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Personal Fouls: The Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams of Big Money Basketball at Jim Valvano's North Carolina State

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I'm compelled to write a review in direct response to a previous reviewer's comment that implies only people from the state of NC hold Personal Fouls in a poor light. First off, it stands to reason that the vast majority of negative responses would come from people closest to the issue. This, however, does not in any way detract from the majority of their concerns with the book. I read the original publication in college and was thoroughly unimpressed. It is laughable to mention this book in the same sentence as Season on the Brink...unless of course you are saying Personal Fouls can't hold a candle to Season on the Brink. The original text was riddled with misspellings, which certainly calls into question the book's overall validity. Are we to believe Golenbock's telling of the story when he and his editors cannot correctly spell the name of the men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University (ACC rival) during Valvano's tenure (Carl Tacy). How much research and editing does that take to get right? If you pick up Personal Fouls expecting a juicy scandal with informative looks into the seedy underworld of college basketball...prepare for ultimate disappointment.

A fellow reviewer says "author Peter Golenbock gives us a side of college basketball that is rarely seen: corruption." Problem is, with "Personal Fouls" Golenbock gives book publishing something that is quite commonplace: fiction.

"Personal Fouls" tells of point-shaving and illegal recruitment at the NC State basketball program, but it is instructive to note that the original publisher of the manuscript, Pocket Books, rejected it for failing to meet company standards (and later published Valvano's account). "Personal Fouls" is filled with misspellings and factual errors. The book prompted multiple investigations of the NC State basketball program, including those by NC State, the UNC system and the NCAA, and nary a trace of the point-shaving, illegal recruitment, or any of the other big-time scandals alleged in the book. The bulk of the program's NCAA violations were that athletes sold complimentary tickets and shoes without the coaches' knowledge and that there was "a lack of institutional control" of the program. In fact, Jim Valvano, whose fame was arrogated to help sell this book, was not implicated by the NCAA in any of the violations, nor were any of the other coaches.

Furthermore, upon the conclusion of the NCAA investigation, the NCAA's chief investigator, David Didion, sent Jim Valvano a letter (dated October 26, 1989) in which he told Valvano that "If I had a son, I would feel comfortable with you as his coach and encourage him to learn from you" and that Valvano was "good for intercollegiate athletics, good for N.C. State and good for the NCAA."

Of course, the NCAA investigators actually talked to Jim Valvano, unlike Golenbock, who avoided Valvano in favor of running with anonymous interviews with people nursing grudges against him. Golenbock also avoided NC State Chancellor Bruce Poulton.

What Golenbock wrote may have shaken the world of college athletics, and certainly there was much that needed to be changed, but he did so by alleging high crimes and outrageous deeds at the personal expense of a man who did neither. Imagine, if you can, a world in which Chicken Little was taken seriously, and you'll have an understanding of what Peter Golenbock did. The sky was not falling, but the façades were erected to protect against it anyway. NC State basketball was not rife with corruption as Golenbock alleged, but it was gutted anyway. Arguably college athletics are better off now for the changes wrought after and in some part owing to the publication of "Personal Fouls." But the cost of those changes were borne unfairly by Valvano, NC State University, and on a higher plane, the truth.

Let's be careful here before saying that the changes made are so good they justify the scapegoating of Valvano and NC State. Because if we are suddenly to suggest that the end justifies the means, then we are to adopt the same standard Golenbock invents for NC State basketball under Valvano and then decries.

Though the book points out problems that have happened in big-time NCAA basketball, the example university, NC State University, was never found to be corrupt on the charges that this book focuses on. It is truly a tragedy that a book like this was allowed to be printed and cause the damage it did to the university athletics program at NC State. Authors should be held responsible for the content they state as fact...or else call it fiction...which this book truly is.

A fellow reviewer says "author Peter Golenbock gives us a side of college basketball that is rarely seen: corruption." Problem is, with "Personal Fouls" Golenbock gives book publishing something that is quite commonplace: fiction.

"Personal Fouls" tells of point-shaving and illegal recruitment at the NC State basketball program, but it is instructive to note that the original publisher of the manuscript, Pocket Books, rejected it for failing to meet company standards (and later published Valvano's account). "Personal Fouls" is filled with misspellings and factual errors. The book prompted multiple investigations of the NC State basketball program, including those by NC State, the UNC system and the NCAA, and nary a trace of the point-shaving, illegal recruitment, or any of the other big-time scandals alleged in the book. The bulk of the program's NCAA violations were that athletes sold complimentary tickets and shoes without the coaches' knowledge and that there was "a lack of institutional control" of the program. In fact, Jim Valvano, whose fame was arrogated to help sell this book, was not implicated by the NCAA in any of the violations, nor were any of the other coaches.

Furthermore, upon the conclusion of the NCAA investigation, the NCAA's chief investigator, David Didion, sent Jim Valvano a letter (dated October 26, 1989) in which he told Valvano that "If I had a son, I would feel comfortable with you as his coach and encourage him to learn from you" and that Valvano was "good for intercollegiate athletics, good for N.C. State and good for the NCAA."

Of course, the NCAA investigators actually talked to Jim Valvano, unlike Golenbock, who avoided Valvano in favor of running with anonymous interviews with people nursing grudges against him. Golenbock also avoided NC State Chancellor Bruce Poulton.

What Golenbock wrote may have shaken the world of college athletics, and certainly there was much that needed to be changed, but he did so by alleging high crimes and outrageous deeds at the personal expense of a man who did neither. Imagine, if you can, a world in which Chicken Little was taken seriously, and you'll have an understanding of what Peter Golenbock did. The sky was not falling, but the façades were erected to protect against it anyway. NC State basketball was not rife with corruption as Golenbock alleged, but it was gutted anyway. Arguably college athletics are better off now for the changes wrought after and in some part owing to the publication of "Personal Fouls." But the cost of those changes were borne unfairly by Valvano, NC State University, and on a higher plane, the truth.

Let's be careful here before saying that the changes made are so good they justify the scapegoating of Valvano and NC State. Because if we are suddenly to suggest that the end justifies the means, then we are to adopt the same standard Golenbock invents for NC State basketball under Valvano and then decries.

This book should be required reading in every Journalistic Ethics class taught in America, emphasizing what NOT to do.

From lack of fact checking (not to mention Spell-checking), to the use of single-source unconfirmed accusations, to the use of "un-nammed" sources, to just plain making up facts in order to string together a weak thesis, this book has all of the classic elements of Yellow Journalism.

The original publisher of this book refused to print it for the reasons listed above. How this work of fiction ever got published speaks volumes about the ethics of some publishing houses.

In the final analysis, the NCAA, the University of North Carolina board of governors, the Atlantic Coast Conference, North Carolina State University and the North Carolina State Beaureu of Investigation spent a collective 2 years investigating these matters. None of these groups could find any of the wrongdoing alleged in this book.

My rating of this book: Zero Stars - Not worth the paper it's printed on.

This book is not based on anything but the lies of those seeking an outlet for envy.

This book is an amazing collection of innuendo, less-than-half-truths, and factual errors so astounding that they would be amusing if not for the damage done by them. From the impossible date sequences and hilariously misspelled names (Carl Tacy, former Wake Forest University basketball coach, is re-christened as "Carl Tasse", as I recall) to the more serious and unsubstantiated charges, there is little right with this book. For those who don't know: despite the litany of claims made in this book (largely by a former team manager who was dismissed by the coach), a lengthy in-depth investigation by the local newspaper, and an investigation by the NCAA, the only improprieties with any factual support were the sale of extra basketball shoes by players and the sale of basketball tickets by players. No drug scandal, no cars, no under-the-table payments, and no grade fixing. The NCAA's lead investigator wrote, in a letter to the coach, that if he had a son who was a college basketball player he would be proud to have him play for that coach.

Hopefully all potential readers of this book are listening: IT'S TIME TO LET THIS BOOK DIE.

There are several lessons one should take from this book. The first is that where you have been affects where you are going. The material is this book is hotly debated, but its effects are irrefutable. The athletic department of NC State today is haunted by the period of time this book covers. Academic violations, payoffs, public embarrassments: these are still tangible wounds to the higher-ups.

The result is Herb Sendek's decade-long tenure. He stays out of trouble; he keeps his players out of trouble. But he doesn't win in the manner a basketball powerhouse wants to win. Even the fans who support Herb echo the sentiment that 'He isn't an embarrassment to the program'. The priority is not victory, but lack of embarrassment. The disagreement that follows is not a clash of opinions, but a personal statement - a disagreement of what matters more in life. When the time comes to make a decision, one side can never meet eye-to-eye with the opponent.

The second lesson is that different schools react in different ways. Above, you see the middle-of-the-road purgatory that NC State exiled itself to. This is not always the case. Many schools have flirted with violations - and indeed have been caught - but after the lumps they pursued the wins again. Kentucky comes to mind, as do Larry Brown and the Jayhawks. The latter two are competitors today, so I see no reason why NC State cannot 'dare to dream'. State fans are more superstitious than their UNC or Duke counterparts. Decades later, the ghosts of Jimmy V and Everett Case still haunt old Reynolds. Regrettably, until NC State decides to win, the hurdles ahead will be largely self-imposed.

The author did not even bother collecting facts for this piece of garbage. The statements in this book have been refuted one by one over the years, thereby making this nothing more that a work of Fiction, and a bad one at that.

Absolutely, without a doubt the worst essay since the third grade attempt of the worst student in our class.