The Breaks of the Game

Available for the first time in years, David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game focuses on one grim season (1979-80) in the life of the Portland Trail Blazers, a team that only three years before had been National Basketball Association champions. As Halberstam follows this collection of men through the months, through the losing streaks and occasional victories, the endless trips and the brutal schedules, we come to know them and their world - the other players, coaches, and owners; the competition, drafts, trades, and traditions; the wives, the fans, the media connections - a world of grand dreams, impossible expectations, and bracing realities.