Masters of the Game

Sam Smith is the author of five books on basketball, including the New York Times bestseller The Jordan Rules. Smith received the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2012 Curt Gowdy Media Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Basketball Writers Association. He was the Bulls’ beat writer and the national NBA writer for the Chicago Tribune during Phil Jackson’s coaching tenure with the Bulls. He has written extensively for sports magazines and websites in Europe and Asia and publications in the US, including ESPN, Inside Sports, Basketball Digest, and the Basketball Hall of Fame. He wrote for the Chicago Tribune for twenty-nine years and currently writes for Bulls.com.

Phil Jackson is the number one New York Times bestselling coauthor of Eleven Rings and the coauthor of Sacred Hoops as well as arguably the greatest coach in the history of the NBA. His reputation was established as head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998; during his tenure, Chicago won six NBA titles. His next team, the Los Angeles Lakers, won five NBA titles, from 2000 to 2010. He holds the record for the most championships in NBA history as a player and a head coach. He also has the highest winning percentage of any NBA coach (.704). Jackson was a player on the 1970 and 1973 NBA champion New York Knicks. In 2007 he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.