Holding Court: Reflections on the Game I Love

Vitale, who does basketball color commentary for both ESPN and ABC-TV, is as well known as the stars he reports on, which is as it should be, because he coached at the high school, college and NBA levels. He covers the game from recruiting to coaching, to the huge sums of money that lure college players to leave campuses and join the pros, to the great figures he has known in the sport and the great games he has seen. He tells of his own history, including his firing as coach of the Detroit Pistons, a memory that has ensured his humility to the present day, he says. There are plenty of cliches here--pleas for young athletes not to neglect academics and concern that too much money is going to those as yet untried in the pros. And his monomania about the court game leads him to wild assertions about basketball rather than soccer being the great international sport, but since his readers will all be cager fans, that will likely be forgiven. Weiss (coauthor with Vitale of Time Out Baby) is a sportswriter. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. (Dec.)