''The Last Amateurs'' is a book by

John Feinstein John Feinstein (born July 28, 1956) is an American sportswriter, author and sports commentator. Early life Feinstein was born to a Jewish family in New York City on July 28, 1956. His father was heavily involved in the arts having been the Gen ...

. First published in 2000, the book chronicles the 1999–2000

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

season. It emphasizes the efforts of the true scholar-athletes at the highly respected institutions that make up the league, where academics come first, and athletes play for love of the game rather than as a

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

for the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

. The seven teams in the Patriot League at the time were Army, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Navy. Since the book was published American University, Boston University, and Loyola University-Maryland have joined the league.

In popular culture

The book made an appearance in sports culture in 2010, when future basketball statistical guru

Drew Cannon Drew Cannon (born April 21, 1990) is an American statistician and sports writer who currently works on the Boston Celtics staff. As a child, Cannon was fascinated by sports statistics and, after reading the work of Bill James, began to design ...

cited it in a report he wrote for ''

Scout.com Scout Media is an integrated sports publishing company that produces Internet content covering hundreds of professional and college teams across America. The company was founded in 2001 and was acquired by Fox Sports in 2005. In 2013, Fox Sports ...

'' on

mid-major Mid-major is a term used in American NCAA Division I college sports, particularly men's basketball, to refer to athletic conferences that are not among the "Power Five conferences" (the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC), which are alternativ ...

recruiting:

In John Feinstein’s ''The Last Amateurs'', he talks about a Holy Cross player named Chris Spitler, who at one point described himself as the worst player on the worst team in the worst conference in Division I. Feinstein discussed the three stages of Chris Spitler (paraphrased): 1. There’s no way in hell you’re making this team. 2. OK, you’re on the team, but you’ll never play. 3. You’re starting.
Adam Emmenecker Adam Cannata Emmenecker (born December 3, 1985) is an American basketball player who completed his college career as a point guard at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa in 2008. During the 2007–08 basketball season, Emmenecker, who had been ...
added a stage: 4. You’re the Conference Player of the Year.

References

1999–2000 NCAA Division I men's basketball season 2000 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Basketball books Patriot League men's basketball {{Sport-book-stub