Really well researched and written. Grassroots youth basketball chews up and spits out a lot of kids. As parents, we need to think about this. Demetrius Walker's basketball career ended in December (see http://oncampussports.com/2013/12/cautionary-tale-demetrius-walker/0). I keep wondering what might have been. ( )

This book follows a youth basketball coach and the team of stars he puts together. The author of the book spends years with the coach, players, and parents, conducting many interviews and observing games and practices. The reporting was engaging and enlightening. I coudn't believe how angry it made me. The coach of the team is selfish, arrogant, and manipulative. He uses his players to make money and promote his image, and dumps them when they no longer suit his needs. It is sickening. ( )

This was extremely enlightening, but it angered me to see what happened to some of the boys. I am thinking of recommending this to some of my boyswho are interested in basketball - I already know a few who go to the different tournaments with AAU. ( )

I am a huge fan of basketball at the pro level. I had no idea, however, that recruiting started so early. The seedy world of basketball begins at a very early age and the competition to find the next big star is intense! The author does an excellent job of uncovering this side of the game and exposes dirty underbelly of this world. We often hear about this behavior in the world of football, but it appears to be more common than we want to know. ( )

Play Their Hearts Out is an eye-opening look at the ways the money, fame, and power in professional sports has trickled down through college athletics to infect the playgrounds of America. That sounds a bit dramatic, but honestly, I challenge anyone to read this account of an AAU basketball team in California, and the ways that the coaches use and exploit children as young as 9 or 10 years old for their own personal and monetary gain, and not be sickened. And I write that as a diehard basketball fan who hates to see what is happening to the sport I love. ( )