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I came as a shadow : an autobiography / John Thompson with Jesse Washington.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First editionDescription: xii, 337, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781250619358
  • 1250619351
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Introduction -- Anna and Rob -- The rabbit -- Red -- Providence -- The Celtics -- The game behind the game -- Seventy percent -- "My mortgage" -- Bay Baby, Big Sky, and the Big East -- Patrick -- The mountaintop -- Bet the jockey, not the horse -- Sometimes the lion kills you -- Rayful -- Proposition 42 -- Alonzo and Dikembe -- Inversion -- Nike -- Time to go -- To be a coach -- Do not forget.
Summary: "The autobiography of the legendary coach of the Georgetown Hoyas, whose achievements on and off the basketball court reflect America's unresolved struggle with racial justice"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: After five decades at the center of race and sports in America, Thompson was ready to make the private public, and he completed this autobiography shortly before his death. His book drives us through his childhood under Jim Crow segregation to our current moment of racial reckoning. His life on and off the basketball court threw America's unresolved struggle with racial justice into sharp relief. -- adapted from jacket
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography THOMPSON J. T473 Available 33111010442263
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

The long-awaited autobiography from Georgetown University's legendary coach, whose life on and off the basketball court throws America's unresolved struggle with racial justice into sharp relief

John Thompson was never just a basketball coach and I Came As a Shadow is categorically not just a basketball autobiography.

After three decades at the center of race and sports in America, the first Black head coach to win an NCAA championship is ready to make the private public. Chockful of stories and moving beyond mere stats (and what stats! three Final Fours, four times national coach of the year, seven Big East championships, 97 percent graduation rate), Thompson's book drives us through his childhood under Jim Crow segregation to our current moment of racial reckoning. We experience riding shotgun with Celtics icon Red Auerbach, and coaching NBA Hall of Famers like Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson. How did he inspire the phrase "Hoya Paranoia"? You'll see. And thawing his historically glacial stare, Thompson brings us into his negotiation with a DC drug kingpin in his players' orbit in the 1980s, as well as behind the scenes on the Nike board today.

Thompson's mother was a teacher who couldn't teach because she was Black. His father could not read or write, so the only way he could identify different cements at the factory where he worked was to taste them. Their son grew up to be a man with his own life-sized statue in a building that bears his family's name on a campus once kept afloat by the selling of 272 enslaved people. This is a great American story, and John Thompson's experience sheds light on many of the issues roiling our nation. In these pages, he proves himself to be the elder statesman college basketball and the country need to hear from now.

I Came As A Shadow is not a swan song, but a bullhorn blast from one of America's most prominent sons.

Includes index.

Introduction -- Anna and Rob -- The rabbit -- Red -- Providence -- The Celtics -- The game behind the game -- Seventy percent -- "My mortgage" -- Bay Baby, Big Sky, and the Big East -- Patrick -- The mountaintop -- Bet the jockey, not the horse -- Sometimes the lion kills you -- Rayful -- Proposition 42 -- Alonzo and Dikembe -- Inversion -- Nike -- Time to go -- To be a coach -- Do not forget.

"The autobiography of the legendary coach of the Georgetown Hoyas, whose achievements on and off the basketball court reflect America's unresolved struggle with racial justice"-- Provided by publisher.

After five decades at the center of race and sports in America, Thompson was ready to make the private public, and he completed this autobiography shortly before his death. His book drives us through his childhood under Jim Crow segregation to our current moment of racial reckoning. His life on and off the basketball court threw America's unresolved struggle with racial justice into sharp relief. -- adapted from jacket

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