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Also by George Dohrmann:

Play Their Hearts Out, February 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Play Their Hearts Out, October 2010
Hardcover

PLAY THEIR HEARTS OUT
By: George Dohrmann

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
Add to Wish List

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 story’s deepest truths allow Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist George Dohrmann to take readers inside the machine that produces America’s 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 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, this thoroughly compelling narrative exposes the gritty reality that lies beneath so many dreams of fame and glory.

Media Buzz

Tell Me More - March 9, 2012