I Love This Guy!

This Book Has Balls: Sports Rants from the MVP of Talking Trash – Michael Rapaport – (Touchstone Books)

I am confident enough in my manhood to say up front that I love this guy! Actor, director, podcaster, and all around, Renaissance man Michael Rapaport is the fulfillment of a vision I feel like I had a dozen years ago when I ran a sports talk station and tried to coach young broadcasters to move beyond the weasel stereotype of “have a take, don’t suck” bullshit espoused wannabe Jim Rome clones.

Rapaport is that guy, you know the guy…that guy who sits at the end of the bar watching the game and he drives you crazy cause he is ALWAYS talking shit! He talks up a storm and then, out of nowhere he drops a bomb; totally unexpected, but damn if he isn’t right on. Rapaport is THAT guy! Not only does he give killer take, he is absolutely one funny motherfucker…we won’t hold it against him that he’s a Knicks fan, he came by that seemingly from birth and he knows that Earl “The Pearl” is the man.

Rapaport hits the sports talk/writing sweet spot, in his publishing debut, This Book Has Balls: Sports Rants from the MVP of Talking Trash, not falling off the deep end with stat upon stat or silly fanboy name dropping; oh and doesn’t hurt to remember what your dick is for (the Mary Lou Retton crush is good stuff) without being a dick. Although I’m not sure I’m buying what he’s selling on the Tiger Woods front.

The home run for me was Rapaport’s reasoning on exactly why LeBron James will never be like Mike! In point of fact…23 reasons why! When I was coaching the kid broadcasters I used to always ask the question, “what are you passionate about?” I don’t need to ask Rapaport, his passion, knowledge and humor drip from the pages of This Book Has Balls, you won’t be able to miss that as you read.