W. Bush demanding that he do more to address racism and economic inequality. Hodges was also a vocal union activist, initiated a boycott against Nike, and spoke out forcefully against police brutality in the wake of the Rodney King beating.But his outspokenness cost him dearly. In the prime of his career, after ten NBA seasons, Hodges was blackballed from the NBA for using his platform as a professional athlete to stand up for justice.In this powerful, passionate, and captivating memoir, Hodges shares the stories—including encounters with Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, Jim Brown, R. Kelly, Michael Jordan, and others—from his lifelong fight for equality for African Americans.

    In a stampede, they ran up a 72-10 regular season record, the most wins ever by an NBA team. From there the Bulls rumbled to an astounding record in the playoffs, and finally their fourth world championship in six seasons. This was the year of the Great Bull Run, when Chicago's team rolled across the landscape, drawing crowds and converts in every city, stirring up a storm of interest like the NBA had never seen before.

    While documenting the extraordinary and rapid ascent of the school's basketball program from among the nation's worst to the Final Four, Going Bigtime also covers the entire sweep of UMass basketball history, which includes the college careers of Julius Erving and Rick Pitino.Dobrow doesn't ignore the price a bucolic state university pays for going bigtime: a grades scandal, a brilliant but erratic coach, the infamous "John Chaney incident" and a star player taking illegal payments from agents, in UMass's case.Primarily Dobrow emphasizes UMass's 1995-96 season, one of the most fascinating in the history of college basketball. Included are non-pareil profiles of protagonists like National Player of the year Marcus Camby -- "...more goldenrod than dandelion -- physically, intellectually and emotionally, he was a late bloomer" -- and Coach John Calipari --" the man from Moon reaching for the stars" -- as well as many unreported moments and anecdotes from that near-championship season.When John became UMass basketball coach in 1988, he inherited one of the country's worst programs. When he left in 1996, the Minutement were America's darlings.