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Personal Fouls: The Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams of Big Money Basketball at Jim Valvano's North Carolina State | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Golenbock
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $18.94 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 621421
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Carroll & Graf ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 311
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0881845264
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323630975655
EAN: 9780881845266
ASIN: 0881845264
Publication Date: November 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Very insightful December 5, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was written prior to Jimmy's bout with cancer.
The media never mention his dark side.
This books details Jiommy V and how he was before he got sick.
A recommended read for all.
 Expose of college basketball's reality September 2, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
College basketball is a business. It is cloaked in pseudo-academic legitimacy, which is a cover to ensure the NCAA and the schools make millions off an unpaid and undercompensated workforce. This book affirms this notion to the fullest. It shows the seedy underbelly of major college basketball and what lengths some schools and coaches will go to win.
The main that stayed with me after reading this was how badly the athletes are exploited. Jim Valvano lied to every class of NC State recruits. He promised them starting jobs, only to let them languish on the bench. He promised to be a surrogate father figure, only to ignore all but the star players once the season started. Those who dared to speak out against this injustice were ostracized and punished for doing so. There were players who gamed the system too, but the rules ensured that the balance of power always remained with the school.
Second was the complicity and tacit encouragement of Valvano's shady tactics by NC State's leadership. The school's officials bent the rules to keep athletes academically eligible, when the same options were not available to the student body. The most important thing was to keep the athletic department's coffers full. The school went so far as to name Valvano athletic director, which is akin to letting a prison be run by its most depraved and psychotic inmate. For obvious reasons, NC State tried to have the publishing of this book blocked.
Finally, Jim Valvano's image totally changed for me. There are two things I associate with Valvano: running around the court when NC State won the NCAA championship, and the speech he gave while he was dying of cancer. To me, he went from a jubilant coach with a zest for life to a calculating scoundrel who used and threw away players to make himself successful. Even if some of the events are exaggerated, it still puts Valvano in a very bad light.
I have noticed that there are a lot of negative reviews for this book. I can bet you that the majority of these are from NC State fans unwilling to face the truth about their program.
This is a chilling expose of college basketball as it really is. It is truly eye opening.
 Too bad they don't allow negative stars... July 12, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This pathetic excuse for a work of journalism should be purchased and read by NO ONE. Lies, lies, damn lies, and more lies. So many of the accusations made in the book were later proven false by multiple investigations (including the NCAA, the NC State Bureau of Investigation, the UNC Board of Governors, and others) that it is a travesty that it was ever published, and a stain upon both the author and publisher. Golenbock can't even get simple, easily verifiable facts correct (misspells Mike Krzyzewski's name, names the wrong coach at Wake Forest in 1987, etc.) that it is ludicrous that the other allegations could possibly hold water. Golenback relies on an "unnamed source", who turns out to be an ex-team manager (fired by Jimmy V) that was out for revenge.
If ever a book DESERVED to be burned, this is that book.
Entertaining, Controversial look at College Hoops April 14, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This readable narrative takes an unpleasant look at college hoops by focusing on the North Carolina State basketball team during the 1986-1987 season. The NC state players seem pampered and immature, with many troubling jealousies and conflicts. The coaches seem egotistical, focused only on victory, and uncaring about academics - but then, college coaches are paid to win games, not produce graduates. We fans may dislike the subject, but big-money NCAA college sports (basketball & football) will always be corrupt, because paying athletes in scholarships while everybody else cashes in is fraudulent, and an invitation to cheating.
Many reviewers from North Carolina have attacked this book and its author for making fraudulent claims. Perhaps they're correct, or maybe they dislike the realities uncovered in this book. I don't really know, but suspect it's a little of both. Let the public read this entertaining book and decide for themselves.
 One phase of an ongoing saga March 24, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
There are several lessons one should take from this book. The first is that where you have been affects where you are going. The material is this book is hotly debated, but its effects are irrefutable. The athletic department of NC State today is haunted by the period of time this book covers. Academic violations, payoffs, public embarrassments: these are still tangible wounds to the higher-ups.
The result is Herb Sendek's decade-long tenure. He stays out of trouble; he keeps his players out of trouble. But he doesn't win in the manner a basketball powerhouse wants to win. Even the fans who support Herb echo the sentiment that 'He isn't an embarrassment to the program'. The priority is not victory, but lack of embarrassment. The disagreement that follows is not a clash of opinions, but a personal statement - a disagreement of what matters more in life. When the time comes to make a decision, one side can never meet eye-to-eye with the opponent.
The second lesson is that different schools react in different ways. Above, you see the middle-of-the-road purgatory that NC State exiled itself to. This is not always the case. Many schools have flirted with violations - and indeed have been caught - but after the lumps they pursued the wins again. Kentucky comes to mind, as do Larry Brown and the Jayhawks. The latter two are competitors today, so I see no reason why NC State cannot 'dare to dream'. State fans are more superstitious than their UNC or Duke counterparts. Decades later, the ghosts of Jimmy V and Everett Case still haunt old Reynolds. Regrettably, until NC State decides to win, the hurdles ahead will be largely self-imposed.
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