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How long does it take to read Playing for Keeps?

Michael Jordan and the world he made

David Halberstam

Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam takes about 7 hours 49 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 7 hours 49 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1999. 426 pages, about 117,150 words.

16 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 13 hours 1 minute
Average, 250 words a minute 7 hours 49 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 4 hours 53 minutes

The page count is the median across 5 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

"In Playing for Keeps, David Halberstam takes the first full measure of Michael Jordan's epic career, one of the great American stories of our time. A narrative of astonishing power and human drama, brimming with revealing anecdotes and penetrating insights, the book chronicles the forces in Jordan's life that have shaped him into history's greatest basketball player, and the larger forces that have converged to make him the most famous living human being in the world.". "We get a rare insider's view of the dynamics between Jordan, the star, and the others who played critical roles in the championship seasons, including the shrewd, thoughtful Phil Jackson, the enigmatic Scottie Pippen, and the curiously shy Dennis Rodman. In addition, we see the bitter divisions between players and management on the Bulls, and the NBA's interior pressures and conflicts as basketball grows during Jordan's reign into a phenomenally successful big-time celebrity sport. This book is, as well, about fame in America, the forces that create it and its consequences. Among other things, we see how David Falk and Nike launched the campaign that sold Jordan to the world, abetted by a small Oregon ad agency, Wieden and Kennedy, and a struggling young Brooklyn filmmaker named Spike Lee."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects: Basketball, Basketball players, Chicago Bulls (Basketball team), Biography, History, Basketball, biography

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