As a complement to Rick Telander’s marvelous “Heaven is a Playground,” a memoir about the summer Telander spent coaching a pick-up team of black youth in Brooklyn’s projects, I turned to John McPhee’s 1963 classic “A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley At Princeton”.

These are two basketball stories.

Bradley was a rich white kid growing up in Missouri. Telander’s charges were extremely poor black kids growing up in the ghetto.

The great strength of Telander’s book is how the camera is turned away from the celebrities toward the barriers minority kids face getting out of poverty and in some ways it is a far more important story in the telling.

McPhee’s story impresses by the talent of the teller. It takes a lot to get me interested in this story. McPhee’s great talent here is to move the camera around from the close-up of the subject, to the coaches record of what happened, to the audience, to the opposition players.

Bradley is double-teamed. Swish. Bradley’s knee is swathed in bandages. Swish. Bradley is scratched and bruised by a bigger, stronger opponent. Swish.

And how brilliantly McPhee throws in the elation of the audience. The book is a peon to the sense of wonderment in athletic achievement and more as Bradley put as much effort into his academic career at Princeton, and later on as a US Senator, and in retirement as a private citizen. He is driven to serve.

Overlay on this story that of two of Bradley’s contemporaries: Cazzie Russell and Oscar Robertson, possibly the most famous black athlete until Kareem Abdul Jabar. Russell came out of Chicago, Robertson was born in Charlotte, Tennessee.

Robertson grew up in a segregated housing project and was drawn to basketball because it was “a poor kid’s game.” His family could not afford a basketball, so Robertson learned how to shoot by tossing tennis balls bound with rags and rubber bands into a peach basket behind his home.

When his high school team won the state championships — the first black team to accomplish it — celebrations were toned down so as not to inflame racial hatred.

College recruitment in those days from the big successful teams did not include blacks. He went to the University of Cincinnati. Many of his scoring records as a collegian remain unsurpassed. He was the first of a breed of big guards that paved the way for stars such as Magic Johnson.

Robertson also let the way with a landmark court decision to open the free agency route for professional basketball players and athletes in other pro sports including football and hockey.

Later in life he also donated a kidney to his daughter who suffered lupus-related kidney failure, and has been recognized for both his philanthropic and entrepreneurial efforts. ( )

32. A Sense of Where You Are: A Profile of Bill Bradley by John McPhee
OPD: 1965
format: 144-page 1978 paperback edition (which added some post-1965 photos)
acquired: May 12, from my library's $1-per-book fund-raising shelf
read: May 14-15 time reading: 2:52, 1.2 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: creative nonfiction theme: none
locations: Princeton, NJ
about the author: Nonfiction writing instructor at Princeton University. He was born in Princeton, NJ in 1931.

My brain needed a rest, but of some specific, hard to figure out kind. Well, this must have been close to because I took to this short book.

Somehow this works. It's basically of hagiography of Bill Bradley in 1965 - when he was known as a Princeton University basketball star, but before he become a Rhodes Scholar, played basketball for the Knicks, became a US senator and a serious presidential candidate in 2000. McPhee is all praise - his athletics, his insane dedication, his perspective, along with his academic commitments and success made possible partially by his lack of sleep. The title comes from Bardley explaining how he can make shots without looking at the basket, routine training him to know where on the court he is. We are stunned to learn perfect Bill didn't carry Princeton to four national championships, as it seems he could do no wrong. But what's weird is the book is terrific. McPhee clearly adored Bradley's approach to life with his unique skillset, and I thoroughly enjoyed McPhee's take.

(sidenote: I had this book on my wishlist, entered in August of 2010, with this comment: "I've known about this one for a while. kidzdoc's review convinced me to add it here." As of this post, his review is still on this page.)

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/348551#8148798 ( )

John McPhee's glowing 1965 profile of Bill Bradley college basketball career at Princeton, the author's first book, is well-written with a scholarly approach to the game. The book captures Bradley's character and aspirations, and includes keen insights into the elements of his game and his training and practice regimens. McPhee skillfully breaks down the elements of Bradley's moves, his signature shots, and his overall approach to basketball, while also providing a time-capsule look at college basketball in the 1960's. Overall. this is a solid, albeit brief, biography of one of the great student athletes of the 20th century. ( )

Little bit slight but very well-written. Captures McPhee and Bradley at the start of their careers. Bradley's focus poise and determination in his pursuit of excellence in college basketball and a legitimate college education is incredible. There will likely never be a "student athlete" on par with Bradley again if one does exist. McPhee had the foresight to record the phenomenon while in the midst of it occurring. ( )

Bill Bradley was born in a small Missouri town, the son of the town's banker, who taught him discipline, hard work, and a love of learning, and his wife, a fiercely competitive but loving former athlete. Their son was one of the most celebrated schoolboy athletes in Missouri history, and was offered scholarships to over 70 colleges to play basketball. However, he chose to attend Princeton University, which did not provide athletic scholarships and was not known for its basketball team, as he had higher aspirations beyond sports.

He began to play with the varsity team as a sophomore, as freshmen were not allowed to participate in varsity athletics at that time, and immediately became the star player of the team. Princeton quickly became an Eastern basketball powerhouse, culminated by the 1964-65 team in Bradley's senior year, which reached the NCAA Final Four before losing in the national semifinal to Michigan. Bradley's last collegiate game was against Wichita State in the third place game, and Bradley, normally a pass first, shoot second player despite his immense talent, was given free rein by his coach to shoot and score at will. He finished the game with 58 points, which is still the record for the most points scored by an individual player in a Final Four game.

After his collegiate career he attended Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, and then became an NBA star with the New York Knicks, helping them win two championships, in 1970 and 1973. After his retirement he entered politics, and served as the junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey for three terms. He retired from the Senate in 1997, and ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. presidency in 2000, losing to Al Gore. After that defeat he left politics, but he maintains an active public life, as he has written six nonfiction books and hosts a weekly radio program.

John McPhee grew up in Princeton, as his father served as the physician for the university's athletic department. He attended Princeton, and while working as a writer in New York his father called him to come see a kid on the freshman basketball team, who his father described as possibly the best basketball player, bar none. McPhee attended a game with his father, followed Bradley over his career at Princeton, and wrote his first book about him, in 1965.

A Sense of Where You Are describes Bradley's upbringing in Missouri, and his basketball career at Princeton, including his work ethic and approach to the game, which was far beyond even the best players at his level and allowed him to surpass his modest physical abilities. McPhee also portrays Bradley as a well rounded student athlete who participated fully in campus life and maintained a sense of modesty and humbleness that seems archaic, yet refreshing. The latest edition of the book contains numerous photos of Bradley in action, along with addenda written in 1978 and 1999.

I would highly recommend A Sense of Where You Are for any sports fan, but this would be of interest for anyone who appreciates good journalism or wants to learn about an inspiring and influential man. ( )