This snapshot of their respective careers delves with varying degrees of depth into the lives of each man and their on- and off-court achievements, including the historic championship games between JohnsonвЂ™s Lakers and BirdвЂ™s Celtics, their trailblazing endorsement deals and JohnsonвЂ™s stunning announcement in 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV. While the pairвЂ™s on-court accomplishments have been exhaustively chronicled, the narrative hook here is unprecedented insight and commentary from the stars themselves on their unique relationship, a compelling mixture of bitter rivalry and mutual admiration. Fortunately, that year marked the coming of two young saviors-one a flashy, charismatic African-American and the other a cocky, blond, self-described вЂњhick.вЂќ Arriving fresh off a showdown in the NCAA championship game in which JohnsonвЂ™s Michigan State Spartans defeated BirdвЂ™s Indiana State Sycamores-still the highest-rated college basketball game ever-the duo changed the course of history not just for the league, but the sport itself. With megastars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and international superstars like ChinaвЂ™s Yao Ming pushing it to ever-greater heights of popularity today, itвЂ™s difficult to imagine the NBA in 1979, when financial problems, drug scandals and racial issues threatened to destroy the fledgling league. NBA legends Bird and Johnson, fierce rivals during their playing days, team up on a mutual career retrospective. Sweeping history combines with a sensitive rendering of CliburnвЂ™s extraordinary passion. Throughout, the author vividly reprises major historical events: Sputnik, KhrushchevвЂ™s blustering speeches, the Berlin Wall, Maoist oppression, and NixonвЂ™s visit to China. вЂњWhen public figures extolled him as a hero, he all but scoffed.вЂќ But if he did not believe his own legend, still that legend became his public image: вЂњHis friends adored him, protected him, smiled at his foibles, and spoke of him with a warm glow-but few felt they really knew him.вЂќ Cliff reveals CliburnвЂ™s interest in astrology and the occult the scandal that resulted when his male companion sued for palimony and lost and his nine-year retirement, a response to the pressures of fame. вЂњWhen fans told him he had changed their lives, he was genuinely amazed,вЂќ writes Cliff. He was the shy, God-fearing, gangly boy from Texas, warm, effusive, and modest. Biographer, translator, and journalist Cliff ( The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama, 2012, etc.), former film and theater critic for the London Times, faces two challenges in his rousing, well-researched biography: the first, ably met, is to convey CliburnвЂ™s astonishing talent and sound he was вЂњecstatically lyrical, thrillingly Romantic, and symphonic in scale.вЂќ The second challenge, not as fully achieved, is to create an intimate portrait of a man who rebuffed probing questions and carefully honed stories he-and his ever hovering mother- told interviewers and biographers. Beloved by Russians, Khrushchev included, and by his own countrymen, Cliburn seemed a balm to Cold War hostilities.

Cliburn exceeded that dream: in 1958, at 23, he won first prize in RussiaвЂ™s first International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, a feat that catapulted him to rock-star celebrity. When he was 3 years old, Van Cliburn (1934-2013) told his mother, a piano teacher, that he wanted lessons at 4, he gave his first concert, at a local college at 5, he declared he was going to be a concert pianist, like Rachmaninoff. The glorious career of the Texan pianist who captured Russian hearts during the Cold War era.

Krakauer piano review