Basketball's Best Writer
Feinstein: Chronicling College Basketball Behind the Scenes
Recommended reading for fans of college basketball by America's premier writer on the sport
Among the shouting voices of sports announcers and the cliché-ridden basketball columnists, one truly gifted writer stands above the rest when it comes to covering college basketball. The author of more than twenty three books and a writer who is gifted whether covering golf or football, John Feinstein is at his best when writing about college basketball. He combines a passion for the game in its purest nature, an encyclopedic knowledge base, and an uncanny ability to gain an insider’s focus to offer the most intriguing examination of college hoops available.
An Insider’s Vision
Particularly regarding the sport of college basketball there are a number of talented writers that remove the clichés of over-the-top sportswriters, yet Feinstein still proves the best. While he has written worthy books on other subjects, some of his best work comes from the hardwood.
Feinstein has written seven books that focus on college basketball, first attracting real national attention with A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers. Not only is this a fascinating and steadfastly honest account of the Hoosier’s 1985-1986 season, it established the framework for the depth and committed focus of most of his basketball coverage. The book benefited from the explosiveness and media frenzy that is generated by Knight, but the story it tells is rich and complex and human. It never attempts to garner its energy form Knight’s fury, nor does it shy from presenting Knight in all his complications.
Prolific Basketball Coverage
Like A Season on the Brink, most of his basketball books develop from a full year spent living within his subject. Feinstein is gifted at gaining the respect and trust of coaches, players, and administrators, allowing him the intimacy of access most journalists cannot establish. This methodology is seen in books like: March to Madness: The View from the Floor of the Atlantic Coast Conference, The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball, Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four, A Season Inside: One Year in College BB, and Forever’s Team, a book focused on the disappointing years that followed the members 1978 Duke team.
Demonstrating his insider abilities, his more recent foray into the sport focuses on the professional game and is derived from the stories told by legendary Celtic coach Red Auerbach. Feinstein shares credentials with Auerbach in this book published in Auerbach’s final years, and like his other work, Feinstein removes himself from the story and lets his subject take over the task. With his eye for detail and his recognition of material that contains its own drama and ironies, all of his books make for intelligent and compelling reads.
College Basketball Purity
If you read much of Feinsteins’s coverage of basketball, you quickly realize that he loves the game when it is at its most pure, and because of this, he loves it when its players are most focused on actually playing of the game rather than the hype of the modern temperament. Nowhere is this instinct more apparent than in The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball, a book that will likely remind readers why they are such devoted fans in the first place.
Feinstein continues to cover sports, most recently with another book on golf. The former Washington Post columnist continues to provide sports commentary for National Public Radio. Quite often now, Feinstein employs his considerable talent by writing mysteries with sports settings focused on young adult readers. Fans of college basketball, particularly those interested in more than box scores, would do well to read any of the significant books on the subject written by Feinstein.
