Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players

by Sam Smith, Phil Jackson

Genres: Basketball, Sports, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Published November 4, 2025

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Sam Smith is a writer and editor for Usborne and he produces a wide range of children's books and related products from from mini books, activity pads and maze books

Reviews

[Larry (LPosse1) · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent basketball book! Masters of the Game is part basketball history, part philosophy session, and part hangout with two legends. Sam Smith—one of Chicago’s greatest sportswriters—and Phil Jackson—eleven-time NBA champion coach—team up to walk through mini-biographies of the Top 75 NBA players. But this isn’t just another rankings book. Smith brings his insider reporting and dry wit, and Phil brings his Zen-infused take on greatness, pressure, ego, and what it really means to compete at the highest level.

I reviewed both the audiobook and the hardcover, and I highly recommend experiencing both.
The audiobook is a must. It captures the real-time conversation between Smith and Jackson, full of tangents, memories, inside jokes, and deep basketball wisdom. Listening feels like you’re sitting courtside with them, talking hoops. Phil even lays it all on the line with the GOAT debate. (No spoilers from me—you’ll have to listen.)

The hardcover is fantastic too. Gorgeous photography, great layout, and terrific short profiles of the stars. It’s a perfect coffee-table-meets-research volume, and the Top 75 ranking leans in a slightly different direction than others I’ve seen.

It is very Chicago Bulls-centric… and for this Chicago guy, that’s almost perfect.

If you want a smart, insightful, and flat-out fun sports book—one that feels like hanging out with two giants of the game—this is the one. A slam dunk.

[Jeff Wait · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for top 75/100 player lists, and this one is really neat. You get a bio of each player and then some back and forth between Sam Smith and Phil Jackson. The homerism definitely comes out from both, but you also get a little bit of extra insight that you won’t get from The Basketball 100.

[Laura Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am rounding up from 2 1/2 stars. I believe true sport trivia lovers may enjoy this book more than casual sport fans. I was thankful that the book included descriptions of the discrimination some players experienced in the not so distant past. It adds an honest and historic framework to the list. I found myself skimming the listings for some players and then reading with more interest segments featuring players I had more familiarity with. There are some photos in the book. I wish a photo would have been included along side each athlete. I did not enjoy the conversational aspect of the book as the conversations seemed to wander away from the highlighted players and back onto the authors more often than I would have preferred. I did think the list was fair and accurate and called attention to the accomplishments and some of the personality quirks of some of the most outstanding athletes of the 20th and 21st century.

[François Blanchette · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a debutant at basketball such as myself, this is a very approachable and laid-back reading to get to know the legends of the sport. It is also a breeding ground to get to know the major events in basketball's history. Neat.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Wow! How disappointing was this thing. I only read the first three and then skimmed to see if all the players were treated like this.

Each chapter starts with a Wikipedia page of the player's accomplishments, it then hard cuts to a . . . conversation(?) between Sam Smith and Phil Jackson, two men who know the game, but have no idea how to share their love.

It's hard to even say what they are doing, it's like someone was recording a conversation, and then transcribed the conversation verbatim without any idea of what the two are saying. There is no question and answer format, no clear markings of what they are discussing. Just random conversation.

It becomes a list of names of other player completely unrelated to the player in the chapter, it becomes a list of coaches that are not referenced anywhere else, often it is just by a single name. Eventually you can't tell if they are talking about Larry Bird, Larry Brown, or even Larry the Cable Guy. Several times I wasn't sure who they were talking about, and I only read the first three players.

On top of that, they would reference other stories about the players . . . and then not tell the stories. I finally quit with Bob Pettit, a name I know, but I don't know anything else about the man. He mentions the Cleo Hill story . . . and then talks about race relations in the south during the 50/60's.

What am I supposed to do with that? I'm not looking up the Cleo Hill story, that's why I have this book. Over and over they would do this.

Remember that legendary Knicks game -- Nope
Remember the coach and rules change -- Nope
Remember that guy with the thing -- Nope

Tell the stories!

What a waste of potential with this book.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a surprisingly charming trainwreck, with Smith doing his best to hold things together and Jackson's grouchy zen thing almost becoming endearing by the end. But it is also kind of a total disaster in terms of achieving what it supposedly set out to do.

[EVAN · Rating 3 out of 5]

With certain players, you get some exploration as to why they’re top 75, but rarely. This book is basically an exercise in Phil Jackson talking about himself while Sam Smith responds. Not really worth reading.

[Michael Sclafani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun basketball background, but not much new if you know a lot and don’t expect Phil Jackson to stay on topic at all — at times reads a bit like an NBA episode of drunk history.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two NBA lifers talking ball, with the discussion loosely set around the league’s top 75 list.