Be Specific About Of Books Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
Title | : | Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine |
Author | : | George Dohrmann |
Book Format | : | Hardcover |
Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 432 pages |
Published | : | October 5th 2010 by Ballantine Books (first published October 5th 2009) |
Categories | : | Sports. Nonfiction. Basketball. Biography |
George Dohrmann
Hardcover | Pages: 432 pages Rating: 4.21 | 4126 Users | 224 Reviews
Chronicle Concering Books Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
Eight years of unfettered access, a keen sense of a story’s deepest truths, and a genuine compassion for his subject allow Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist George Dohrmann to take readers inside the machine that produces America’s basketball stars.Hoop dreams aren’t just for players. The fever that grips college basketball prospects hoping to strike big-time NBA gold afflicts coaches, parents, and sneaker executives as well. Every one of them has a stake in keeping America’s wildly dysfunctional, incredibly lucrative youth basketball machine up and running—no matter the consequences.
In Play Their Hearts Out, George Dohrmann offers an up-close and unforgettable look inside the maw of that machine. He shares what he learned from his years spent embedded with a group of talented young recruits from Southern California as they traveled the country playing in elite Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) events. It’s a cutthroat world where boys as young as eight or nine are subjected to a dizzying torrent of scrutiny and exploitation. Coaches vie to have them on their teams. Sneaker companies ply them with free shoes and gear. “All-star camps” are glorified cattle auctions, providing make-or-break opportunities to secure the promise of an elusive college scholarship.
At the book’s heart are the personal stories of two compelling figures: Joe Keller, an ambitious AAU coach with a master plan to find and promote “the next LeBron”—thereby paving his own path to power and riches; and Demetrius Walker, a fatherless latchkey kid who falls under Keller’s sway and struggles to live up to the unrealistic expectations his supposed benefactor has set for him. As their fortunes take shape and the pressure mounts—Demetrius finds himself profiled in Sports Illustrated at age fourteen, while Keller cultivates his business empire—Dohrmann weaves in the stories of numerous other parents, coaches, and players. Some of them see their prospects evaporate as a result of poor decisions and worse luck. Others learn how to thrive in a corrupt system by playing the right angles.
Written with incomparable detail and insight, Play Their Hearts Out is a thoroughly unique narrative that reveals the inner workings of an American game, exposing the gritty reality that lies beneath so many dreams of fame and glory.
Specify Books During Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
ISBN: | 0345508602 (ISBN13: 9780345508607) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing (2011) |
Rating Of Books Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
Ratings: 4.21 From 4126 Users | 224 ReviewsJudge Of Books Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
Perhaps the best sports book ever written.I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my dad and as I started wrapping it, I thumbed through it, read the cover and decided I'd read it to see what I thought. Wow, what a great book! Eight years of investigative reporting and George Dorhmann has written a Pulitzer prize-winning non-fiction account of a group of incredibly talented boy basketball players. This book details the inner world of AAU basketball for players beginning at the age of 10. The author is credible and believable and
Play Their Hearts Out, is a very in-depth look at the world of youth basketball. As a former high school assistant basketball coach this book really angered me. The total disregard for athletes and their futures is sickening. The youth basketball machine is exposed for the terrible modern day institution of slavery that it is. Read this book if you are a fan of basketball and want to better understand the sometimes seedy world of youth basketball. Dohrmann put his life into the research and
I've followed college basketball and recruiting for many years and this book is completely on point. Perfectly shows how the youth basketball system is far more about access and money making and much less about developing both youth and player skills.
Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann was one of the most inspiring books I've read. The main character in this story, Coach Joe Keller, aspires to assemble kids who have the capability to play basketball, and keep them together throughout their high school careers to generate the next great player. Demetrius Walker who, unlike many of the other players that Coach Keller considers to be successful in the sport, is favored by his
All sports fans on my news feed should read this book. Every single one of you. "Play Their Hearts Out" is an eye-opening account of what the players we see on college basketball courts go through before we see them. It's not the rim nailed to a barn, or the neighborhood pick-up game in a cul-de-sac or even twenty-five games a winter with a high school team that paves the path to a college scholarship. All-consuming grassroots basketball with all of its shady operators makes up about 90% or more
Fascinating and insightful. Up there with Friday Night Lights. The author spent years following the boys that are the subjects of his book, and it shows.FYI, the author's blog provides occasional updates on how the boys are doing in college - e.g. [SPOILER] http://www.georgedohrmann.com/blog/id...?
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