To the Hoop: The Seasons of a Basketball Life

"Through the game," writes New York Times sports columnist Ira Berkow about basketball, "I have an unusual opportunity to look into the soul of others, as well as, the spirit and wisdom willing, my own." At 52, following a knee injury, he was told he would never hit the hardwood again. Four years later, he exposed his soul--and knee--to tests of self-discovery in pick-up games from Manhattan playgrounds to California beaches. The mid-life memoir, filled with wisdom from unusual places, is about far more than a game: "Autumn," NBA legend Oscar Robertson tells the author, "happens to everybody," and Berkow discovers much that is moving, exuberant, and beautiful in his personal change of seasons.