Return of the Gold: The Journey of Jerry Colangelo and the Redeem Team

by Dan Bickley

Book Overview

Six years after Michael Jordan won his last NBA championship, American basketball hit rock bottom. The perception of NBA players reached an all-time low. Team USA lost three times, disgracing the nation at the 2004 Olympics. With great historical sweep, bringing in the voices of all-time greats like Jordan, Bill Russell, Julius Erving and Jerry West, the book will show how American basketball bottomed out. It will chart the path of Jerry Colangelo,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1600376371
• ISBN13: 9781600376375
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Story

Dan Bickley's story, Return of the Gold, of Jerry Colangelo and the Redeem Team offers terrific insights and behind-the-scene stories of a group of dedicated individuals who set out to return the Olympic Gold Medal in basketball to the United States. Having grown up in Los Angeles, I became accustomed to reading great sports writing from the Pulitzer Prize winning columinst, Jim Murray. While I have long enjoyed Dan's writing in the Arizona Republic, his new book reminds me of something that even Jim would have been most proud of - it's really that good! While the outcome is never in doubt, the journey is exciting; filled with success and failures, passion, sacrifice and even humor. It's a story of leadership, forgiveness, and respect, all directed towards one objective, a higher calling. Along the way, Dan provides great insights into the lives of not only Jery Colangelo, Mike Krzyzewski and the players who were ultimately selected for the team (LeBron, Kobe, Dwyane, Dwight, Carmelo, etc.), he also offers a unique look a such individuals as Michael Jordan, Jerry West and Shaq. The chapters on announcer, Doug Collins, and former Olympian and NBA great, Bill Russell, are alone worth the price of the book. After reading the book in a single day (it's much like a mystery novel where you find yourself saying - just one more chapter) I went out and bought five aditional copies for my father, son and three best friends. (My wife even enjoyed the passages I read to her.) And while this year's NBA season is only beginning, I have a new found respect for a group of young men who I now realize I never really knew before. Dan Bickley winning a Pulitzer Prize someday? I for one will not be surprised.