Three-Ring Circus

 After reading (and really enjoying) Jeff Pearlman's book Showtime I was told to pick up Three-Ring Circus.  Three-Ring Circus functions as a pseudo-sequel to Showtime.  While Showtime chronicles the joyous 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and their 5 titles, Three-Ring Circus covers the 1996-2004 Lakers, who won 3 titles of their own but in a far less exuberant fashion.  I knew about both of these times prior to reading Pearlman's respective books, so I was interested to see what would happen when he tackled a team whose mythology is far less celebrated.    As it turns out, Three-Ring Circus is still really good, if not quite as strong as its predecessor.  A number of the qualities that made Showtime such an excellent basketball book are present here as well.  Pearlman once again clearly researched his ass off to make this book.  There is no shortage of great quotes sprinkled throughout the book from just about everyone relevant to these Lakers.  Before starting this book, I had no opinion on Rick Fox, but now I know he's super smart and very insightful.  Pearlman is great at making figures like Fox memorable, and it's what makes his books so strong, both as historical documents and enjoyable reading experiences.  While Pearlman's books are very densely packed with information, he puts in enough style and humor that they don't feel like chores to get through by any stretch of the imagination.    One thing I want to commend Pearlman on in this book specifically is the tone.  While Showtime is a mostly happy ride exploring the nooks and crannies of one of the NBA's most beloved teams, Three-Ring Circus leaves little room for joy (the covers of the books show their respective tones well, with Showtime's featuring most of its figures in states of joy, while Three-Ring Circus has Shaq, Phil Jackson and Kobe making serious faces).  Even when these Lakers are doing well, it's clear that they are only one second away from a complete meltdown.  These Lakers were absolutely brilliant on the court but off the court they were a hot mess featuring a bunch of egos that could never truly co-exist.  There are no heroes in Three-Ring Circus.  Everyone seems to have some level of regret and frustration, and showing the remaining contempt in full detail is one of the book's great accomplishments.    With all that said, the book's handling of Kobe is the one thing that brings it a level below Showtime.  Coming into this book the one thing I knew about it was that Pearlman went too hard on Kobe.  That's not my problem with it.  Yes it is true that Kobe gets a ton of shit throughout this book from pretty much every person interviewed.  If this book has a villain it is undoubtedly him.  My problem is that in his villainy, Kobe... isn't interesting and is the least fleshed-out major character in either book.  Every now and then we hear something about how Kobe was socially awkward or something along those lines to draw a bit of sympathy but it's completely drowned out by passage after passage (some seemingly written by Pearlman alone with no outside insight) about how much of a selfish douchebag he was.  What's especially weird about this decision to make Kobe some two-dimensional asshole is that the book shies away from that portrayal at the end while Kobe is dealing with his rape charge.  If there's any time to make Kobe look bad, it's during that time, and yet that is Kobe appears to be the least-hatable.  I don't have a problem with making Kobe the antagonist to Shaq's protagonist.  I don't have a problem with printing dozens of negative comments about Kobe's demeanor and playstyle.  I don't even have a problem with portraying Kobe's 2004 season in a manner that isn't totally anti-Kobe.  But there needs to be something to connect all of these sections.  As it stands, the lack of depth in Kobe's portrayal for the majority of the book makes it slightly worse than it otherwise could have been.    Despite everything I said in that last paragraph I'm still a huge fan of Three-Ring Circus and think that every basketball fan should read it.  I will absolutely check out more of Pearlman's sports books in the future.