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The Last Amateurs Paperback – November 1, 2001
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America's favorite sportswriter takes readers on a thrilling and unforgettable journey into the world of college basketball in this national bestseller.
Like millions who love college basketball, John Feinstein was first drawn to the game because of its intensity, speed and intelligence. Like many others, he felt that the vast sums of money involved in NCAA basketball had turned the sport into a division of the NBA, rather than the beloved amateur sport it once was. He went in search of college basketball played with the passion and integrity it once inspired, and found the Patriot League. As one of the NCAA's smallest leagues, none of these teams leaves college early to join the NBA and none of these coaches gets national recognition or endorsement contracts. The young men on these teams are playing for the love of the sport, of competition and of their schools.
John Feinstein spent a season with these players, uncovering the drama of their daily lives and the passions that drive them to commit hundreds of hours to basketball even when there is no chance of a professional future. He offers a look at American sport at its purest.
- Print length480 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateNovember 1, 2001
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.2 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-100316278424
- ISBN-13978-0316278423
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- Publisher : Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (November 1, 2001)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316278424
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316278423
- Item Weight : 1.08 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,085,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #100 in College & University Basketball (Books)
- #842 in Basketball Biographies (Books)
- #1,599 in Sports History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

John Feinstein spent years on the staff at the Washington Post, as well as writing for Sports Illustrated and the National Sports Daily. He is a commentator on NPRs "Morning Edition," a regular on ESPNs "The Sports Reporters" and a visiting professor of journalism at Duke University.His first book, A Season on the Brink, is the bestselling sports book of all time. His first book for younger readers, Last Shot, was a bestseller.
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The Last Amateurs detalis a league untainted by shoe contracts, agents, and TV money. It looks at true student athletes, most of whom will play their last basketball game when the Patriot League season ends their senior year.
This was a fantastic book. Definitely worth a read.
Feinstein is a prolific chronicler of the American sporting life, having authored well written and easy to read books on everything from the Army-Navy football game and the Baltimore Ravens to the PGA Tour and Bob Knight. If I were to attempt to read every one of Feinstein’s books, I might have to live to age 107.
The organization of The Last Amateurs is familiar and easy to follow – Feinstein summarizes a Patriot League men’s college basketball season, highlighting the high and low points and crafting uncritical profiles of head coaches and players. Although a Season in Review concept is a common framework for a work of sports non-fiction, Feinstein’s literary talent sets The Last Amateurs apart from most jock/sportswriter diaries.
Since the publication of The Last Amateurs, the Patriot League has expanded from seven to ten teams, adding Loyola (Maryland), American and Boston University. Athletic scholarships are now available to basketball players attending Patriot League colleges. But the qualities that set the Patriot League apart from the pack remain intact. Most Patriot League games were (and still are) played before crowds of less than 1,500. The ESPN cameras are at seemingly every game on the Division I schedule, except the ones involving Patriot League schools. And most of the players, genuine scholar-athletes, are majoring in substantive disciplines, courses of study that will lead to something beyond a ten-day contract with the Orlando Magic.
For Spitler, Campolieta and Aylsworth, college basketball was a minor item on life’s resume, a stepping stone to what one hopes are rich and fulfilling lives.
Thank you John Feinstein for bringing those wonderful memories.
Go Bison and Go Patriot League!!!
Since Feinstein proudly wears his bias, the question becomes whether he has written about the subject in a way that justifies his feelings. Ultimately, I didn't feel that he did. While I did find the subject very interesting, I thought that Feinstein stretched the story too thin by looking at the entire league. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his depiction of the league's players and coaches. There are strong hints that there are some interesting stories among the league's personalities. However, the depiction that Feinstein gives them never seems to rise above a one-line blurb (Stefan Ciosici: top player trying to regain form after devastating injury. Chris Spitler: over-achiever than wins over the coach. Ralph Willard: coach trying to rebuild his career). He would have been better suited by focusing on one team in the league and examining the actions of that team's administrators, coaches, and players as the season developed in order to give an example of the struggles faced by participants in the league as a whole. Even centering the story on the league's new commissioner as she struggled to maintain the league's character in the face of external and internal challenges would have provided the reader with a better sense of the unique nature of this conference. Instead, Feinstein short-changes his subject by jumping from team to team.
Feinstein does write in a journalistic style that makes for very easy, entertaining reading. Yet, I never felt that I got the full reason why Feinstein thought this league was so special (other than they lack many of the perks of other conferences and have brighter students). As it stands now, The Last Amateurs did not strike me as the definitive telling of the story of the Patriot League's uniqueness. It seemed to be only the framework from which that story could be written.








