FROM THE PUBLISHER
Bill Bradley was a three-time basketball all-American at Princeton, Olympic gold medalist, Rhodes scholar, member of the New York Knicks from 1967 to 1977 and two-time NBA champion; he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. He served as United States senator from New Jersey from 1979 to 1997. Since leaving the Senate, he has been affiliated with Stanford University, the University of Maryland, and Notre Dame. Bradley is the author of
Life on the Run,
The Fair Tax, and
Time Present, Time Past. Bill Bradley, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1979 to 1997 and a member of two championship New York Knicks teams, returns to the scene of his first career, and his first great passion, basketball. Things have changed since his championship days — the shorts are longer and the salaries higher — but what separates winners and losers remains very much the same: No collection of players, no matter how good, can win unless they form a team. And no team can succeed unless it shares common values, among them courage, discipline, resilience, respect, and an unmitigated passion for the game. In 10 essays, filled with intensely personal observations and reflections, Bradley revisits the basketball court with the fire of the competitor and the eye of the writer, and explores these qualities in action: the dynamics of teammates on the court and off; the pure love of the game that leads to the unselfish pass or the screen away from the ball; the individual courage to risk the last-second shot, to face a hostile crowd, to say "I blew it"; the responsibility to teammates, coaches, and fans to stay in shape, play hard, and honor the game.
Values of the Game is illustrated with more than 120 dramatic photographs of players, coaches, and classic games, culled from the NBA archives and the author's personal collection: from legends such as Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, and Bob Cousy, through the brilliant Magic Johnson/Larry Bird years to young stars such as Grant Hill and Glen Rice, and of course the greatest ever, Michael Jordan.
In his best-selling Life on the Run, Bradley offered fans a fascinating account of the day-in day-out experiences of an NBA star. In Values of the Game, he shifts his thinking to a larger universe. He pulls back the curtain once again, letting us in on basketball's secrets — many of which, it turns out, extend to life beyond the hardwood court.
