The book is in his voice, but it didn’t depend on him.

There were a lot of things he doesn’t remember – he’s lived like eight lifetimes in one – but I knew what holes and gaps there were that could be filled in by reporting and by the others. We had to fit it in at the right moments because LeBron is obviously very busy. SL: How did you work together on the book?īB: We got going before the 2008-09 season, and we probably met five or six times. He didn’t want some endlessly self-indulgent story about, “Well, then I scored 40 points against the Lakers.” It’s as much about his teammates and his role models because he wanted, in a sincere and legitimate way, to pay homage to the people who made him what he is today. It’s a story with a beginning, middle and end, and LeBron is just one of many characters in it. I liked that this was not your typical autobiography. LeBron came in with the book idea, and an agent said, “I have the perfect guy,” because I had written about high school sports with “Friday Night Lights.”īB: What appealed to me about this was the story. We happen to have the same literary agency in common, Janklow and Nesbitt. SportsLetter: How did you get involved writing “Shooting Stars” with LeBron James?īuzz Bissinger: It was kind of serendipitous. SportsLetter spoke to Bissinger about LeBron James and “Shooting Stars” as well as the legacy of “Friday Night Lights.” The book chronicles James’ successful and controversial high school basketball career in Akron, Ohio, and the enduring friendship he continues to share with four teammates-friends (collectively known as the “Fab Five”). Most recently, Bissinger has co-written “Shooting Stars” ( Penguin Amazon) with Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James. He has also written “Three Nights in August” (2005), a journey into baseball strategy as seen through the eyes of St. In 2004, it was made into a successful film currently, it serves as the basis for a television show that airs on NBC.īissinger won the Pulitzer Prize while he was a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer he now contributes to Vanity Fair magazine. In 2002, Sports Illustrated ranked it as the fourth best sports book of all time. “Friday Night Lights” was an instant bestseller and, twenty years after its initial publication, remains a cultural touchstone. Published the next year, “Friday Night Lights” was a reportorial triumph that, at once, captured the glory and the ignominy of youth athletics. “Buzz” Bissinger journeyed to West Texas to write a book about the town of Odessa and its mania over the storied football team at Permian High School.

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