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Spike Lee: Best Seat in the House: A Basketball Memoir

The game, the players, yesterday and today, along with on- and off-court anecdotes, engaging reminiscences, and controversial opinions, The Best Seat in the House shares with readers the memories of avid Knicks fan Spike Lee over the past three decades. of photos.

327 pages, Hardcover

Published May 13, 1997

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About the author

Spike Lee

79 books96 followers
Shelton Jackson Lee, better known as Spike Lee, is an Emmy Award - winning, and Academy Award - nominated American film director, producer, writer, and actor noted for his films dealing with controversial social and political issues. He also teaches film at New York University and Columbia University. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.

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5 stars
20 (14%)
4 stars
46 (33%)
3 stars
49 (35%)
2 stars
19 (13%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Krzysztof Czosnowski.
129 reviews5 followers
May 27, 2026
Dla mnie 5! Oprócz historii Knicks i koszykówki sporo wspomnień Spike dotyczących pracy nad jego filami. Książka kończy się na 1997.
289 reviews
December 5, 2011
Spike Lee was able to communicate his love of basketball and New York Knicks history in this fun book for any NBA fan. I might have enjoyed it a little more because it came out in 1997 when Michael Jordan and the Bulls were still kings of the league.
12 reviews
February 14, 2008
Bought this one with a $25 Borders card my Grandma bought me. Best money she ever spent. This one was a disappointment.
Profile Image for Jessica Burstrem.
322 reviews14 followers
August 3, 2026
I read about a quarter of it (the last quarter), skimmed a bit more and looked at the pictures. You can really hear Spike Lee's speaking voice because I think this may have been more of an oral history with Ralph Wiley. It's written in a conversational style. Much of it is dated now--it was very much a book of the moment in some ways--and certainly doesn't represent a typical fan experience, which made it less interesting from my perspective since I was considering it for a course on sports fandom. That's not really what the parts I read are about, although I believe there may be some discussion of his earlier fan experiences here and there elsewhere in the book. Much of it is simply Lee's thoughts on basketball.
Profile Image for Ron Maskell.
179 reviews1 follower
August 24, 2020
It takes a while to get into the way Spike weaves a story on paper but once you get in to it then it is alright.
Profile Image for Douglas Graney.
517 reviews6 followers
August 20, 2008
If you followed the Knicks of the early 70's or are a NBA fan in general you will enjoy this book. It's a bio of Lee growing up in NY taking you through his development as a filmmaker all while living and dying with the Knicks. It has interesting sociological and race observations and there's a lot of laughs too.
Profile Image for Logan.
30 reviews1 follower
July 7, 2008
Not bad if you're a Knicks fan, or a Spike Lee fan, or a fan basketball. It's tough to get past the stream-of-consciousness style of writing (even though it's ghost-written by Ralph Wiley, a personal favorite). But Spike's passion for his Knicks comes through.
16 reviews4 followers
March 30, 2007
Lots of fun for a basketball junkie.
Profile Image for Leo Jacobowitz.
58 reviews
September 25, 2007
I was in utter ecstasy reading this book. If there's a better book about basketball and especially the Knicks out there - lemme know because this was the sht.
1 review
April 28, 2017
In the book "Best seat in the house" by :Spike Lee. This is a great biography and goes really in debt about all his connections with fans coaches players and even legends. This biography is good for people who like to read about others who are well known in the world and is also a well written and organized biography. This book also helps you see the perspective of an succesful living man . This really wasn't a book you could dislike except for if you don't like to read a lot.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews