We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,573,302.75 | Books Available: 795,027 | Members Online: 176

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine

Play Their Hearts Out A Coach His Star Recruit and the Youth Basketball Machine
Author: George Dohrmann

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... more » 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.

From the Hardcover edition.

ISBN-13: 9780345508614
ISBN-10: 0345508610
Publication Date: 2/7/2012
Pages: 432
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 3
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Sports & Outdoors >> Basketball

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine

Loading...