'One on One' By John Feinstein

This week Bill talks with author John Feinstein about his newest book, One on One: Behind the Scenes with the Greats in the Game. The two of them discuss Bobby Knight, Jim Valvano and a few unusual and previously untold stories from Feinstein's career as a sportswriter.

Bill's Thoughts on One on One:

John Feinstein's career as a prolific and successful writer of books set in sports began 25 years ago with the publication of A Season on the Brink, the account of his year in the company of Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight.

In One On One, Feinstein returns to that experience, and then to lots of the experiences he had researching and writing many of the books that followed A Season on the Brink.

One of John Feinstein's strengths as a writer is his patience. He seems to be willing to be the last reporter in the locker room – or on the driving range, or in the dugout, or at the bar where the coach and his assistants go to unwind after the game's over and everything else is closed. Feinstein's memory is exceptional, and his appetite for stories is enormous. So is his appetite for travel, so some of the "behind the scenes" tales occur in what used to be the Soviet Union, and in what used to be Czechoslovakia, where the secret police would have kept him from missing a flight home if Feinstein hadn't invented blogging and gotten an assist from Martina Navratilova. There. That ought to be sufficient to arouse your interest in One On One.