A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton, John McPhee, 1965

A great essayist writes about a great college basketball player in a book whose title comes from a Bradley statement about how he tosses in an over the shoulder shot without looking at the basket.  Bradley, born in Crystal City, MO to the town banker and after living a life of privilege, arrives in Princeton class of ’65 and becomes the best basketball player in the nation setting records for scoring, free throw percentages, etc on the way to leading Princeton to the Final Four and a 3^rd place finish after losing to Michigan and beating Wichita State, a game in which he scored 58 points.  Straight arrow, smart, disciplined, with an extra-ordinary work ethic, Bradley is shown to be the real thing in this brief, hagiographic early work by McPhee.  Still, good fun and good memories.