Values of the Game
 | By Bill Bradley Broadway, 2000, Paperback Customer Rating: 19 reviews Recommend |
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As the Presidential run heats up with the start of the primary season in New Hampshire on February 2, the attention to the candidates and their issues will become even more intense. Values of the Game is an ideal book to understand Bill Bradley, the man and the candidate. The values that Bill speaks of so frequently during his campaign speeches are reflected in Values of the Game — responsibility, discipline, passion, selflessness and respect.
Bill Bradley, candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination for 2000, former U.S. senator from New Jersey from 1979 to 1997, and a member of two championship New York Knicks teams, returns to the scene of his first career and his first great passion, basketball.
Things have changed since Bradley's championship days, but what separates winners and losers remains very much the same: No collection of players, no matter how good, can win unless they form a team. And no team can succeed unless it shares common values, among them courage, discipline, resilience, respect, and an unmitigated passion for the game. In this highly acclaimed and bestselling book, Bill Bradley offers his vision for how the principles he developed playing basketball can be applied to everyday life, be it at the office, at home, in public life — indeed, in any situation where values matter.
In ten essays, filled with intensely personal observations and reflections, Bradley revisits the basketball court with the fire of the competitor and the eye of the writer and explores these qualities in action: the dynamics of teammates on the court and off, the individual courage to risk the last-second shot, the responsibility to teammates, coaches, and fans to stay in shape, play hard, and honor the game. Values of the Game is one man's vision for a better world, and is a lasting statement of principle and commitment from one of our country's finest leaders.
Forget for a moment the hype, the overmarketing, the exorbitant ticket prices and salaries, the bad behavior, and the greed. Instead, return to the simple basics of basketball: a court, a hoop, a ball, and a young shooter, sweating to make certain that no one is ever more prepared or confident when the game is on the line. Strip all else away, and you come to the core of the game. It's something of a sacred place for Bill Bradley, and after a decade in the NBA and three terms in the United States Senate, it's a place he revisits with real ardor and reverence in 10 gracefully illustrated essays that cohere into a marvelous reflection on essentials and values.
"The game is still full of joy and the lessons learned from it stay with you," he insists, "even though the game has changed, the old values still flow through it." The values he writes about may indeed seem antique beside the frenzied glitz of the NBA, but antiques like passion, discipline, selflessness, and responsibility continue to form the basis of character on and off the court. Of course, Bradley, with possible eyes on the White House, is writing about much more than basketball here. In some ways, this is a clear statement of his political philosophy: a country that can understand, instill, and pursue the values he's praising is a country that can work together. It's in these values that he finds the antidote to the tawdriness and partisanship that's managed to sully the level of the national debate. — Jeff Silverman
Title: Values of the Game
Sales Rank: 254136 in Books
Author: Bill Bradley
Publisher: Broadway, 1 edition, 2000-01-04, Paperback, 96 pages, ISBN: 0767904494
Package Dimensions: 8.04 x 5.18 x 0.31 inches, 0.26 pounds
- Must reading for basketball and/or Bill Bradley fans
- I've long been a Bill Bradley fan . . . his talent on the
basketball court always impressed me, in large part because
he seemed to have to work so much harder than many
other players . . . then when he entered the political
arena, I continued to follow his career with interest . . . my
only regret is that he never got past… More reviews
- Hard Lessons From The Hardwood
- Bill Bradley has led a remarkably distinguished and successful life -- an All-American at Princeton, an Olympic gold medallist, a Rhodes Scholar, a two-time world champion as a member of the New York Knicks, a Hall-of-Famer, a Senator for 18 years, and a Presidential candidate. Not to mention author, educator, husband, father, and Eagle Scout. It's been a full life.
In "Values of the Game," Bradley… More reviews
- My 7th grade book review
- The Values of the Game
By, Bill Bradley
The Values of the Game is very motivating. It is about what you get out of sports (specifically Basketball). The book talks about why you get these values, too. The values it talks about (each a chapter) passion, discipline, selflessness, and many more. It teaches people what is important in life.… More reviews
- LESSONS FOR LIFE
- PUTTING NATURAL ABILITY ASIDE, BRILLIANT BILL BRADLEY DIPLAYS FOR US WHY HE WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST BASKETBALL PLAYERS AND TEAMMATES THAT EVER EXISTED, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME SHOWING US HOW THESE SAME QUALITIES CAN SERVE AS THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS IN EVERYDAY LIFE. INTERESTINGLY, HE TELLS US OF CERTAIN OTHER PLAYERS (ALBEIT FEW) PAST AND PRESENT, WHO POSSESS… More reviews
- Interesting book about a basketball legend
- This book is about the values of basketball, and is divided into chapters with titles of values. There is a chapter called discipline, for example. The names of the chapters are passion, discipline, selflessness, respect, perspective, courage, leadership, responsibility, resilience, and imagination.
I really enjoyed this book because of it's easy readability and the wonderful pictures. There were many… More reviews
