Feeling good about yourself? Well, that will last until you hang up the phone with Pat Williams, Senior Vice President of the Orlando Magic, a marketing wizard, a motivational speaker, a marathon runner and uber author. The man who has spent more than four decades in the NBA as an executive just completed his 47th book, that’s right, No. 47, titled, Read for Your Life: 11 Ways to Transform Your Life with Books. Williams shared his passion for reading (he often reads one book a day, no joke) before preparing for this weekend’s Chicago Marathon with his daughter, Karyn.

NBA.com What prompted you to write a book about reading?
Pat Williams: As I have been publishing books for quite a few years, I keep hearing from the different publishing houses that I work with about this crisis in America that we’ve become a non-reading society. Then in the last few years, staggering information like the average man upon finishing high school won’t read another book the rest of his life and 85 percent of all the books purchased in this country are purchased by women. Then author Rick Warren began to report that over half the world is illiterate and that really frightened me. What does that say about the future of this world if half the world is illiterate? So I approached Health Communications, the Chicken Soup for the Soul publishers and said I want to write a book about reading. And the publisher Peter Vegso said, well who is going to buy that book? People who don’t read it, why would they buy it and people who do read it, why would they buy it? I said, Peter, there is a huge middle ground that can be swayed because I think people subconsciously know they should be reading. They really do. There is always an excuse why not to. So that is really what this book is about. It’s a book to challenge people. Turn the TV off a little bit. Carry books with you. Get up a little bit earlier. Instead of an hour and a half lunch, eat at your desk. The time is there. Once people get excited about reading again, well, then it’s infectious.

NBA.com: Finding time to read a good book is even more challenging in this digital and technological age that we live in.
Pat Williams: Well it has. Call me old fashioned, but to me the feel of a book, the look of a book, the smell of a book, the atmosphere that comes with a book, cannot be replaced by anything electronically. The magic of hooking your brain cells around a real book as you hold it and then the thrill of finishing the book. You know, you set out with a mission, with a goal, break the goal down into bite sized chunks and then when you finish the book, that’s an enormous accomplishment. Every time I finish one there is an adrenaline rush. It’s like a release of endorphins in my system when you finish a book.

NBA.com: Share your hour a day reading philosophy?
Pat Williams: It does not have to be one 60 minute session because that can be impossible. But there is nothing wrong with six 10 minute sessions, or 10 sixes, or four 15s or 15 fours. They all add up to 60. I’ll take 30 two minute sessions. If you really push me, I’ll permit 60 one minute sessions. But if you will do that, at the end of one week, you’ll have finished a book.

NBA.com: Where is your favorite place to read?
Pat Williams: I have found that it’s important to always have books with you. You never want to go anywhere without your book. Whether you’re planning a flight, do not leave home without your books. I have learned from raising 19 children that one of the best places to read was youth sports activities. In a two hour Little League baseball game, and I guess I had 20 straight years of Little League baseball, there is about three minutes of action. Your kid may get three at-bats and he may pitch one inning and play two in the field. That is an hour and 57 minutes of reading time. If you are an hour late getting into the doctor’s appointment, to a reader, that’s no big deal. Not even an issue. You’re glad about it because you are sitting there reading and you’ve got time. So readers are never upset by delays.

NBA.com: Your favorite book?
Pat Williams: The most important book came into my life 45 years ago. Bill Veeck, the great baseball promoter and owner, wrote his memoirs, Veeck As in Wreck. I was 22 years old, just finished my first season of playing pro ball in the Phillies system, came across the book and it had an absolute riveting effect on my life. And through a mutual friend I was able to meet Bill Veeck that fall which started a 25 year friendship, mentorship, influenceship until Bill’s death, and it all triggered from reading his book. Coincidentally the book is still in print in paperback in the baseball section in book stores. So that was the single most significant book that hit me.

I read in my field only. I don’t read novels. I don’t read fiction. I don’t read about computer science or gardening or pet care. I stay right in my fields – sports, civil war history, WWII history, presidential biographies or autobiographies, leadership (which is a huge topic today). The best leadership book I’ve read recently just came out by Bo Schembechler, who finished it the week before he died last November. I highly recommend that one.

NBA.com: How about your favorite basketball book?
Pat Williams: I have read all the books that Red Auerbach wrote which I thought were valuable. I read Phil Jackson’s books. The best book I read in the last couple of years was Jack Ramsay’s book on leadership. It was a wonderful book. I enjoyed very much earlier this year the two biographies that came out on Pete Maravich. I thought they were very well researched and extremely well written and accurately written. Those are the ones that jump at me immediately. And if you want to go back a little bit in history, Bill Bradley. His book when he retired from the Knicks, Life on the Run, is truly a classic. I think that was his best work. One other quick note, our beloved friend, the late Red Holzman made a living after retiring writing about the 1970 Knicks. Every five years there would be another book written about the ’70 Knicks that Coach Holzman would pen. They’re all scattered out there somewhere.

NBA.com: How many books do you read a month?
Pat Williams: My goal is to finish one book a day. Some days it doesn’t happen. Notice I use the word finish because I read in a strange way. I read seven or eight books at the same time. I do not just read one book start to finish. I have seven or eight going at the same time so that if I get tired or bogged down, I just switch. Right now I am reading Ken Burns WWII coffee table book. I watched the seven nights of the PBS series, so I’m in the middle of that book. I’m finishing up a book on Robert E. Lee. The new book on George Mikan that has just come out, I have a trip tonight that I’m taking that with me. I just finished reading Jim Calhoun’s new book on leadership that I got this week. I knocked that off quickly. So I always have seven or eight going and on different topics.

NBA.com: This season marks the 25th anniversary of the ’83 Sixers. You were the GM of that team. Where does that team rank all time?
Pat Williams: That topic is fresh on my mind because I have just turned in the manuscript for a book that will be out in November on the ’83 championship season. I’ve spent the last two and a half years immersed in the researching. We tracked down everybody on the team, got a hold of every single person involved with that team, plus many outsiders. I think I did about 250 interviews and it was just fascinating to bring that whole season alive. And I think for one year, you could argue that was the best team in the NBA. It did not continue. The Bulls had a lengthy run and the Lakers had a lengthy run. Everybody was at their peak in that season, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and it wasn’t there again. When I finished all this research, you could sit and have a round table debate and if you ended up drawing straws and you had to defend the 76ers of ’83 as the best team in league history, you could make a good case. Yes, a Laker team here and a Celtic team there, the Bulls team, there are probably only four or five of them, but the 76er team of ’67, somebody would grab that one, and you could sit there and make a very good case for the ’83 Sixers.

NBA.com: How would Moses Malone on the ’83 Sixers match up against Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain?
Pat Williams: I think Moses would have matched up very well with them. He would have worked them to death. He would have kept coming right at him and he would have been relentless. He would go outside and pop his jumpers on him. They would have had their hands full with him. Whether Moses would have prevailed in a seven game series, we’ll never really know, but Moses would not have been intimidated. He wouldn’t have backed down and he’d have gone after it hammer and tongue. Don’t you wish we could create that?

NBA.com: And the Sixers followed up their championship by losing to the New Jersey Nets in the first round in the ’84 playoffs.
Pat Williams: We wrote about that in the book, and Billy Cunningham talked about it very openly, that the club came in, and this is the biggest problem, we saw it last year with Miami. One reason I admire Red Auerbach so much, when you win, when you climb to the top of that mountain, as human beings we become satisfied, we become fulfilled, you lose some of your hunger. It’s just inevitable and somehow Red Auerbach kept them going. Year after year he figured out ways to tweak them and drive them. It’s amazing to me. In the pros we’ve go the same players every year. How do you keep them jacked up to that level? We were not. There was a sense of satisfaction. There was a sense of after all these years we’ve climbed the mountain and let’s enjoy it. The guys weren’t in quite as good shape, they weren’t quite as ready, and physically Dr. J’s last great year was ’83. He played another four, still a very good player, but his last great year was ’83. And Moses last great year was ’83. And Andrew Toney, his foot problems began to enter the equation. His last great year was ’83. Bobby Jones played a few more years, but his last great year was ’83. So there was an absolute peaking. Everything went right. We had no injuries that year, no break downs, no crises really. As we wrote the book and I re-read the manuscript I thought man, why can’t every year be like that?

NBA.com: Dwight Howard-Shaquille O’Neal comparisons. As the man who drafted Shaq and now see Dwight on a day-to-day basis, do you see any?
Pat Williams: Keep in mind that this would be Dwight’s rookie year if he was Shaq. Shaq played the three years at LSU, came in as a rookie in ’92, which would have been his senior year and this would have been Dwight Howard’s senior year. So Dwight has a three year head start on Shaq. Right at this moment 15 years ago, Shaq’s stats in the NBA were zero, hadn’t played yet. And Dwight, his three years, age 18, 19 and 20, he’s putting up numbers that are among the greats. Having said that, there will never be another Shaq. Someone of that magnitude and that charisma, impact on the game, you can’t compare Dwight to Shaq. It’s just not fair. Shaq is bigger than life and has had a career that you would envy. Four rings, every award that you can win, he’s done it.

NBA.com: When you analyze Dwight’s game, what area is ripe for improvement?
Pat Williams: The two areas really are turnovers, that would be a huge area to work on, and developing an absolute, go-to shot where you can go to him, particularly late in games where you know he can go get you a basket. Right now he has not perfected it. The third area which all the big guys struggle with is free throw shooting. That is the third area that was very troubling to him last year. There were some periods where he just got the yips and just couldn’t make free throws. Can that be improved? We’ll see. So those are the three areas – consistency from the line, a go-to shot that he can count on and not turning the ball over.

NBA.com: What is the buzz in Orlando for the Magic this season, especially with the arrival of head coach Stan Van Gundy and Rashard Lewis?
Pat Williams: It’s interesting you mention that because David Whitley of the Orlando Sentinel wrote a column about buzz the other day. He said that there is not a huge buzz and therefore let’s just go out and win some ball games. That will generate the buzz, although our sales are up. We’ve got 2,000 more season tickets. I think there is a great curiosity because our fans don’t know Rashard Lewis. He would have come through here once a year for the last few years. They wouldn’t know him. Certainly not a lot of TV exposure. So the curiosity really is, who is this guy? How will he and Dwight work together? Is J.J. Redick ready to step into a prime time role? Who is this Stan Van Gundy? Lots of intriguing questions. There is a lot of curiosity about that club. I would use curiosity rather than buzz. I think that would be the word. It’s certainly been an event filled offseason, between the Brian Hill departure to the Billy Donovan false start, the Stan Van Gundy arrival,the Rashard Lewis signing, Dwight Howard and the Olympic team, and in the middle of all this, the vote is favorable in the new arena down here. From May through September and October, it’s just been an event filled offseason.

NBA.com: Having seen plenty of great players in your more than four decades of NBA experience, who comprises the All-Pat Williams Team?
Pat Williams: F – Dr. J – I made the deal to get him to Philadelphia and he’s been an integral part of my life and my career. We had him for 10 years and I rode on Dr. J’s shoulders for a long time.
F – Larry Bird – Our duels with the Celtics were legendary. He broke my heart so many times. Oh, to go into the Garden and face the great Larry Bird.
C – Kareem Abdul Jabbar – We saw him in the Finals three years – ’80, ’82, ’83. My first year in Chicago was Kareem’s rookie year, so for four years with the Bulls, the Bucks-Bulls battles in the Great North were legendary. I still have vivid memories.
G – Michael Jordan – You’ve gotta have Jordan. Michael makes the team.
G – I’m going to create a three-headed player to fill out the other guard spot. Magic West Robertson. It’s one person. Oscar came to Milwaukee with Kareem and those battles with our Bulls, Jerry Sloan and Oscar Robertson on a cold January night in the old Chicago Stadium, it didn’t get any better than that. We played the Lakers three years in the playoffs when I was in Chicago. Three straight years – ’71, ’72, ’73 – Chicago and Los Angeles. I’ve got Jerry West embedded in my brain cells. And then the young Magic Johnson, who taps us for 42 in Game 6 in 1980 as a rookie. We knew then he was going to be pretty good. So Magic West Robertson is my other guard.
Coach – Billy Cunningham. He coached our club for eight years in Philadelphia. His numbers are staggering. His percentages are just off the charts. He elected not to go on, a very short coaching career, but for eight years nobody did it better. I felt very proud because I made the decision to hire him in 1977 and he led our club from ’77 until ’85. I would argue for that period that nobody did it better.