Word: young
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...sight of the fans and boosters, college basketball presents a sometimes sordid, often tragic scene of young men -- some even functionally illiterate or learning disabled -- trying desperately to keep up with their work. Some, unable to read an exam, must be read the questions aloud and respond with oral answers. Some were wooed by recruiters who could not make good on promises of tutors and extra study time. And some have found themselves befriended by unscrupulous agents and professional gamblers...
...number of these players are black and look on basketball as their one chance to escape from poverty. But the path to the National Basketball Association, where annual salaries average $600,000, is exceedingly narrow. The chances of making it are less than 1 in 500. Nearly 20,000 young men play college basketball; about 40 will make the N.B.A. each year. "The odds of becoming a brain surgeon are greater than the odds of winning a starting spot on the Boston Celtics," says John Slaughter, president of Occidental College. Of the thousands who do not make the N.B.A...
...players recruited by the school. A single talented player can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a college -- and, indirectly, to a coach. The NCAA prohibits recruiters from offering money to prospective players. But many student athletes say recruiters offered them cash, cars and jewelry. For some young players, and especially for their families, the promise of educational help can swing their decision. It is not only the larger schools that have problems...
FIRE DOWN BELOW by William Golding (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $17.95). The last leaf of a trilogy begun back in 1980. An arrogant, young 19th century Englishman survives seaborne hardships to arrive in Australia -- and at some condition of self-knowledge...
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS by John Updike (Knopf; $18.95). A wry, haunting memoir by an author who decided while young that the printed word would disguise his flaws, only to learn that success leaves one painfully exposed...