Читать книгу Indiana University Olympians. From Leroy Samse to Lilly King онлайн

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He would shovel snow from the driveway to shoot baskets if he couldn’t get in a gym, practiced broadcasting games in a closet, and kept journals of his progress. Until he left for IU, he missed just two of his father’s games—one when he had the chicken pox, another when he finished fourth in a regional Elks Hoop Shoot free throw contest at age ten in Warren, Ohio.

Sam Alford coached for four years at Martinsville, where local hero Jerry Sichting was idolized by his young son. (Sichting went on to be an All–Big Ten guard at Purdue and played and coached in the NBA.) Then his father moved onto New Castle and its 9,325-seat gymnasium.

If there is anywhere in the world for a basketball junkie to grow up, it is New Castle. Alford was no physical specimen—he was all of five foot ten and 125 pounds when he got his driver’s license—but he tirelessly worked on his body as well as his game. He would shoot one hundred to three hundred free throws a day, charting them all and punishing himself with fingertip pushups or sprints when he missed.