Life on the run

Life on the run

Bill Bradley, 1943-

Book - 1995

Almost two decades after its original publication and more than fifteen years after its author retired from the New York Knicks to become a United States senator, Bill Bradley's account of twenty days in a pro basketball season remains a classic in the literature of sports, unparalleled in its candor and intelligence. Bradley takes readers from the court to the locker room, from the seamless teamwork of a winning game to the loneliness of a motel in a strange city. We see Bradley and his fellow Knicks as they withstand the abuse of the press and the smothering adoration of their fans, along with the shameless appeals of those who want to parlay their celebrity into a fast buck. We watch in horror as Earl Monroe is beaten outside Madiso...n Square Garden barely an hour after twenty thousand people cheered him. And we come to understand the euphoria and exhaustion, the icy concentration and intense pressure, that are felt only by those who play basketball for keeps.

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Subjects
Bradley, Bill, > 1943-
New York Knickerbockers (Basketball team) > History.
Basketball players > United States > Biography.
Biographies.
History.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Biographies
History
Autobiographies
Published
New York : Vintage Books 1995.
Language
English
Main Author
Bill Bradley, 1943- (-)
Edition
1st Vintage books ed
Item Description
Originally published: New York : Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., ©1976. With new introd.
Physical Description
229 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9780679762089
Contents unavailable.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The New York Knicks' soft-spoken and introspective star forward examines his life and the game he loves against the backdrop of the '73-'74 NBA season. ""Dollar Bill"" is no longer that aloof Christian scholar-athlete whose individual heroics at Princeton were so well recorded in John McPhee's A Sense of Where You Are (1965). Albeit ""programmed to become a successful gentleman,"" Bradley became ""more playful and rebellious"" at Oxford before opting for a career in professional basketball. A Knick since 1968, he's come to appreciate the joys of teamwork (""basketball, when a certain level of unselfish team play is realized, can serve as a kind of metaphor for ultimate cooperation"") as well as the friendship he shares with Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Jerry Lucas, and Willis Reed. An extremely private person who saves all his fan letters, Bradley has yet to be enticed by endorsements because he wants to keep his basketball experience ""pure, as innocent and unpolluted by commercialism as possible."" An articulate and perceptive self-portrait of an uncommon sportsman. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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