Celtics, saved the NBA.

The book begins with the Lakers in 1979 beginning with the drafting of Magic Johnson. Showtime began with Magic. The book fittingly ends with Magic announcing his retirement from the NBA due to HIV in November 1991. From 1979 to 1991 the Lake I have loved every book that Jeff Pearlman has written. This one is no different. I grew up as a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers. This book tells you how the Lakers became THE dominant team of the NBA and how they, along with the Boston Celtics, saved the NBA.

The book begins with the Lakers in 1979 beginning with the drafting of Magic Johnson. Showtime began with Magic. The book fittingly ends with Magic announcing his retirement from the NBA due to HIV in November 1991. From 1979 to 1991 the Lakers won 5 NBA titles. They also were in the finals nearly every year. The best match ups were against the Celtics but there were also match ups against the Sixers, Pistons and Bulls.

Pearlman goes through each season, not just with the top games but with all of the behind the scenes inside information which included cocaine, sex with groupies and the personalities of all the players on the team. Some were good like A.C. Green who was teased as a result of being a virgin due to his faith and bad like Spencer Haywood and his drug addiction.

You get the inside dope on every)from owners Jack Kent Cooke (asshole) and Jerry Buss (who partied with Magic on a regular basis). The coaches, Jack McKinney (the true architect of the Showtime offense), Paul Westhead (brief time due to Magic not backing him), Pat GQ Riley (started out beloved and left due to all the players wanting him out because he was a control freak, and Mike Dunleavy (last year of Showtime). Bench players, good players and great players. All are described in depth, the good and the bad, so that you feel like you really know them.

Much of the book focuses on Magic because the Lakers were Magic's team. He ran the show. Off the court he slept with so many women it became almost a challenge for him. Morning, noon and night he was getting laid by different women. I wished the book would have discussed thoughts on how Magic got HIV. Yes, he had sex with so many different woman but the chances on hetrosexual HIV is pretty low. There were rumors that are not discussed in the book. HIV is a very small topic at the end of the book.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar is also covered quiet heavily. He was there for nearly the entire time frame of Showtime. He is a complicated man and Pearlman does a good job of trying to get you to know Kareem. A star who was an introvert and refused to sign autographs for fans including kids. He would also get upset if the offense didn't involve him enough.

Great book that brought back a lot of memories from a time where I use to watch the NBA. I basically quit watching with the demise of Showtime. ...more

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Dec 14, 2019 Mark rated it really liked it

Entertaining, quick-reading books about sports history are an endlessly renewable resource, but truly timeless sports stories are not. That's why there's so many books in the field that revisit the same few subjects, and books that dig deep into the forgotten details of also-rans are rare outliers. That's just what the market will bear. Jeff Pearlman, who made his name at Sports Illustrated in the last era when Sports Illustrated was a place at which you could make a name, has spent his later ca Entertaining, quick-reading books about sports history are an endlessly renewable resource, but truly timeless sports stories are not. That's why there's so many books in the field that revisit the same few subjects, and books that dig deep into the forgotten details of also-rans are rare outliers. That's just what the market will bear. Jeff Pearlman, who made his name at Sports Illustrated in the last era when Sports Illustrated was a place at which you could make a name, has spent his later career producing books on topics not wanting for coverage: Barry Bonds, Walter Payton, the 1986 Mets. He's worth reading because his research and interview skills are excellent and he strikes a tricky middle ground between muckraker and apologist. In Showtime, he doesn't shy away from the sex and drugs that were ubiquitous during that time period, but he doesn't pass judgment either. Early passages about the ruined career of Spencer Haywood are written with sensitivity, even when Pearlman reveals sensational details. When writing about the active social lives of Jerry Buss and Magic Johnson, the author includes the voices of women who worked for the team and player wives. It's not exactly feminist, but it's more balanced than it would have been in an earlier era. What's best about Showtime is how it generously shares the narrative with the many Lakers players who aren't still household names. Magic, Kareem, and Pat Riley are well-known and still discussed; Pearlman wants you to think of Norm Nixon and Kurt Rambis. He's interested in the Lakers as experienced by diehard fans and beat writers, not biographers and ESPN Classic documentaries. He has time for draft busts like Billy Thompson, role players like Mike Smrek, and coach Jack McKinney, who installed the offense that led to a decade of championships but lost his job because he fell off a bicycle. Showtime doesn't just tell you things you already know about Hall of Famers, it gives you a feeling for what it was like to follow the team in the moment. That Kareem and Magic are worthy of entire books on either own doesn't need to be said. Those books already exist. This book is about the Lakers, and as a Bulls fan who gets irritated when people don't remember Horace Grant and Ron Harper, it's easy to appreciate. ...more

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Apr 20, 2022 Brian rated it liked it

This is an enjoyable book but it is weird.

At times this reads like it was written by a highly partisan Lakers fan. All the Lakers' opponents are portrayed as overrated, unskilled thugs. This is the case with the Celtics and Pistons, of course, but also the Rockets and, to a slightly lesser extent, The 76ers. This isn't one of those books that tries to capture the beauty of the Lakers-Celtics or Lakers-Pistons rivalries. The author is dismissive of all Lakers opponents. The Trailblazers were a t ...more

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Apr 10, 2022 Kevin rated it really liked it

3.5 stars. Great insights behind the scenes. As a big basketball fan, I already knew many of the chapters about the Celtics rivalry and the talented Lakers rosters. The Jack McKinney stuff I did not know however - the coaching transitions of Showtime Pearlman does a great job of illustrating.
I found the most interesting chapters involving what happened off the court - Buss’s acquisition of the team, the extraordinary sexual conquests, how much individuals transformed over time (particularly Ril ...more

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Jul 19, 2021 Zachary Thomas rated it it was amazing

I never saw Showtime because they were before my time (I was born in 1992), but I heard so much about that era of basketball and this book made it as close to real as possible to me.

Jeff Pearlman did a phenomenal job breaking down the stars and characters of Showtime. Kareem was insecure, insightful, brilliant, uncompassionate, aloof, and boring all in one. Magic was exciting, fun, joyous, but also seriously devoted to his craft and the game of basketball. He pushed you to get better just like ...more

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Apr 11, 2022 Robert Poor rated it it was amazing

My family and I have been enjoying the wonderful HBO series, "Winning Time!", about the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers basketball team based on the extensively researched and well-written book by Jeff Pearlman, "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s." (I can see why HBO would rename "Showtime" as "Winning Time!" because not even HBO is audacious enough to entitle one of their signature shows after a rival premium cable service.)

From the four episodes that I've ...more

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Apr 13, 2022 Ben rated it liked it · review of another edition

Showtime is a good book - at its best when relating the stories and lives of the Lakers, Laker prospects, and surrounding company of agents, wives, executives, journalists, etc.

At times, the book becomes mired in statistics and blow by blow accounts of unimportant games, but usually it floats above the mundane and finds an entertaining, informative narrative. It is sad to see success or need for it twist the good intentions of good people. It is hard to see drugs steal away someone's potential. ...more

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Jul 31, 2017 Lorenz rated it it was amazing

This book is is an easy read and is very entertaining. This is because the author has filled the book with interesting anecdotes as well as sensationalist stories worthy of a popular tabloid headline. You can easily breeze through this book without feeling overwhelmed (personally i would read this book when i am already exhausted from reading history books and my brain would feel like its already about to explode from all the historical dates and names that i have been reading). The only downsid ...more

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Jan 13, 2021 Juan M. Romero rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow, awesome trip down memory lane. I was a kid in the 80s and that’s when my love for the Lakers began. Reading this book and becoming aware of all the amazing stories of Magic, Riley, Worthy, Scott, Buss, Cooper, Kareem, and even John Black was a definite treat. Magic could be tough, Riley became an asshole, Kareem was antisocial, Worthy was out hooking up with escorts, West was having meltdowns, Cooper was scared to get cut but none of that mattered, these men knew how to ball and they gave u ...more

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About Jeff Pearlman

Jeff Pearlman

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Jeff Pearlman is an American sports writer. He has written two books about baseball and was the author of the infamous John Rocker interview in Sports Illustrated. In October 2011 he released his fifth book, a biography of Walter Payton titled, "Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton." It spent four weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Pearlman was born and raised in Mahopac, New Y ...more

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“Because sports and mythology often intertwine, the Game 6 narrative has often been one that evokes the best of a cheesy feel-good Hollywood production. Not only did Johnson take the jump ball, he won it, dribbled down the court, did a 360-degree midair flip and dunked over Julius Erving—blindfolded while eating a slice of cheesecake. Not quite.” — 0 likes

“Riley had Ron Carter—the former Laker now back in camp with the team—playing point against Johnson during drills. In the midst of a particularly physical exchange, Johnson slapped Carter across the face. Carter, a graduate of the Virginia Military Academy, screamed, “What the hell are you doing?” and pushed back. Johnson threw a punch, and Carter pinned him to the ground—“It took me five seconds,” Carter said. The players were separated, and as he rose, Johnson waved toward Carter, smiled and said, “Bye-bye.” — 0 likes

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