SEASON ON THE BRINK

Rating:
Summary: "One Heck of a Season"
Review: As a basketball fan, I was very excited to have read the book. I give the book, A Season on the Brink a five star. The book surpasses my expectation. As a former athlete and a basketball player, I can honestly say that I can relate to some of the players. The hardships that the players had to go through and the torments of yelling were just two of the things I can really relate to. The book helped me realize how basketball was played in Indiana under Bobby Knight. The two practices or what we would call "two a days" were always a big let down.
All the running and drills the players had to go through seemed never ending.
I can also relate to the player when yelling is involved. In the book, all Bobby Knight seemed to do was yell at his players. I can relate to that because my high school coach was the same. To the players, their work seemed pointless because Bobby Knight would always yell at them. I think some players can work under such circumstances, but others can't. We clearly see that in the book. Some players can stand Knight's yelling and let it go while others take the yelling and criticism to the heart. Those players that do let all of Knight's yelling get to them, start to lose their confidence and focus. In the book, a coach informed Daryl Thomas, that if Knight is yelling at him, he wants him to get better, but if he quits yelling at him, then Knight's no longer interested in him. After reading that part, I was shocked because my high school coach informed me of the same concept.
While reading the book, I felt that Knight was really hard on the players, but I came to the conclusion that he was a good coach. I don't like his temper, but this book helped me realize how good a coach and person he was. The book also helped me relate to the players and all the hardships, suffering and yelling they had to go through. I think people should read this book especially if they are hard core basketball fans because they would more than likely relate to some parts of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Major College Basketball and Bob Knight--Raw and Uncensored
Review: As a huge sports fan, I couldn't wait to read this book and get an inside look into a college basketball season with Bob Knight and his Indiana Hoosiers. John Feinstein pulled off a minor miracle by convincing Knight to allow him to follow the whole team, players and coaches alike with his notepad and tape recorder throughout the 1985-86 season.

What you'll see is an inside look at the trials and tribulations of a big-time college basketball team and the sometime circus atmosphere created by their tempermental coach. The book starts off with a quick recap of the 1984-85 season which included the now famous chair throwing incident. Then you are lead through the offseason, training camp and regular season of 1985-86. Feinstein does a good job of keeping up the pace despite giving detailed recaps of every season's game. He ends the book with a brief summary of the national championship season of 1986-87.

There's no doubt who the center point of the whole book is: That of course is Bob Knight. I'm not an Indiana hoosier fan but I certainly was well aware of all the incidents Knight's been involved in over the years including the chair throwing, head butting, and choking. I can't say that my opinion of him changed at all after reading this book. The best word I can use to describe him is: complex.

In this book, you'll read how he verbally abuses players, especially Daryl Thomas. He'll play mind games like he did with Steve Alford, the team captain and best player. He'll be upbeat about the performance of the team one minute, and then the next he'll say how the team is horrible and will never win with these players. Warning: there is some profanity, but the f-words are "blanked" out.

But at the same time, this coach is extremely loyal to his players after they graduate. He'll do favors such as help get them jobs, etc. One of the most touching moments in the book is when he meets a family where the father and son are deaf-mute. Is his good side good enough to put up with his other nonsense? You be the judge!

Supposedly, BK was NOT very happy with the book. I don't know what he expected, but Feinstein clearly didn't take sides or had some kind of adgenda to [thrash] Knight. This is must read for all sports fans, Indiana Hoosiers or not.

Rating:
Summary: Major College Basketball and Bob Knight--Raw and Uncensored
Review: As a huge sports fan, I couldn't wait to read this book and get an inside look into a college basketball season with Bob Knight and his Indiana Hoosiers. John Feinstein pulled off a minor miracle by convincing Knight to allow him to follow the whole team, players and coaches alike with his notepad and tape recorder throughout the 1985-86 season.

What you'll see is an inside look at the trials and tribulations of a big-time college basketball team and the sometime circus atmosphere created by their tempermental coach. The book starts off with a quick recap of the 1984-85 season which included the now famous chair throwing incident. Then you are lead through the offseason, training camp and regular season of 1985-86. Feinstein does a good job of keeping up the pace despite giving detailed recaps of every season's game. He ends the book with a brief summary of the national championship season of 1986-87.

There's no doubt who the center point of the whole book is: That of course is Bob Knight. I'm not an Indiana hoosier fan but I certainly was well aware of all the incidents Knight's been involved in over the years including the chair throwing, head butting, and choking. I can't say that my opinion of him changed at all after reading this book. The best word I can use to describe him is: complex.

In this book, you'll read how he verbally abuses players, especially Daryl Thomas. He'll play mind games like he did with Steve Alford, the team captain and best player. He'll be upbeat about the performance of the team one minute, and then the next he'll say how the team is horrible and will never win with these players. Warning: there is some profanity, but the f-words are "blanked" out.

But at the same time, this coach is extremely loyal to his players after they graduate. He'll do favors such as help get them jobs, etc. One of the most touching moments in the book is when he meets a family where the father and son are deaf-mute. Is his good side good enough to put up with his other nonsense? You be the judge!

Supposedly, BK was NOT very happy with the book. I don't know what he expected, but Feinstein clearly didn't take sides or had some kind of adgenda to [thrash] Knight. This is must read for all sports fans, Indiana Hoosiers or not.

Rating:
Summary: The #1 selling sports book EVER
Review: Best sports book that I have ever read. You won't believe what you are reading. Bobby Knight is pure and simply a mess. He needs some serious couch talking. Why any young man would subject themselves to his torture is beyond me. You will read this book more than one time. Totally incredible.

Rating:
Summary: a harrowing experience
Review: Bob Knight allowed John Feinstein to follow him around for an entire basketball season with a notebook and a tape recorder. The result of this extraordinary access is some of the finest reporting available on any subject.

Knight's manic behavior amd "motivational tactics" are thinly veiled psychological warfare meant to toughen his team for big games. This is well-chronicled, and should come as no surprise to college basketball fans. What separates this book from the rest is Feinstein's clean, balanced reporting and choice of themes for each chapter of the basketball season.

"Brink" is still an outstanding read almost two decades later, especially if you can't remember how Knight's Indiana Hoosiers fared in the season covered. I was drawn in by Knight, and desparately hoping that the Hoosiers would win each and every game so I wouldn't have to endure Knight's verbal onslaughts.

The book also tells the interesting stories of a day in the life of a college basketball coach, how players are recruited, dealing with the NCAA, the fraternity of college coaches and what a college players' life is like when you play Indiana basketball.

Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Reporting at its finest, still a great read in 2003
Review: Bob Knight allowed John Feinstein to follow him around for an entire basketball season with a notebook and a tape recorder. The result of this extraordinary access is some of the finest reporting available on any subject.

Knight's manic behavior amd "motivational tactics" are thinly veiled psychological warfare meant to toughen his team for big games. This is well-chronicled, and should come as no surprise to college basketball fans. What separates this book from the rest is Feinstein's clean, balanced reporting and choice of themes for each chapter of the basketball season.

"Brink" is still an outstanding read almost two decades later, especially if you can't remember how Knight's Indiana Hoosiers fared in the season covered. I was drawn in by Knight, and desparately hoping that the Hoosiers would win each and every game so I wouldn't have to endure Knight's verbal onslaughts.

The book also tells the interesting stories of a day in the life of a college basketball coach, how players are recruited, dealing with the NCAA, the fraternity of college coaches and what a college players' life is like when you play Indiana basketball.

Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Showing the other side of Knight
Review: Bob Knight is a basketball genius. Yet, after a few outbursts and admitted overreactions...the media has attacked every thing he has done. Feinstein shows how Bob Knight is a mastermind at what he does..he's a general on the court and he expects perfection in return. A must read for anyone who thinks Bobby Knight is only about throwing chairs...he also shapes lives.

Rating:
Summary: Great Account of An Ogre
Review: Bob Knight is exposed by this account of the 1985-1986 season to embody all of the lousy qualities his detractors accuse him of possessing. He is at times, and not necessarily in the alternative, a bully, a crybaby, a whiny baby, a moody child, incapable of human interaction, and driven beyond sanity. He routinely reduced his players to tears, kicked them off the team, threw the basketball in their faces, humiliated them in front of one another, and played alongside them in scrimmages in a style much rougher than he would allow reciprocated. He played mind games like telling his players not to dress for a game or not to show up for a road trip, expecting them to figure out whether or not he was serious.

I read this book to see if it softened my preconceived notion of Knight. It didn't. There were certainly times when I felt like Knight had gotten a bad rap, but there were more times that he got away with something he shouldn't have. He absolutely made his own bed, and yet would cry oppression when asked to lay in it. This book was aptly named, because Knight was always on the brink of getting thrown out of the program, and/or of realizing his fear of suffering the same fate as Woody Hayes (the Ohio State football coach who struck an opposing player at the end of the 1978 Gator Bowl). [Of course, Knight would eventually leave the Indiana basketball program in exactly this ignominious fashion after this book's timeframe.]

In slight fairness to Knight, I admit it was courageous of him to allow Feinstein to trail him in a manner that leaves nothing to the imagination. This story is absolutely a no-holds-barred account that Knight must have recognized as having enormous potential to make him look like a jerk. To Feinstein's enormous credit, while reading this book, you never knew he was there; the is chronicle was as unbiased as it was free from the author's ego or influence. Feinstein's writing has a great pace, too, keeping each game's (and the season's) outcome a mystery until the end. You really went through the ups and downs with the team, as if watching the season unfold in real-time.

Rating:
Summary: Great Writing; Too Bad I Don't Like Knight Anymore
Review: Feinstein is an excellent writer, and I'm a rabid fan of his, so I have to give this book 4 stars; he covers the characters and environment of IU basketball with such care and attention to detail, that you can't help but enjoy the text. I was a Knight fan before I read this book (how can you NOT like a guy that's impassioned enough to chuck a chair across a court?), but now I'm not so sure. That's the only drawback : maybe the characters are not so likable afterall....

Rating:
Summary: A Multi-Dimensional Portrait of a Controversial Subject
Review: Feinstein received Coach Knight's permission to have almost total access to the Indiana University basketball program during the 1985-86 season. By then, Feinstein had earned and deserved his reputation as a first-rate journalist. Presumably that was one of the major reasons why Knight was agreeable. Later, Knight was very displeased with the book based on that season. (I am reminded of what Harry S Truman once said when someone urged him to "give 'em hell" during the 1948 Presidential campaign. "I just tell them the truth and they think it's hell.") Two points seem especially important to me as a controversy about A Season on the Brink continues: This is Feinstein's account of what he observed and experienced; also. Knight and everyone else involved (including Feinstein) are entitled to their own opinion as to how accurate (if not "fair") that account is. My own opinion is that prior to and then following the 1985-86 season, Knight's behavior (including public statements) suggests that Feinstein's account is mostly credible. Since his playing days at Ohio State and then coaching at the United States Military Academy, Knight left no doubt that he was an intense competitor who loved the game with passion and studied it with intensity. He arrived at Indiana University a known quantity and was remarkably consistent (for better or worse) throughout the years he coached there.

For every person who views Knight's values with contempt, there is probably someone else who admires those same values. He is obviously a complicated person. Also, as he himself has frequently conceded, he can be contradictory. (Years before the 1985-86 season, Knight observed "I don't agree with everything I do.") Many of the players whom he verbally abused the most were later treated with exceptional kindness and generosity. Feinstein's book suggests various forces which inform and direct Knight's behavior (commendable or otherwise) and I rate this book so highly because Feinstein enables his reader to accompany him during an extended association with Knight and the Indiana basketball program. Whatever your own opinion of Knight, Feinstein's book examines in depth a great basketball coach and demonstrably imperfect human being during a pivotal season more than 15 years ago.

My own opinion is that Knight, then and now, is not so contemptible as many insist nor as admirable as many others insist. Final point: Knight has always overseen a "clean" program and has coached, year after year, young men most of whom have earned earned a college degree. Presumably Feinstein respects that and so should we. Those who wish to know what Knight thinks about all this are urged to read his own book, Knight: My Story, which has just been published.