Peter C. Bjarkman (1941–2018)

This book is out of print, but you would definitely want it if you are a student of professional basketball history or if you want to be one. It's crammed with statistics, with the history of every existing NBA franchise through the 1993-94 season, and with the histories of several other American pro basketball leagues that no longer exist.

I had never heard of the author, Dr. Peter Bjarkman, and still know nothing about him; but in reading this book, you will notice he is opinionated and is show more iconoclastic in some of his NBA views. The main thing is, he firmly insists that Michael Jordan is not the best NBA basketball player ever, merely the most popular, and he claims that the best ever was...well, read it.

It doesn't prevent the book from being very informative, but I must also say that this is one of the worst-written nonfiction books I've ever seen, and certainly the most poorly edited I've ever seen. Spelling errors are frequent (he says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore "gloggles"!), and the writing is as melodramatic as a second-rate sports commentator's speech. Bjarkman uses phrases like "best player on the planet," "Dr. Naismith's roundball game," and "best player ever to take to the hardwood floor," and "oh how different it would have been on down Arizona way" (referring to the notorious hard luck of the Phoenix Suns franchise). show less

Too *L*iterary for sports nuts, too much baseball for the *T*wittery.  Imo.  

Group B1