Il Basket D'Italia: A Season in Italy with Great Food, Good Friends, and Some Very Tall Americans

Ostensibly about basketball in Italy, this book is really about Patton, a sportswriter for Willamette Week in Oregon. He spent the 1992-1993 Fall season in Italy, where a number of American basketball players have put in one or more years with the Italian League-and where the sport takes a distant second to soccer in the hearts of fans. He found the Americans settled there not quite good enough to play consistently in the NBA, too old for the pace of the game here or ousted from home courts for their drug habits. But, though he realized the level of play was not up to that in the States, Patton learned to love Italy, the Italians and even their attitude to the game-namely that basketball need not be a religion, or even a profession, but merely a good way to while away a couple of hours. As a sports book, this is inconsequential; but as a valentine to Italy, it's winning. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)