A mildly intriguing look at a global icon that would have been more effective as a long-form magazine article or continuing...
LeBron James the businessman.
ESPN NBA reporter Windhorst (co-author: Return of the King: LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Greatest Comeback in NBA History, 2017, etc.) probably knows more about James than any other sportswriter, especially after covering him as the Cavaliers beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal and Cleveland Plain Dealer before moving to ESPN. In his latest book on the King, the author chronicles his business deals both on and off the court, most of which have been successful, largely due to one main quality that Windhorst highlights throughout: his awareness of everything going on around him, which has not only guided his legendary basketball career, but also “has been vital for the expansion of his business empire.” The author straightforwardly lays out James’ various ventures, beginning with the orchestration of a fierce bidding war for his first shoe contract. Though Reebok made a significant offer, James ultimately went with Nike, signing a seven-year contract that, with the $10 million signing bonus, came to $87 million—before he was even drafted in the NBA. From there, James would go on to astronomical financial and athletic success in the NBA as well as in the film, restaurant, real estate, and other industries. Windhorst dutifully chronicles all of his deals, often comparing them to other business ventures by megastar athletes including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Kobe Bryant. Though James is not yet a billionaire, the author notes that “he may be getting close,” and while he has made a couple poor business choices, he’s known for being relatively frugal (at least for a near billionaire), his “business is still very much unfolding.” For LeBron devotees and readers interested in the mechanics of off-the-court business dealings, this is a good choice, but the prose is merely serviceable and the narrative flow, workmanlike.
A mildly intriguing look at a global icon that would have been more effective as a long-form magazine article or continuing series.Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5387-3087-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2019
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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