Built to Lose

How the NBA's Tanking Era Changed the League Forever

By: Jake Fischer

Narrated by: Kyle Tait

A singular, transcendent talent can change the fortunes of a basketball franchise faster than in any other sport. For NBA teams, three avenues exist for acquiring those pivotal superstars: signing players in free agency, adding them via trade, or hand-selecting them through the draft. One only has to look toward the outright fanfare surrounding recent top pick Zion Williamson to recognize that it's the pursuit of the latter which has defined and forever altered the NBA in its current era.

It's a story that weaves its way behind closed doors to reveal intricate machinations normally hidden from public view. Backed by extensive reporting and hundreds of interviews with top players, coaches, and executives, Jake Fischer chronicles secret pre-draft workouts, feuding between player agents and executives, surprising trade negotiations, interpersonal conflict within rosters, organizational power struggles, and the missteps behind infamous public relations fiascos, making for a fascinating and unmissable insider's look at the NBA.

©2021 Jake Fischer (P)2021 Tantor

Good insight into NBA tanking

I really enjoyed the content of the book as it gives you a good look at the front office side of the NBA and into tanking however the narrator was terrible.

Great book, horrible monotone narrator.

This book has great content, but I couldn't get past the monotonous narrator. No voice inflection whatsoever and ever sentence sounded the same. I ended up just picking up a hard copy because I liked the story so much. I definitely recommend the hard copy, pass on the audible.

Reader very distracting

The reader has a way of constantly ending sentences—a tone that sort of conveys boredom—that is extremely distracting. It’s over and over every sentence and really annoying.

Narrator Ruins It

Just as the title says, the narrator ruins the book. I had to give up after an hour or two. I tried to fight through but it was too bad. It’s a shame because the story is great. I just wish people would narrate their own book more often. Especially if you’re capable of going on podcasts and doing 1hr+ long interviews etc. They’re your words, nobody can read your book like you can. You know the message you want to get across. I mostly read NBA related books, from autobiographies to stories about a certain time period. It’s SO rare that a book narrated by a hired narrator is enjoyable in my limited experience, which is having listened to about 20-30 books.

I now mostly avoid them, and if they aren’t narrated by the author, I make use of the sample button which is so helpful. Thanks to Audible for that. It has saved me from wasting many credits. Unfortunately I wasted one on this.

Authors: please narrate your own books if you’re capable. If you have a podcast, or you go on podcasts to talk about your book(s) and do other interviews about them…and you can speak for an hour plus without issue, why aren’t you narrating your book? I give props to Mirin Fader for narrating her new book about Giannis. She is a sportswriter, it’s her first book, no narration experience. Doesn’t have a podcast and isn’t a regular guest on one. She has had pod appearances in the past though.

She narrated her own book, and it wasn’t an easy one to narrate. She had to hire a coach to help her with all of the Greek pronunciations. Obviously there are MANY since Giannis and his siblings were born in Greece and it’s a story about his life. It’s also a long read. I think its 10-11 hours. If she can do it, why can’t you other authors do it? Unless you just have some incredibly annoying voice (and if it’s that bad I’m sure you’ve been told this at some point lol) which is rare, you can and should do it. It makes the listening experience so much better.

It’ll save you and/or your publisher money, and you’ll sell more audiobooks. Get in a studio, or get studio equipment (you don’t need anything that fancy) and do it. Consult a narrator if you have questions. But how long can it possibly take? If your book is a 10 hour audiobook, how long can it take to read it? 30 hours of work?

Sorry I’m done with my rant now. And I don’t blame the narrator most of the time, because it’s not their book. If it’s your co-writer or ghost writer then sure if they’re better have them do it. They know the book. They know your intentions/message. Your narrator really can’t replicate what you can do.

✌️

Boring

The narrator is exceptionally boring. Remember to hit that sample button. Good idea for a book but they ruined it