Character Driven: Life, Lessons, and Basketball

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for my copy of this interesting book. My husband is the sports fan in our family, so he grabbed this copy up and began to read immediately. It's chock full of statistics and tidbits about the sport of basketball in general and about the Los Angeles Lakers in particular. For a young father, Derek Fisher experienced the burden of watching his young daughter suffer from eye cancer. This is revealed in detail. Sports fans will enjoy this one.

Character Driven demonstrates how simple people can become important in their field and role models for some. The book reads well. I hope many young men get to read it.

This book came in record time and in excellent condtion. It will be a Christmas present for my daughter-in-law. We are all great LA Champion Laker fans!! GO Lakers

I've read a lot of basketball books, from players and coaches, and this is easily one of most motivational, personal and honest books I've read. I also coach youth basketball and I believe every young basketball player should read this book. Wonderful lessons about commitment: the chapter about getting to the NBA draft is inspiring. And the story about Tatum's cancer is a great life lesson in prioritization and faith. I run a non-profit ([...]) that uses basketball to help underpriviliged kids (refugees, street childrent) in developing countries and Derek's book epitomizes so much of our principles that I will make it 'required reading' for our board members and donors. As Magic says in the foreward to 'Character Driven Life', the NBA and the world needs more people like Derek Fisher in it. Well done, Fish, and keep inspiring us on and off the court!

- "Why did he (Kobe Bryant) and Fisher get along so well? It's because Fisher, at a totally different level of talent and skill, competes every bit as hard as Bryant." - Jeff Van Gundy, commentating as the Lakers clinched the 2009 NBA Championship. Mad respect to DFish. He's one of those blue collar wearing, lunchpail toting, unassuming dudes, and he's real easy to overlook. Except that, once in a while, he'll do something sublime and make you realize, all over again, that flash is no substitute for substance. Kobe and Shaq and, hell, even Robert Horry got the lion's share of accolades (and rightly enough), but Derek Fisher's contributions can't be dismissed. Fisher was the third leading scorer in those back-to-back-to-back NBA championships for the Lakers. I forget which year it was, that he got injured and missed all those games, but I remember his coming back and shooting lights out, a suddenly improved perimeter marksman. And who can forget the 0.4 miracle toss? Certainly not the Spurs. There's a reason Kobe Bryant looks for him during crunch time. CHARACTER DRIVEN: LIFE, LESSONS, AND BASKETBALL is Derek Fisher's autobiography, written by Derek himself with an assist from some cat named Gary Brozek. Role players usually don't end up writing memoirs; usually, that's reserved for the superstars. But Derek Fisher has things to say beyond the scope of basketball. Or, rather, what he does is tie in all the skill sets and philosophies he's learned in playing basketball and applies them to how he lives life. And, sometimes, it's vice versa. Hard work. Perseverance. Grit. A competitive drive. No fear of failure. Character. And faith. The essence of Derek Fisher. In the game of hoops, Fish feels no pressure. Pressure is when your months-old daughter suffers cancer in the eye. Fish opens his book with a chapter devoted to this harrowing event, when his daughter Tatum was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. This, even as his then current team, the Utah Jazz, was in the midst of a playoff push. Appropriately, basketball was the furthest thing from Derek's mind. He reflects on the fear and shock experienced by him and his family, the frantic research and medical consultations, and the eventual course of treatment decided on. I watched that so-emotional televised playoff game against Golden State in which Derek showed up with 3:18 left in the game, made a key defensive play, and then hit a clutch 3. I've always cheered for Fish, even when he wasn't on the Lakers squad, and that night I cheered for him about as hard as if he'd just made a winning shot for L.A. Derek wrote this book partly as a thank you for all the support received during this trying period. Here, Derek hopes to impart the life lessons he's learned and the core values he's developed down the years. It's just one more way that this cat is giving back. This book is ideal for those who relish reading stories about the underdog making good and for all the Derek Fisher fans out there who want a m