As a man of many talents with an undying passion for sports, actor Michael Rapaport is as versatile as they come. Rapaport has a top-50 podcast (I AM RAPAPORT), directed short films and documentaries and along with starring in countless movies and TV shows, he's now an author.
Rapaport has taken his passion for sports and put pen to paper by writing a hilarious book, This Book Has Balls. His book is filled with sports rants from the self-proclaimed “MVP of Talking Trash” in which he talks about a number of different things from 23 ways LeBron James will never be Michael Jordan to how Tiger Woods can get back to form and which celebrities can actually play basketball.
ClutchPoints was fortunate to get a review copy of Rapaport's new book along with an interview to talk about his experience as an author as well as a few hot topics in the sports world.
Ryan Ward: What motivated you to write, This Book Has Balls?
Michael Rapaport: What motivated me to write the book was I've been a lifelong sports fan and grew up wanting to be a basketball player. I just thought it would be the best place to put all my loves, my hates, my frustration into one concise place. I've never written a book before, obviously.
It was a challenge. It was fun. But it was needed. I'm such a sports fan, and it's something I'm very passionate about. I thought it would be the right time and the right place, and the right forum to sort of put all my thoughts and ideas.
You talk about celebrities that can ball in This Book Has Balls. You mention George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber. Who have you heard that can ball that you want to see play or play against?
MP: Good question. Who have I heard that can ball? I heard Michael B. Jordan can play. I never saw him play. I heard he's got game. He's young. Obviously, he stays in shape.
That's the one I heard can play. He's a guy right now I heard can play.
You refer to Magic Johnson as one of your personal heroes in a book. Do you think he has what it takes to turn things around for the Los Angeles Lakers?
MP: I mean, he's very much a part of turning around the culture of the Dodgers.
The Lakers already have a spirit about them. They have the attention of the basketball public. You know, obviously, some of that is because of the LaVar-Lonzo Ball hype. Magic Johnson is a traditional winner. That's what he does. It's what he's done his whole career on and off the court.
He absolutely knows what it takes. You know he's got that “It” factor.
You weren't too fond of the comments Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball made about legendary rapper Nas, right?
MP: Nah, I mean I know it was tongue-in-cheek, but you know the thing with hip-hop to say it seems to be like the only kind of music, some people not everybody, think the majority of people respect the past, and the history and the lineage.
Some people pride themselves on not knowing the relevance, the importance of the history of the music and it's not even that old.
You know you have some rappers who will proudly say they don't know any Biggie Smalls songs or Wu-Tang songs. These are people that consider themselves rappers. Forget if you're a rapper, if you're alive. I don't care if you have anything to do with music, you don't know Biggie Smalls songs or Wu-Tang songs? First of all, you have no business rapping. But second of all, where have you been? My kids have known about that music since they've known about music. Five, six, seven, eight years old.
So that Lonzo Ball comment was sort of ignorant to say that, you know. It takes ignorance to say that. So that's what it was.
The Ball family has been getting a lot of attention lately. What do you think about all the attention and where it's going?
MP: Negative attention. I think it's going to blow up in their face. I mean these kids in the NBA, barring any crazy thing, him and his family should be financially set. Now it's about how long can you sustain an NBA career. These careers aren't given. Stardom isn't given. Just because you have hype and you trend on Twitter doesn't mean that you're going to be in the NBA for a successful career.
I think that the social media aspect of it is misleading and obviously the father is the culprit because the kid seems like, you know, a kid. He's not the one doing all talking but collectively as a family you know regroup and reevaluate how they're going to do this because social media is undefeated, and the amount of hype and attention that is put on his son, no one would be able to live up to it whether it's Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird or LeBron James.
And I think that it's just put such a stigma on him and the other two kids and the incident that happened with the other brother in China would've been a little blip in the news.
Had it been for the father you know it just would've been a little thing. NBA star's brother and two other teammates arrested in China. A little tiny thing turns into national front-page sports news. It's a shame because at the end of the day they are just kids. The father has really put them in the crosshairs of everybody critics, the rest of the NBA and all that stuff.
So I don't think it's healthy. I don't think it's healthy for the NBA and it's certainly not healthy for those kids as players.
That leads into my next question. Lonzo has gotten a lot of criticism for his poor shooting this season. Do you think he should change his shooting form?
MP: I don't think you can change a shooting form that drastically. I think he's a good player. I think he'll end up being a good player. I don't think he's a great player.
But who knows, he hasn't even played 20 games. He'll figure out what he needs to keep going or he won't. There's been other players that were highly touted that that didn't make it in the NBA or end up coming off the bench in the NBA. This might be that. He might not be that.
There's no guarantees. There are other high draft picks that come off the bench now. You don't hear about them. You heard about them one year maybe heard about them another year, and they're the ninth man on the bench. This is the NBA, man. It's a revolving door of talent. The best players in the league and all this Twitter and Big Baller Brand bull****. None of that shit means nothing when you get on the court. These guys aren't impressed. These guys don't care about your following. They're just as good if not better.
Do you think LeBron James is coming to Los Angeles? Do you think he should sign with the Lakers?
MP: I have no idea. I don't have any insight to it. He might come based on the sort of stories you hear. I don't think these things come out of thin air. So he might come who knows. I think they're worried about right now trying to put together a consistent team and deal with these injuries.
I wouldn't be surprised if he came. I know one thing, they're [Cleveland] aren't winning the championship this year. They ain't winning the championship this year.
You've been pretty adamant about Michael Jordan being better than LeBron James, but what about Kobe Bryant? Where is he in that conversation in your opinion?
MP: Kobe is up there, too. He's got five rings. The stats speak for themselves. I don't know why all the sudden LeBron sort of skipped over Kobe Bryant.
That's why we're fans. A lot of it is very subjective. You may have loved the Lakers or not loved the Lakers. It's subjective. It's a team game and these theories and all that stuff they're never ending things, but I don't know why LeBron skipped over Kobe. It's certainly not valid.
The BIG3 League was a success in its first season. What was the experience like being involved with Ice Cube's league?
MP: BIG3 was fun. It was a dream come true. We're back for next year. I had a ball.
So you're returning for next season?
MP: Oh yeah! I'm returning and the league is returning. And it's going down.
What players do you want to see in the BIG3 League next season?
MP: I would love to see Metta World Peace. I would love to see Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Steve Nash would be great. Stephon Marbury. They're talking about Steph. Those would be the ones off the top of my head.
Paul Pierce recently said he wanted to recruit Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. Do you think you'll ever see a super team like that in the BIG3?
MP: That would be sick! Man, that would be so much fun. The league was so much fun and it was such a great idea. The execution of it was great and we're back. I'm really proud to be a part of it.
Where can we find your book, This Book Has Balls?
MP: Everywhere you buy books. Barnes & Noble. Amazon.com. ThisBookHasBalls.com. It's a shit-talking extravaganza. I'm proud of it. It's easy to read. It ain't Dostoevsky and it ain't Shakespeare. It's just the essence of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
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