Roland Lazenby is the author of the bestselling and definitive biographies Michael Jordan and Jerry West, among other books. He has spent the past three decades interviewing NBA players, coaches, staff members, and other figures while writing about the league. He lives in Salem, VA.
Praise for Michael Jordan One of Amazon's Best Books of the Year:
Sports & Outdoors "In his thoughtful, extraordinarily
well--researched biography "Michael Jordan: The Life," Roland
Lazenby... gives us the life and much more.... The exhaustive
narrative of Jordan's basketball career is written with appropriate
awe. But what makes this portrayal especially worthwhile is
everything else."--Mike Greenberg, New York Times Book Review
"'Showboat' is more than just for show. It's a tell all that shows
us there's more to a man than the name on the back of his
jersey...or even the one on the front."--Tim David Harvey,
Basketball Buzz
"A lot has been written about arguably the greatest basketball
player of all time, Michael Jordan, but Roland Lazenby's Michael
Jordan: The Life is easily the definitive version. The journalist
has covered Jordan's career for nearly thirty years and his
knowledge of the game and of this miraculous player shows in what
is one of the best sports biographies in years."--Parade
"A very good biography."--Bill Reynolds, Providence Journal
"An utterly definitive biography.... The most comprehensive attempt
yet made to explain the factors that have gone into producing the
most famous basketball player and marketing phenom in the history
of world sports....I don't know how it would be possible to write a
more complete biography of him."--The Chicago Tribune
"Engaging... Lazenby, author of Michael Jordan: The Life, turns his
eye to another basketball legend: the recently retired Kobe
Bryant."--Publishers Weekly
"Essential reading."--Jeremy Schaap, ESPN
"It's not every day that I'm blown away by a book about a sports
figure. But MICHAEL JORDAN: THE LIFE, by Roland Lazenby, ranks up
there with the very best: The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn, Friday
Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger, and Joe DiMaggio by Richard Ben
Cramer. The depth of reporting, his frequent ascent into poetry,
and his intelligent analysis of the life of this complicated,
fascinating American icon deserve Pulitzer Prize consideration. For
the first time I understand what makes Michael Jordan tick. I was
captivated, fascinated and beguiled from beginning to end."--Peter
Golenbock, New York Times-bestselling author of George and In the
Country of Brooklyn
"Lazenby tells Bryant's story well...this is bound to be the best
biography of Kobe Bryant for some time."--Kirkus
"Lazenby's detailed research and fantastic writing paint a complex,
engaging picture of one of the NBA's greats."--Kurt Helin, Pro
Basketball Talk, NBC Sports
"Lazenby's thoroughly enjoyable biography is an impressive portrait
of a man consumed by his competitive ambitions. It is also by far
the most complete book on Michael Jordan to date.... Essential
reading for all sports fans and particularly for those interested
in American cultural history and popular culture."--Library Journal
(starred review)
"Like [Lazenby's] recent book about Michael Jordan, [Showboat]
finds new angles to approach people we've been looking at every day
their whole careers. Mr. Lazenby smartly focuses much of the book
at the last few years of Mr. Bryant's career."--Will Leitch, Wall
Street Journal
"Right from its early pages it's clear that Roland Lazenby's
biography of Michael Jordan is in full-press mode to be the best
volume ever written on perhaps basketball's greatest player....
Lazenby's a born researcher and some serious legwork went into
gathering all of the quotes and facts here, which add up to a kind
of Jordan-centric encyclopedia."--Colin Fleming, The Boston
Globe
"Roland Lazenby is one of the preeminent voices when it comes
professional hoops.... His latest book Showboat is a dynamic
biography of the loved and loathed Los Angeles' swingman.... The
book does a masterful job of going beyond what the public already
knows about Kobe - that he was a maniacal competitor - and gives
the reader a comprehensive look at what propelled him to reach the
apex of his sport."--Sean Burch, FOX Sports' "Lake Show Life"
"Roland Lazenby's new biography of Michael Jordan is as
breathtaking as a dunk by 'His Airness.' ... A richly detailed,
thoroughly researched book.... Lazenby expertly sifts through the
myths to produce a definitive portrait of Michael Jordan."--Bob
D'Angelo, Tampa Tribune
"Roland Lazenby's the David McCullough of the sports
biography."
--Matt "Money" Smith, Fox Sports Radio
"Stands to be one of the popular go-to sports books on the holiday
gift list."--Tom Hoffarth, Los Angeles Daily News
"There is more than enough analysis of Bryant's on-court
accomplishments to satisfy the hard-core hoops fan, but the meatier
material is in the Bryant family dynamics....Showboat is an often
insightful look at a complicated and still relatively young
man."--Phil Taylor, Washington Post
"This book is easily going to end up on some definitive must-read
list for Lakers books. I've read Phil Jackson's Eleven Rings,
Jeanie Buss' Laker Girl, and Madmen's Ball, but none of those quite
compare to Showboat. Check out the book and grab a copy of
it."--Lakers Outsider
"With surgical precision, Roland Lazenby expertly dissects the life
of this generation's most fascinating basketball player. What made
Kobe Bryant tick so loud for so long? Lazenby shows you with a tour
de force in reporting and an intimate inspection at Bryant's
trials, accomplishments and tribulations."--Jonathan Abrams, author
of Boys Among Men
"With the publication of Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant, it is
high time we recognized author Roland Lazenby for what he has
become: the finest sports biographer of our time. First with the
astonishing Michael Jordan: The Life and now his having written an
incredibly researched, beautifully written biography of this
enigmatic Laker superstar, Lazenby has entered rarified air: one is
wowed by what one learns and at the same time you can't wait to
read what comes next."--Peter Golenbock, author of ten New York
Times bestsellers
A Men's Journal Best Book of the YearFinalist for the SundayTimes
Biography of the Year Finalist for the Cross British Sports Book
Award
Praise for SHOWBOAT
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