![]() “You can kill people by saying that society is equal,” he writes, “then starting a hundred-yard race with most white people at the fifty-yard line.” Some of his more storied players, such as Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning, overcame institutional and social barriers to become stars, but most athletes even at the college level are playing against the odds, with few standing a chance of going pro. ![]() Basketball, Thompson adds, “became a vehicle for me to challenge injustices.” Arriving at Georgetown in 1972, when Black coaches were few, he demanded that his players be students first, telling recruits that he expected them to spend more time in the library than in the gym. The renowned Georgetown basketball coach looks back on a long career, interlaced with thoughts on the challenges of being Black in America.Ĭoach Thompson, writes co-author and ESPN correspondent Washington, is a masterful student of “the game behind the game,” both the intellectual challenges of the court and the psychological factors that influence and sometimes impede players. ![]()
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