True Fans: A Basketball Odyssey

In 1999, Salt Lake City filmmaker Austin won the People's Choice Award at the Banff Film Festival with his documentary about a coast-to-coast bicycle trip, and this book retraces that 4,800-mile trek. It began when Austin, his brother and a friend left California in 1997, pedaling east, hoping "to see America... to get to know the people and to see if they were as heroic as we'd always believed." Seeking the "Perfect Hoop" in smalltown parks and schoolyards, the fun-loving jocks pedaled through oppressive heat, mosquitoes, traffic snarls and thunderstorms. The 100-day expedition ended in Springfield, Mass., where they gave the Basketball Hall of Fame their "Bball" with its "imprint of humanity," signatures collected from "nice folks" who gave them food, shelter and money. Those "true fans," however, are only superficially sketched in these pages. Although Austin obviously yearns to score points as a modern-day Kerouac (who is cited throughout), he doesn't quite succeed. Devising a brand strategy with flashy Web site marketing (www.truefans.net ), he follows the money, lecturing, selling DVDs, creating clever pitches for funding and developing True Fans the Musical . His book, however, is just a ho-hum travel journal. Eight-page b&w photo insert not seen by PW . (Oct. 1)