Overview

This debut by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter George Dohrmann is ""often heartbreaking, always riveting...one of the finest books about sports I've ever read"" (The New York Times Book Review). ""A tour de force of reporting"" (The Washington Post) from a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist that examines the often-corrupt machine producing America's basketball stars ""Indispensable.""-The Wall Street Journal ""Often heart-breaking, always riveting.""-The New York Times Book Review ""Tremendous.""-The Plain Dealer Winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting. Winner of the Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Youth Sports Using eight years of unfettered access and a keen sense of a story's deepest truths, journalist George Dohrmann reveals a cutthroat world where boys as young as eight or nine are subjected to a dizzying torrent of scrutiny and exploitation. At the book's heart are the personal stories of two compelling figures- Joe Keller, an ambitious coach with a master plan to find and promote ""the next LeBron,"" and Demetrius Walker, a fatherless latchkey kid who falls under Keller's sway and struggles to live up to unrealistic expectations. Complete with a new ""where-are-they-now"" epilogue by the author, Play Their Hearts Out is a thoroughly compelling narrative exposing the gritty reality that lies beneath so many dreams of fame and glory. One of GQ'S 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century . One of the Best Books of the Year- Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Kirkus Reviews This edition includes an exclusive conversation between George Dohrmann and bestselling author Seth Davis.

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9780345508614

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Reviews

Often heartbreaking, always riveting. The New York Times Book Review Tremendous. The Plain Dealer Indispensable. The Wall Street Journal A tour de force of reporting, filled with deft storytelling and vivid character studies. The Washington Post One of the finest sports books of all time. Harper s Magazine Amazing stuff . . . The Friday Night Lights of youth basketball. Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam A landmark achievement in basketball journalism. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Often heartbreaking, always riveting. -- The New York Times Book Review Tremendous. -- The Plain Dealer Indispensable. -- The Wall Street Journal A tour de force of reporting, filled with deft storytelling and vivid character studies. --The Washington Post One of the finest sports books of all time. -- Harper's Magazine Amazing stuff . . . The Friday Night Lights of youth basketball. --Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam A landmark achievement in basketball journalism. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

<p> An often heartbreaking, always riveting exploration of the seamy underbelly of big-time youth basketball--and one of the finest books about sports I've ever read. <br> --The New York Times Book Review<p><br> The sheer accumulation of transgressions makes for a deep and devastating portrait of an Amateur Athletic Union basketball team. <br> --The New York Times<p><br> A tremendous account...the book has kept me up at night reading. <br> --The Cleveland Plain Dealer <br> A unique and in-depth look at youth basketball, the players, the characters and how it all fits together, ala Friday Night Lights. Nice insight into a very unique and complex subculture. <br> --NewJerseyNewsroom.com Sit down and read the Friday Night Lights of youth basketball. Except the landscape is even darker here, greed and blind ambition stirred together in a toxic stew, the perversions of the modern American athletic dream even more perverted. This is nothing less than Dickens brought up-to-date, the ch

“Often heartbreaking, always riveting.”—The New York Times Book Review   “Tremendous.”—The Plain Dealer   “Indispensable.”—The Wall Street Journal   “A tour de force of reporting, filled with deft storytelling and vivid character studies.”—The Washington Post   “One of the finest sports books of all time.”—Harper’s Magazine   “Amazing stuff . . . The Friday Night Lights of youth basketball.”—Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam   “A landmark achievement in basketball journalism.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Author Information

George Dohrmann is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated and the magazine's investigative reporter. In 2000, while working at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories that uncovered a college basketball team's academic fraud. Dohrmann lives in San Francisco with his family. This is his first book.

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