True Fans: A Basketball Odyssey - Softcover

“A modern-day classic.”—Library Journal

“ . . . A self-propelled Blue Highway. . . a revealing look at average Americans.”—Booklist

“Positive and uplifting, giving the reader an itch to do [his or her] own pilgrimage.”—Lou Melini, Cycling Utah

One summer . . .
Dan Austin, his brother Jared, and best friend Clint set off across the country on mountain bikes in search of adventure. They wanted to see if America was as good as they hoped and believed it to be. Along with a few jars of peanut butter, push-up handles, and beat-up copies of On the Road and Huck Finn, they carried with them a virgin, never-before-played-with NBA basketball—inviting any heroic, kind-hearted folks they met along the way to sign.
The “Hero’s Ball” was carefully guarded in a trailer they pulled behind their bikes called the Ark of the Covenant. During the course of the journey—from Venice Beach, California, to Springfield, Massachusetts—the Ball was signed by people as fascinating and diverse as the country itself: people like the Reverend Kenny Shaw of Pasadena, California—who let the pilgrims camp behind his church—and Dick Simmons, a coal miner in West Virginia who offered up a few dollars he could scarcely afford to part with.
One hundred days and a whole summer later they planned to present the Ball to the “Powers that Be” at the Basketball Hall of Fame. The rest is history . . .

Dan Austin has explored old paths and new throughout the world. His directorial credits include Petionville, a documentary film exploring the lives of Haitian street children, and True Fans, which won the People’s Choice Award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival and has screened in over 200 cities worldwide. True Fans inspired a musical by the same name that won the Richard Rogers Award and is currently in development in New York. Austin splits his time between New York City, the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, and the West Coast. www.TrueFans.com