Life on the Rim: A Year in the Continental Basketball Association [Hardcover]

David Levine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The CBA, successor to the Eastern Basketball League founded in 1945, is 10 years old. It is a minor league for the NBA, with its players often called up to the major league. There are teams in small cities like Cedar Rapids, Iowa; La Crosse, Wis.; Rapid City, S.D.; and Wichita Falls, Tex. Each has a salary cap of $80,000 for the entire team. In this impressive account of the 1988-89 season of the Albany (N.Y.) Patroons, who won the Eastern Division of the CBA but lost in the playoffs, freelancer Levine shows graphically the pains and travails of working in the league, where players depart almost daily for the NBA, European basketball's big money, or oblivion. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co; 1St Edition edition (January 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025703811
• ISBN-13: 978-0025703810
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,315,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Behind The Scenes Look At Minor League Basketball, July 26, 2002

By 

Chris (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life on the Rim: A Year in the Continental Basketball Association (Hardcover)

The year is 1988. The good old days of minor league basketball before the NBA's power and popularity took over. This book chronicles a year in the CBA, following the Albany Patroons. I highly recommend this book to those who like a "real life" view of sports. This book highlights what the CBA was all about, from players dealing with their demons (substance abuse, attitude problems, wrong body types for their positions), to the horrendous travel conditions, to the turbulence of a team where players come and go in a matter of days.

For myself, I enjoyed the writing style (paragraphs organized by calendar date) and seeing the past lives of famous people. The coach of the Patroons is George Karl. Some of the other notable characters in the book are Kelvin Upshaw, Vincent Askew, Eric Musselman, Dan Levy, and Flip Saunders. For those of you whose favorite show is Making The Video and favorite sports video is The Secret Life Of The NBA, this book is for you.