When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan's Last Comeback

By Michael Leahy

Book Overview

As one of the greatest, most celebrated athletes in history, Michael Jordan conquered professional basketball as no one before. Powered by a potent mix of charisma, near superhuman abilities and a ferocious drive to dominate the game, he achieved every award and accolade conceivable before retiring from the Chicago Bulls and taking an executive post with the Washington Wizards. But retirement didn't suit the man who was once king, and at the advanced age of thirty-eight Michael Jordan decided it was time to reclaim the court that was once his. WHEN NOTHING ELSE MATTERS is the definitive account of Jordan's equally spectacular and disastrous return to basketball. Having closely followed Jordan's final two seasons, Michael Leahy draws a fascinating portrait of an intensely complex man hampered by injuries and assualted by younger players eager to usurp his throne. In this enthralling book Jordan emerges as an ambitious, at times deeply unattractive character with, unsurprisingly, a monstrous ego. WHEN NOTHING ELSE MATTERS is an absorbing portrait not only of one's athletes overriding ambition, but of a society so in thrall to its sports stars that it is blind to all their faults.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743254260
• ISBN13: 9780743254267
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 435 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Honest and Absorbing

The Michael Jordan story always seems to be told in extremes. Either he is heralded as an icon so mindlessly that the storytelling appears uninteresting or he is vilified, as previous writers knew the value of tearing down an icon. When Nothing Else Matters is a portrait of a man that feels honest, Jordan is neither vilified nor overly praised; instead Micheal Leahy has given us a view of a man experiencing his only real...

This Emperor Had No Clothes

I am glad to see this book has already generated a good deal of buzz and reviews. I lived in the DC area during the "Jordan Era" both his management of and play for, the Wizards, and I must say (and perhaps I am biased) that this book is a mostly accurate reflection of what many of us suspected about MJ when he came to town. To wit: (1) He had little/no respect for owner Abe Pollin; (2) He installed flunkies in senior management...

A Milestone Book For Realists

This is a groundbreaking book in many respects. I am an ardent NBA fan but have found it nearly impossible to find 'real' biographies on the real goings-on in NBA locker rooms. I believe most sportswriters are either afraid to anger their sources (many examples of that in this book) or lack the journalistic know how to do in-depth reporting. I thouroughly enjoyed the book. It paints a detailed picture of an NBA locker room...

Top 50 all time

Leahy was very honest in his book on MJ's last 2 seasons. It was a sad read for me, being an ardent MJ fan. The book showed me that MJ is human like the rest of us, and his success had gotten to his head. Leahy's book is not biast and it is at times VERY amusing. It was an extremely good read. I rate it as one of the top 50 books I've read over the last 27 years.

Best book on Jordan I've ever read

This is the finest book I've ever read on Michael Jordan. It is one of the best sports books written in many years, I think. What Michael Leahy has done so magnificently is wipe away the stardust from our eyes and enable to see what the Jordan comeback meant to the star, a city and a struggling team. It is sympathetic in parts, and tough in parts. It is unflinchingly honest and brilliantly written. The way he writes about...