Cousy

by Bill Reynolds

In Cousy, His Life, Career, and the Birth of Big-Time Basketball, veteran sportswriter Bill Reynolds - with the full cooperation of Bob Cousy - reveals the man often called "the Babe Ruth of basketball," the dazzling athlete who brought "showtime basketball" to the NBA and changed the game forever. Bob Cousy, the originator of the behind-the-back dribble and the no-look pass, joined the Boston Celtics in 1950, when the fledgling NBA was still competing with rodeo and professional wrestling for column inches in the sports pages. When Cousy retired thirteen years later, the NBA had joined baseball and football as a premier American entertainment. This portrait not only recounts Cousy's record-breaking career but also reveals the superstar's little-known personal life - from his impoverished childhood in New York City, when he was ironically cut from his high school basketball team in both his freshman and sophomore years to his eventful life after his playing career, when he coached Boston College and the Cincinnati Royals in the NBA. Readers will discover the mind of a man so tortured by the fear of failure that he had recurring nightmares, walked in his sleep, and developed a nervous tic.

Genres: Basketball, Sports, Biography, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Bill Reynolds is a sports columnist for The Providence Journal and the author of several previous books, including Fall River Dreams and (with Rick Pitino) the #1 New York Times bestseller Success Is a Choice. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island."

Reviews

[Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as any player could, Bob Cousy helped create the NBA from its earliest days when the pros were eclipsed by college ball in attendance and interest. In addition to being an extraordinary basketball player, Cousy was a union organizer--he organized and created the NBA Players' Association. He led the league in assists for eight consecutive seasons, second only to John Stockton. His ball handling and passing wizardry transformed the position of point guard.

As much as any white player, Cousy eased the transition of the NBA from an all-white league to an integrated league with his on-court synergy with Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, and Satch Sanders. Regrettably, upon receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump, he had kind words to say about the President, but this is a minor blemish on an amazing man.

Reynold's book is an easy, entertaining, and informative read. It does not delve into the politics of the early NBA or the creation of the Players Association to my satisfaction, but i nevertheless recommend.

[Mark Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding biography of basketball great Bob Cousy. Well researched and richly detailed.

[Don Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a particularly good biography, just an okay one. It will tell you who Bob Cousy is, what he did, what his basketball life was like, and what he did retiring as a player in 1963, but...something is lacking. Although author Bill Reynolds states that he interviewed Cousy extensively (between 2002 and 2003), the book absolutely feels based on secondary sources (it does use them, the notes say) and feels as though it only scratches the surface of Cousy's life and career.

One reason I feel unsatisfied is that about seven years ago, I read a book called The Killer Instinct, a book Cousy himself co-wrote in 1975 and which Bill Reynolds uses as a secondary source (and discusses in chapter 11 of Cousy). The Killer Instinct is Cousy's account of the psychological and moral problems his obsession with winning (driven by a fear of failure) caused him--extreme emotional reactions to losing games as a player, and temptations to cheat (by committing NCAA recruiting violations) as a college coach. It's a brooding book; it's also a more satisfying book, being more personal. If it were still in print, I'd recommend it instead of Cousy (or at least in addition to it) if you want a biography with more depth.

Often, Cousy simply runs out of interesting things to say about its nominal subject, and settles for telling tangential stories about the Celtics dynasty teams and even about the young NBA.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty comprehensive book about Bob Cousy and the early Celtic dynasty. It divulges how Cousy got his intensity and extreme desire to win. It tells About Cousy's influence in the development of the game, how integration changed the game. It provides an abbreviated history of many of the Celtic greats of the Cousy era, including the Russle-Chambelain rivalry. The impact of the big man on basketball and Cousy's life after basketball.
I did get the sense this would appeal more to Celtic fans, and I often got the sense Cousy was sitting next to Reynolds while he was writing.