Players and Pretenders: The Basketball Team That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

Players and Pretenders tells the story of the flip side of basketball's "March Madness," where the game is played by average players for love, not for money. At the end of the 1970s at Bard College, where there was no pretense of institutional support, Charley Rosen gathered his hoops hopefuls and put together a basketball season whose impact reached far beyond the court. Writing with a humorous touch, Rosen details the Running Red Devils' season, simultaneously examining the lives of those who made it so memorable and providing a glimpse of how the team members existed off the courts as both players and pretenders. His book playfully depicts the 1979-80 basketball season at Bard College and the "sports for fun" side of the game. Charley Rosen is the author of thirteen sports books, including the novel The House of Moses All-Stars, plus The Pivotal Season: How the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers Changed the NBA and The Wizard of Odds: How Jack Molinas Almost Destroyed the Game of Basketball. Rosen is currently an NBA analyst for FOXSports.com.