IRB Media Summary of David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game

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Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 In the fall of 1979, the Portland Trail Blazers were a team of rookies and free agents. The veterans, who had made the team before, had guaranteed money in their contracts. The rookies and free agents were at the brink of their dreams, which was to play under contract in the NBA.#2 Greg Bunch, a black player, had the same psychological tests done on him as Steve Hayes did, but he had to do them a second time because of a mistake. He was terrified of what they might reveal about him.#3 The coaches and the scouts were anxious about the new season. The rookies and free agents looked on the coaches as secure and powerful, but the coaches knew that their jobs were never secure. The only players who seemed powerful were the marginal players over whom they could exert little authority.#4 The conversations between coaches and players these days tended to be a bit melancholy. Basketball had become too commercialized, and the mood inevitably affected the players, who arrived at Inman's door complete with agents and lawyers.