Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty

After reading Showtime I knew what sort of book this was gong to be, in fact it was better than I expected. The portrait painted of Kobe is brutal and if it wasn't for his untimely I wonder I am sure the author would have enough material for another book. How Phil managed to stay sane is probably why he is the greatest basketball coach ever, if you like basketball and love the Lakers this is a must read. It is entertaining and unlike some many other books on basketball not a statistic bore.

A full detailed history of those years in the Lakers history

Really good insight and shows what it takes to be a winner

The book itself is fantastic, well written, engaging and insightful. The copy I ordered came quickly, (from Book Depository) but I am sad to note that the pages are misnumbered and out of sequence. About 40% of the book is this way, I'm going to see if I can read it, but it's looking like an unpleasant experience. This is no fault of the author, who is fantastic, and who would be getting 4-5 stars otherwise. I just wanted to warn others that they may be better going somewhere else.

The first 43 pages are brilliant... then the pages are out of order.

First off I hate the Lakers, have hated them my whole life, started when I lived in NoCal as a kid in the 80s and just continued when I moved away. That being said I love basketball and you can't love the game as I did growing up and not like to know the behind the scenes shenanigans that go on. So after watching Winning Time on HBO earlier this year I wanted to know what was real and what Hollywood made up, and it started with Jerry West freaking out on how he was portrayed so I decided to go to the source and that led me to Pearlman's first Laker book then this.I also grew up hating Shaq and Kobe as Jazz fan, but that hate turned into admiration for Shaq after he retired and started doing TNT. However it was never personal with Shaq, he was just too damn dominant as a player but he was always entertaining and I liked his personality and heard of his generous personality for many years. Also his years on TNT have only made me like "Mr. Sensitive" all the more because you can tell when he genuinely gets mad but he doesn't hold a grudge. That said I can tell when Shaq isn't giving a fully truthful account of a story, and to be specific when the TNT crew talked about Dramond punching his teammate, he had some stories but wasn't willing to give details. This book gives those details... and Shaq can be petty at times but the worst you can say is he's fat and lazy towards the end, exactly like Chuck but frankly I like Fat and Lazy guys.Now Kobe is another matter because I always respected his game more than him as a person, he had never said anything remotely interesting (one thing he did was dig Westbrook when he went after fans disrespecting him by saying something like "Utah always gave me a ton of disrespect when I played against them..." so he got some kudos for me in that instance) or amusing in all the years I've followed sports, and when the Rape happened and you read that apology this book says what I have to tell people all the time, you can't read that and not come away that and believe he's innocent.However reading this book you can't help but dislike the Kobe that won championships with Shaq, frankly he's probably the most unlikeable person, other than LBJ, I've ever read about and Pearlman deals with this up front saying this is the Kobe of those years and it appears he changed. So his untimely tragic death really threw cold water on this, and it appears Kobe genuinely changed as a person... maybe.... perhaps... I don't know but since he's dead and the way he died I will give him the benefit of the doubt.But why the Kobe hate? Read this and you'll see how he treated people like trash, sorry the stories are too vast! Kobe treated rookies like trash, he treated mid level players like trash, he treated his best teammates like trash, his coaches like trash, Shaq slapped him once it got so bad, he punched another teammate over $100 but had to back down because he knows he's not an actual fighter, he's a basketball player.Kobe is also as phony as they come, acting completely against type to get street cred everyone knows he doesn't have, Jeff doesn't say this but I seriously wonder if he made the rap video to meet his wife, but he'll fight like hell on the basketball court... as long as he gets his though because he cared more about his points than actually winning most of the time, the Lakers won at times because of him but seems like more times in spite of him.So these are Shaq's championship years and Kobe is this spoiled brat you just want Del or Phil to bench or someone to just beat his ass. He's seriously downgraded for me as a basketball player during these years, maybe he learned more as he took over driving the bus, but Shaq has 3 MVP finals and 1 as a sidekick, Kobe has 2 MVP finals and 3 as sidekick.Lastly Phil Jackson I really downgrade as a coach because he's not even close to anything Zen in this book, he's 2nd behind Kobe as a narcissist and mostly unlikeable as well, also we all know Tex came up with the Triangle and the scheme that has been adapted by Kerr in GS, share the ball spacing all that, not Phil he's best is he can get egomaniacs to work together but he has no real magic to reign Kobe's in, in fact the best coaching he did was tell the Bus driver to pull over so a teammate Kobe sucker punched could beat his ass and Kobe finally had to back down and ask forgiveness... which makes you realize about his rape...

This is such an awesome book. The author clearly worked insanely hard interviewing everyone he possibly could have and the result is an incredible page turner that is humorous and impossible to put down. This is a must read for any sports fan.

Jeff Pearlman has a great way of blending storytelling and thorough reporting. I know there are people criticising how it portraits Kobe Bryant, but this was truly Kobe before he grew up (as we all do) in his late twenties. And, as Pearlman writers, Shaq was every bit as selfish and immature as Kobe was. That's why it was a circus.

Very well written and hard to put down! A book for any basketball fan!

After reading Showtime and Gunslinger, Jeff Pearlman had me excited for the next story he was planning on covering, and finding out it was going to be the Shaq-Kobe Lakers had me giddy with excitement.It’s safe to say that Three Ring Circus, is another great biography from Jeff, and it’s filled with small tidbits of information and stories that have never seen the light of day or were ever thought of being covered.Learning about Kobe and Shaq’s rivalry from the time period was fascinating, although I do find Jeff’s characterization of Kobe Bryant’s rape case to be a tad suspect, it was a pretty good read. I wouldn’t say it’s unbiased, but it does keep the facts as they are, even with some colorful commentary.