Description

Easton Press leather edition of Bill Bradley's "Life on the Run," a COLLECTOR'S edition, Personally Signed by BILL BRADLEY, one of the SIGNED COLLECTOR'S EDITIONS, published in 1999. Bound in brown leather, the book has camel tan moire silk end leaves, satin book maker, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, gold gilding on three edges---in near FINE condition. Senator Bill Bradley, born in 1943, was reared in Crystal City, Missouri. Bradley wrote: "I was an only child born to an energetic mother who spent a lot of time at church, and a banker father who suffered from severe arthritis. We lived a comfortable life. As early as I can remember I was programmed to become a successful gentleman. My father insisted on manners and my mother on success. I took lessons in practically everything: dancing, trumpet, French horn, piano, boxing, tennis, golf, swimming, canoeing, typing, French, and horseback riding. By the age of fourteen, I was spending four hours a day in the high school gymnasium, practicing details I had learned at Easy Ed Macauley's basketball camp." An all-American scholar-athlete, Bradley originally signed with DUKE, but after breaking his foot, he switched to attend PRINCETON UNIVERSITY where he played forward for the basketball team, averaging 30 points per game. When he graduated i n 1963, he was drafted by the NBA , but turned down the professionals and attended OXFORD UNIVERSITY as a RHODES Scholar. He received a Master's degree in 1967. While studying Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at Oxford, he played in a professional team in Europe as a member of the Oxford University Basketball Club. He helped lead the Oxford men's team to back-to-back championships. After graduating from Oxford, he played professional basketball for the NEW YORK KNICKS and in his third season, the Knicks won their first-ever NBA championship. Over 724 NBA games, Bradley scored a total of 9,217 points. Bradley wrote that when he played in the NBA in 1967, the average salary was $9,500---now it is about $1.4 million. [1999 data.] Some players have signed multi-year deals for $40 million. In 1984, the Knicks retired his number 24 jersey; he was only the fourth player so honored by the Knicks, after Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, and DeBusschere. Bradley wrote: "What I tried to do in LIFE ON THE RUN was to allow people to hear, feel, and see what it was like to be a professional basketball player crisscrossing American for eight months a year, playing sometimes as many as a hundred and twenty games in a season." Bradley was inducted into the BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME in 1983. In 1978, he ran for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in NEW JERSEY and was elected to three terms, 1978-1997. Bradley played with and against the legends, including Walt Chamberlain, Dave DeBusschere, his roommate on the road; Jerry Lucas, Chet Walker, Phil Jackson, Earl Monroe, Danny Whelan, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, John Havlicek, Bill Russell, Jerry Lucas, and others. B radley was married and fathered a daughter, but is now divorced. 229 pages. I offer combined shipping.