COURT VISION; UNEXPECTED VIEWS ON THE LURE OF BASKETBALL

Nobel laureats on the fast break?

Symphony orchestra conductors on the alley-oop?

Astronauts on the free throw?

Bestselling New York Times writer Ira Berkow presents a unique look at America's premier sport--and its fans--thorugh interviews with a remarkable cross section of widly known and extraordinarily accomplished individuals in a variety of fields, who explain what the lure of basketball is for them. Berkow talked with Chris Rock, Woody Allen, Tom Brokaw, Saul Bellow, Johnnie Cochran Jr., Walter Matthau, Nikki Giovanni, Donald Trump, Julia Child, Frank Stella, Erica Jong, Grover Washington Jr., Seiji Ozawa, and Sharon Stone, among others, to uncover fresh, funny, controversial, and often surprising opinions about the teams and players who make the game intriguing.

"My height was insufficient for a serious career. But to this day, if I play in a game with kids eight years old and under, I'm a tremendously effective shot blocker."--Woody Allen

"A basketball game is a two-hour version of life, and that's the beauty of it. You have a start, you have a middle, you have a finish. The nice part is that you don't have to go eighty years."--Donald Trump

"I always say that the most dangerous play in basketball is the open white man. It's because there is nothing more surefire. . . . A white guy open behind the arc is frightening." --Chris Rock

The interviews also offer compelling insight not only into what makes basketball transcendent, but these luminaries view the world of basketball how their own particular expertise and learn from it.

Ira Berkow is a sports columnist for the New York Times and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary. He has written numerous books, including the national bestseller Red: A Biography of Red Smith, and most recently a memoir, To the Hoop: The Seasons of a Basketball Life. He lives in New York City.