The Jump : Sebastian Telfair and the High-Stakes Business of High School Ball

Rating:
Summary: One of the best sports books I have ever read
Review: ... it is an amazing portrayal of the life of a young basketball star in America. The Georgia Tech allegation is just one small part of a story that captures the enormous pressures that are heaped on young athletic talent in America today.

While interesting, the buzz centering around Georgia Tech is such a minor part of the book. George Burdell should order his own copy of The Jump on Amazon and read about the sneaker companies' influence on young athletes, overtures by agents that could impact a players amateur standing, and the amazing story of Telfair himself--an exceptionally talented young player with remarkable poise and charisma who, through hard work, perseverance and amazing talent, overcame the hardship and violence of life in the projects to achieve his dream of playing for the NBA. The real story of the book is captured in this quote from Telfair, "I mean, every player is taking something out there. Everybody. . . . Kids out there are starving. We're starving. We'ver got nothing, nad people are making all this money off of us. Maybe I want to buy my mother something for Christmas. She told me, 'They make all this money. They sell all these pictures of you, and nobody gives anything to our family.' When I was younger, I used to have to borrow sneakers to play ball, but nobody cares. Nobody knows what's going on in our household. They just make their money and move on.'"

For the record, O'Connor writes that Telfair never confirmed that he was referring to GA Tech when he told the story about the booster offering money. Telfair's brother and best friend identified the school as Tech. O'Connor writes, "Of course, someone could have made a $250,000 offer--and an empty one at that--without having any connection to Georgia Tech or its basketball program. Whether the alleged offer to Telfair was real or a hoax, this much was clear: [Telfair] was forever in position to reject business propositions that could have landed him in trouble. The crux of the Tech story is that Telfair was a kid facing enormous pressure and temptations.

Buy this book and read this book. It is one of the best sports books I've ever read.