Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Raw Recruits Raw Recruits by Alexander Wolff Basketball Coach Books. We’ve got 5 more important books to note as summer winds down. There are still many more worthy efforts that we’ll discuss in the months ahead. One reader reminded us of STUFF: GOOD PLAYERS SHOULD KNOW by Dick Devenzio-a casual piece which speaks to players directly and should be on every player’s radar. TAKING SHOTS: TALL TALES, BIZARRE BATTLES AND THE INCREDIBLE TRUTH ABOUT THE NBA , by Keith Glass. This is a very unusual book because the author is an NBA agent. So, the viewpoint is not your everyday variety as agents generally only want to be outspoken behind closed doors.. The book jacket summarizes far better than I could, “In his insightful, funny and often mind-numbingly bizarre tales of life in the NBA over the last twenty-five years, Keith Glass lets it fly from half-court. He’ll tell you how we got to the present state-where an agent who makes millions off the game can’t sit through one. “ THE ART OF A BEAUTIFUL GAME: THE THINKING FAN’S TOUR OF THE NBA , by Chris Ballard. This gem is a totally opposite perspective of the NBA than the previously discussed TAKING SHOTS. The promo for the book includes this biased but accurate description, “An inveterate hoops junkie who played some college ball, Ballard sits down with the NBA’s most passionate, cerebral players to find out their tricks of the trade and to learn what drives them, taking readers away from the usual sports talk radio fodder and deep into the heart of the game.” MAKING IT TO #1: HOW COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL TEAMS GET THERE , by Jim Benagh. One of the earliest books that systematically and intelligently deals with the excesses of big time college recruiting in the late 60’s through the 70’s, Benagh’s book is a bit dated but serves as an appropriate timeline bridge to the next book on the list, RAW RECRUITS. Reading these two books back to back will give one an excellent 25 year overview of how every recruiting era has its own unique quirks but in the end how very similar the eras are. RAW RECRUITS , by Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian. This 1990 chronicle basically picks up on the Benagh story into the end of the 80’s. This history includes the infamous Kentucky Fed Ex story. The names change but for the most part, the types of players, coaches and middle-men who violate NCAA recruiting rules, are the same. Both books are fascinating glimpses into the side of recruiting that your average high school coach, player and parent rarely sees. FALL RIVER DREAMS: A TEAM’S QUEST FOR GLORY-A TOWN’s SEARCH FOR IT SOUL , by Bill Reynolds. If you haven’t heard the story of Chris Herren of Fall River, Massachusetts, you’re in for quite a treat. In the best of ways, this classic is as much about a town, its people, history and culture, as it is about high school basketball and a highly recruited but fragile, troubled superstar. Search AbeBooks. We're sorry; the page you requested could not be found. AbeBooks offers millions of new, used, rare and out-of-print books, as well as cheap textbooks from thousands of booksellers around the world. Shopping on AbeBooks is easy, safe and 100% secure - search for your book, purchase a copy via our secure checkout and the bookseller ships it straight to you. Search thousands of booksellers selling millions of new & used books. New & Used Books. New and used copies of new releases, best sellers and award winners. Save money with our huge selection. Rare & Out of Print Books. From scarce first editions to sought-after signatures, find an array of rare, valuable and highly collectible books. Textbooks. Catch a break with big discounts and fantastic deals on new and used textbooks. Raw Recruits. Items can be returned within 30 days of the estimated delivery date. All returns must be approved before an item is shipped back. Domestic returns generally take two weeks and International returns can take up to six weeks to be received and processed by our return center. In the event that an item is being returned due to an error on our part, a prepaid return label will be supplied via email upon request. If a return is not approved, there may be a delay with processing a refund. Tax ID: 87-07. Orders usually ship within 2 business days [M-F]. Unfortunately, as a bulk order shipper, we do not provide tracking for individual orders included in our bulk shipments. Items shipped via USPS Standard Mail should arrive within 4-14 business days [M-F]. Please note, as per USPS, depending on service location and/or high peak periods within the post office, deliveries can take up to 21 business days [M-F] to arrive. Should your order not arrive within 21 business days [M-F], please contact us promptly for resolution. Basketball Hall of Fame to honor writer Alexander Wolff, commentator Jim Durham. SPRINGFIELD – Alexander Wolff, a distinguished writer at Sports Illustrated for three decades, and Jim Durham, a commentator for the NBA on ESPN Radio and former voice of the Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls, have been selected to receive the 2011 Curt Gowdy Media Awards from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame during Enshrinement festivities on Aug. 11-12. The Gowdy Media Award is named in honor of the legendary sports broadcaster and former Hall of Fame Board member and president, the late Curt Gowdy. The prestigious award is presented annually to members of the print and electronic media whose longtime efforts have made a significant contribution to the game of basketball. "Curt Gowdy was one of the pioneers in sports media and a former Basketball Hall of Fame president, so each year we search for honorees who exhibit the passion and excitement that Mr. Gowdy displayed throughout his decorated career," said John L. Doleva, president and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. "Alexander Wolff and Jim Durham are two individuals who have demonstrated a true love for the game of basketball, while going above and beyond their traditional roles to bring incredible storytelling into millions of households each year." Wolff, the 2011 honoree for the Print Media, has been a member of the Sports Illustrated staff since 1980. Although his primary focus has been basketball, he has also covered a variety of sports, including tennis, cycling, football, soccer and several Olympic Games. His quest and determination for a good story has taken Alex from basketball's most storied arenas, to some of the world's most remote regions. "In his decades of covering basketball for SI, the depth and breadth of Alex Wolff's work has been inimitable," Terry McDonell, editor, Sports Illustrated Group. "He has written with a lyrical and literary grace in stories on Final Fours and NCAA tournaments, in profiles of the game's most influential figures, in investigative pieces that protected the very integrity of the game while the vision of his work pushed basketball to become truly international. There is no journalist who better embodies what Curt Gowdy meant to the game." Wolff has written five books, which include "The In-Your-Face-Basketball Book," co-authored with Chuck Wielgus, about playground basketball in America; "Raw Recruits," co-authored with CBS Sports correspondent Armen Keteyian, about corruption in college basketball recruiting; and "Sports Illustrated's 100 Years of Hoops," on the history of basketball. His "Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Odyssey," an account of a year spent chasing basketball around the world, was published in 2002. In addition to his tremendous writing accomplishments, Wolff was also the founding owner of the Vermont Frost Heaves of the American Basketball Association from 2005-2009. He turned the franchise into one of the most innovative and successful league franchises, while winning ABA titles in 2007 and 2008. Raised in Rochester, N.Y., Wolff played a year of professional basketball in the Swiss basketball league before earning a history degree from Princeton in 1980. Durham, the 2011 Gowdy Award winner representing the Electronic Media, joined ESPN in 1992, and serves as lead play-by-play commentator for the NBA on ESPN Radio, a role he received in January 1996 when the network's game coverage debuted. He has also called college basketball games and ESPN Major League Baseball games for ESPN. "Jim is an NBA broadcasting legend and consummate professional," said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production. "His delivery and passion for the game make every broadcast feel like a big event. We congratulate him on this well-deserved honor." Durham was the television voice of the Dallas Mavericks from 1993 to 2001. He also served as radio and television commentator for the Chicago Bulls (1972-1991), Chicago White Sox television play-by-play announcer (1989-1990), and Houston Astros television commentator (1983- 1985). Additionally, Durham handled sports announcing chores for NBC, CBS and Turner Sports. An accomplished veteran, Durham has been recognized with Illinois Sportscaster-of-the-Year honors in 1979, 1989 and 1990, and garnered Chicago Emmy Awards in 1989 and 1991. The Chicago native had the pleasure of calling the action during Michael Jordan's first seven seasons in the Windy City, including his most memorable call of Jordan's game-winning "shot" in the 1989 NBA Playoffs against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Audacity of Hoop. Until he became a Sports Illustrated special contributor in 2016, Alexander Wolff spent 36 years on the SI staff. He has covered basketball at all levels and written from the Olympics, soccer’s World Cup, the World Series, every Grand Slam tennis event, and the Tour de France. SI story assignments have taken him to six continents and to such countries as China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia, and dealt with such issues at the intersection of sport and society as race, gender, culture, the environment, doping, education, law, religion, business, ethnic conflict and ethics. In addition to The Audacity of Hoop , Wolff is the author or co-author of six other books about basketball, including The In-Your-Face Basketball Book (Everest House, with Chuck Wielgus), one of the first explorations of the playground game; Raw Recruits (Pocket Books, with Armen Keteyian), a New York Times bestseller that examined college basketball recruiting; and Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure (Warner Books), an account of a year spent chasing the game around the globe to take the measure of its impact, and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book for 2002. He is currently editing the anthology Basketball: Great Writing About America's Game , which the Library of America will publish in Spring 2018. Wolff’s writing for Sports Illustrated has been honored many times, including with multiple appearances in The Best American Sports Writing . In 1996 he and Hoop Dreams filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert collaborated on Team of Broken Dreams , an Emmy-nominated NBC documentary based on a Wolff article for SI that detailed the impact of the Yugoslav crisis on basketball players from the Balkans. As a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University in 2002, Wolff taught an undergraduate seminar called Writing About Sports and the Wider World. In 2010 he delivered the commencement address at "the Birthplace of Basketball," Springfield College, which awarded him an honorary doctorate, and in 2011 the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honored him with its Curt Gowdy Print Media Award for outstanding lifetime coverage of the game.