The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High-Stakes Business of High School Ball - Softcover

O'Connor, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594864470 ISBN 13: 9781594864476

Publisher: Rodale Books, 2006

Synopsis

In The Jump, one of America's great sports writers follows high school phenom Sebastian Telfair on his quest for NBA stardom—and exposes all that big-time sports in America has become, the good and the bad. Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James—all became NBA superstars without playing a day of college ball. In 2004, Coney Island's 5-foot-11 Telfair became the first small player ever to jump straight from high school to the NBA when he signed contracts with the Portland Trail Blazers and Adidas worth $25 million.

Author Ian O'Connor, who followed every moment of Telfair's senior year, draws on exclusive interviews with friends, family members, coaches, recruiters, agents, and players to tell the story of the young star's road out of the crime-ridden projects and into the NBA. And O'Connor brings readers up to date on Telfair's fate in the NBA in an all new chapter.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"One phenom (Ian O'Connor) writing about another (Sebastian Telfair). You want to know why hoops is no longer about the hoop? Read this book. You want to know how America lost the patent on the very game Americans invented? Read this book. You want to accompany one of America's premier sports columnists on a journey into the dark belly of one of its premier games, as seen through the jaded eyes of one of its premier players? Take this trip." -Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, ESPN's "Around the Horn"

"Hoop Dreams takes a wild ride on the Coney Island Cyclone as Ian O'Connor dives headfirst into the world of big-time high school basketball and emerges with a searing and beautifully written tale. No sports book digs deeper into its subject. THE JUMP stands tall as the definitive work on the preps-to-pros phenomenon that has dramatically altered the culture of the sport." -Harvey Araton, The New York Times, coauthor of Money Players: Days and Nights Inside the New NBA

"A must-read for anyone who cares about basketball, about sports, or about young athletes trying to come of age." -- John Feinstein, The Washington Post, author of A Season on the Brink and Let Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the Game

"Anyone looking for evidence of how the culture of sports has changed (for better and for worse) will find it in Ian O'Connor's engrossing account of Sebastian Telfair's young life." -- Bob Costas, NBC Sports, HBO Sebastian Telfair was a secondary-school basketball phenom whom experts rightly predicted would be the next student to jump from public school to the National Basketball Association, following in the footsteps of NBA superstars such as Kobe Bryant and Le Bron James. Here, USA Today columnist O'Connor chronicles Telfair's senior year at New York City's Lincoln High in 2003–04. O'Connor utilizes a variety of voices to compile this book, having interviewed family members, friends, coaches, agents, and recruiters. Considering that Telfair hails from the Brooklyn projects, an area notorious for drugs and violence, his accomplishments are remarkable. His abilities secured him a $20 million endorsement deal with Adidas; in fact, he was a millionaire before graduating from Lincoln High. A good read that basketball enthusiasts will enjoy.—Larry R. Little, Penticton P.L., B.C.

About the Author:

IAN O'CONNOR, a columnist for USA Today, has won numerous national writing awards and is one of the most respected sports journalists in America. He also appears on ESPN's popular The Sports Reporters and on roundtable shows on WCBS-TV. He lives in northern New Jersey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1594864470
• ISBN 13: 9781594864476
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320