More than a Game  covers the years  that follow  the one featured in the ESPN documentary series "The Last Dance." After leaving the Bulls at the end of the 1997-1998 season—the year featured in the new ESPN documentary series "The Last Dance"—Phil Jackson had one year off and started to write this book—together with his old friend, fellow player and coach, the basketball novelist Charley Rosen. Then Phil took the LA Lakers coaching job, Rosen followed him there, and by the time they finished writing this book it was 2000 and Phil had won yet another NBA championship, the first of five he would win with his new team.      In  More than a Game , Jackson and Rosen look backward to their origins as players and coaches, forward to the future of the game of basketball, and linger in the moving target of the present—lavishing page after page on the Triangle Offense and all the ways it reveals the essence of the game of basketball they both love so much. This is Jackson in his prime, transitioning from the Bulls to the Lakers, a master of the art of winning, who would go on to claim more NBA championships, eleven, than any other coach in NBA history. As he writes in  More than a Game  of his newest championship team: "We won because our fundamentals were sound, because Shaq was so dominant and Kobe was so creative, but we also won because we developed a certain confidence in our ability to win." Jackson is becoming a prolific chronicler of his life in basketball. Maverick (1975), also written with Rosen (Scandals of '51), covered his offbeat life as a player with the two-time champion New York Knicks, while Sacred Hoops (1999) focused on how he used his Triangle offense and personal "Zen Christian" beliefs in coaching the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships during the 1990s. This latest work brings Jackson's journey two years forward as he brings the Triangle and his hardwood soul-searching to Los Angeles, leading the Lakers to yet another championship. Chapters alternate between Jackson and Rosen as the two trade tales and insights. The primary voice is Jackson's, however, and the major interest to most readers will be his behind-the-scenes account of the Lakers' successful season and the tenuous teaming of stars Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. An unusual amalgam of biography, spiritualism, basketball technique, and journalism, this will be of strong interest for all basketball collections. John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Phil Jackson rose to prominence as the coach of the six-time NBA champion Chicago Bulls. Last season, his first as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, ended with another championship ring for Jackson and his team. Here Jackson shares the spotlight with coauthor Rosen, himself the author of a half-dozen novels and Jackson's assistant coach years ago in the Continental Basketball League, as they explore the truths that basketball can offer in terms of both personal and team evolution. Don't be scared off: this isn't just a reprise of Jackson's best-selling Sacred Hoops (1995), in which the Zen-inspired coach waxed mystical on basketball and life. Here Jackson and Rosen, a couple of hoop gypsies, fit the game into the context of their lives, from the problems with high-school coaching to the story behind the breakup of Jackson's marriage. The importance of the team concept in basketball and life is stressed throughout, but the text avoids preachiness with a steady stream of amusing and enlightening anecdotes (including a hilarious account of a one-on-one game between Jackson and talk-show host Craig Kilborn when the latter was a $25-per-game announcer in the CBA). There's plenty here to attract a broad spectrum of fans, from celebrity talk to techno-hoop strategy, but underlying it all is a reverence for a game that, when played well, can be a transcendent personal experience and a joy to watch. Wes Lukowsky Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “The technical details in this wonderful book will give any fan a better appreciation of the game.” –Publishers Weekly “An unusual amalgam of biography, spiritualism, basketball technique, and journalism, this will be of strong interest for all basketball collections.” –Library Journal A native of the Bronx and longtime pal of basketball guru Phil Jackson,  CHARLEY ROSEN  led the league in technical fouls during each of his six years as a coach in the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association. Since then he has become the world’s foremost writer of fiction and nonfiction on the subject of basketball, chronicling the drama that takes place both on and off the court. His many novels include  The House of Moses All-Stars , a  New York Times  Notable Book, and  Sammy Wong: All-American . His non-fiction works include  The Scandals of ’51: How the Gamblers Almost Killed College Basketball  and  More than a Game , with Phil Jackson. Rosen is an analyst for ho