You ever walk into a used bookstore and see a spine so thick it looks like it could stop a bullet? That's usually The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons. Published back in 2009, with a massive paperback update in 2010, this seven-hundred-page monster attempted to do something nobody else was crazy enough to try: rank every important player in NBA history while simultaneously explaining the "Secret" of the sport. It’s a lot. Honestly, it’s probably too much for one person to write without losing their mind.
Simmons didn't just write a history book. He wrote a manifesto. He took the "Sports Guy" persona he built at ESPN and Page 2 and dialed it up to eleven, mixing deep-dive archival research with references to The Godfather, Vegas benders, and some truly dated pop culture jokes that—let's be real—haven't all aged like fine wine. But here’s the thing. Even if you hate his Celtics bias or his obsession with "The Secret," you can't talk about hoops history without eventually bumping into this book. It changed how we argue about the NBA.
The Pyramid: Reimagining the Hall of Fame
Most people think of the Hall of Fame as a flat room. You’re in or you’re out. Simmons hated that. He thought it was stupid that a guy like Mitch Richmond was in the same "club" as Michael Jordan. So, he built the Pyramid. It was his way of saying that greatness has tiers.
The Pyramid is broken down into levels, starting with the "cheap seats" and moving up to the pantheon. He didn't just look at points per game. He looked at "The Wine Cellar" test—basically, if you were picking a team to play for your life, who are you taking? He valued peaks over longevity in some cases, and "Alpha Dog" status over everything else.
It’s a fascinating exercise because it forces you to quantify the unquantifiable. How do you compare Bill Russell’s eleven rings to Wilt Chamberlain’s 50-point-per-game season? Simmons goes deep on the Russell vs. Wilt debate, and he doesn’t hide his cards. He’s a Russell guy. He thinks Wilt was a stats-chaser who didn't understand how to make his teammates better. You might disagree. You probably should disagree with at least 20% of his rankings. But the logic he uses—the "Pantheon" logic—is now the standard for how every podcast and Twitter thread debates the Top 10 players of all time.
✨ Don't miss: What Place Is The Phillies In: The Real Story Behind the NL East Standings
What Is "The Secret" Anyway?
The book starts with a weirdly touching story about Isiah Thomas. Yeah, that Isiah Thomas. The guy who later ran the Knicks into the ground. Simmons met him at a club in Las Vegas, and they talked about what actually makes a team win. Isiah told him that "The Secret of basketball is that it’s not about basketball."
That sounds like some fake-deep fortune cookie stuff, right? But Simmons spends the next few hundred pages proving it's true.
The Secret is basically chemistry. It’s the idea that the best team isn't the team with the most talent, but the team where the players actually like each other—or at least accept their roles. He uses the 1970s Knicks and the 1986 Celtics as the gold standards. He argues that the NBA is a league of egos, and the only way to win at the highest level is to submerge that ego for the greater good. It’s why he’s so hard on guys like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (early in his career) or anyone he perceives as "miserable" to play with.
The Problem With Writing History in Real-Time
If you read The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons today, you’re going to notice a massive, 6-foot-9-inch hole in the narrative. LeBron James.
🔗 Read more: Huskers vs Michigan State: What Most People Get Wrong About This Big Ten Rivalry
When the book was finalized, LeBron hadn't won a title yet. He was still the guy who "choked" against the Magic in the 2009 playoffs and hadn't made "The Decision" to go to Miami. Simmons has him ranked around 20th or so in the Pyramid. Looking back, that feels insane. LeBron is now a top-three player at worst, and the GOAT at best.
This is the inherent risk of a book this ambitious. The NBA moves too fast. The "three-point revolution" hadn't really happened yet when this was written. Stephen Curry was just a rookie with bad ankles. The way we value efficiency and spacing today makes some of Simmons’ older takes feel like they’re from the Stone Age. He values the "low-post bruiser" way more than a modern analyst would.
- The Celtics Bias: It’s real. It’s heavy. If a player wore green, they get a 5% "legacy boost" in this book.
- The Footnotes: There are thousands of them. Some are better than the actual chapters. Some are just Simmons complaining about his dog or his season tickets.
- The "What If" Game: One of the best sections covers the "What If" moments—like what if the Blazers drafted Jordan, or what if Len Bias hadn't died?
Why It Still Matters in 2026
Despite the fact that it's over fifteen years old, the book remains a essential text for one reason: it treats the NBA like a living, breathing soap opera. Simmons understands that basketball isn't just a sport; it's a series of narratives, grudges, and "What Ifs."
He treats the 1950s with as much reverence as the 1990s. He went back and watched old tapes that most people had forgotten. He talked to old-timers. He tried to bridge the gap between the guys who played in Chuck Taylors and the guys who played in Nikes.
💡 You might also like: NFL Fantasy Pick Em: Why Most Fans Lose Money and How to Actually Win
You don't read this book to get an objective history. You read it to have a conversation with a guy who cares way too much about whether Bill Walton’s 1977 season was better than Willis Reed’s 1970 season. It’s an argument in book form.
Taking Action: How to Tackle This Beast
If you’re going to dive into The Book of Basketball, don't just read it cover to cover. You’ll burn out by page 300.
- Start with the Pyramid. Flip to the back half and look at the rankings. See who he has at #40 and who he has at #12. It’ll get your blood boiling, and that’s the point.
- Read the "What If" chapter. It’s the most fun section of the book and requires the least amount of "historical homework."
- Cross-reference with YouTube. If he talks about a specific play—like the "Havlicek stole the ball!" moment or a specific Dr. J dunk—look it up. The book works best as a companion piece to actual footage.
- Ignore the pop culture references. Seriously. Half of the 2004 movie references won't make sense anymore. Just skip the footnotes that look like they're about The Real World.
- Check out the "Book of Basketball 2.0" podcast. Since the book is frozen in time, Simmons launched a podcast series to update the rankings. It’s the only way to see where he actually puts guys like Steph, KD, and Giannis.
The reality is that no one will ever write a book like this again. The internet has made this kind of solo, massive undertaking obsolete. We get our rankings in real-time now. We get our highlights on TikTok. But for a specific moment in the late 2000s, Bill Simmons caught lightning in a bottle and gave NBA fans a common language to speak. Even if that language is 70% Celtics propaganda, it’s still the best conversation starter we’ve got.