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A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
Ballantine Books
February 2012
On Sale: February 7, 2012
448 pages ISBN: 0345508610 EAN: 9780345508614 Kindle: B003F3PN42 Paperback / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Sports
Winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sportswriting Winner of the Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Youth Sports Eight years of unfettered access and a keen sense of a storyโs deepest truths allow Pulitzer Prizeโwinning journalist George Dohrmann to take readers inside the machine that produces Americaโs basketball stars. Play Their Hearts Out reveals a cutthroat world where boys as young as eight or nine are subjected to a dizzying torrent of scrutiny and exploitation. At the bookโs heart are the personal stories of two compelling figures: Joe Keller, an ambitious coach with a master plan to find and promote โthe next LeBron,โ and Demetrius Walker, a fatherless latchkey kid who falls under Kellerโs sway and struggles to live up to unrealistic expectations. Complete with a new โwhere-are-they-nowโ Epilogue by the author, this thoroughly compelling narrative exposes the gritty reality that lies beneath so many dreams of fame and glory.
 Media BuzzTell Me More - March 9, 2012
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