Unguarded: My Forty Years Surviving in the NBA - Hardcover

Wilkens, Lenny; Pluto, Terry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684873745 ISBN 13: 9780684873749

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2000

Synopsis

The most winning coach in NBA history looks back on a life in professional basketball, offering a personal take on the remarkable changes that have shaped the sport over the past four decades. 35,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Terry Pluto is an award-winning sportswriter who writes primarily for The Plain Dealer. He was a sportswriter for the Akron Beacon Journal from 1985-2007. He has twice been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and twice been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the nation's top sports columnist for medium-sized newspapers. He is an eight-time winner of the Ohio Sports Writer of the Year award and has received more than fifty state and local writing awards. He is the author of twenty-one books, including The Curse of Rocky Colavito, Unguarded, and Loose Balls. He lives in Akron, Ohio.

From Publishers Weekly

One of only two men to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and as a coach, Wilkens describes his life on and off the court in this introspective memoir. Wilkens, who has won more games than any other coach in NBA history, begins by recounting his childhood in Brooklyn and follows his career through his acceptance of his current job as head coach of the Toronto Raptors. Along the way, he endured many hardships, including the loss of his father at a young age, poverty and racism, but here Wilkens always remains upbeat, focusing on how he overcame his problems rather than on how they might have held him back. Wilkens also shares his philosophies on basketball, society, family life and religion, in addition to offering opinions on specific players and on what factors make a great coach. Wilkens, whose father was African-American and whose mother is Irish, also conveys his opinions on race relations, both within the NBA and in America. Because his career has lasted so long, Wilkens is in a unique position to comment on the changes that have taken place in the league over the last 40 years. Coauthor Pluto's conversational style buoys the reader along, despite a few repetitions. Wilkens comes across as modest while still letting the reader know that he is proud of his accomplishments as a player, a coach and a family man. The book should do well among NBA fans, who will appreciate this intelligent, inside look at the NBA from one of the legends of the game. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0684873745
• ISBN 13: 9780684873749
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 302