Untitled episode

Memoir my home team a sports writer's life and the Redemptive power of smalltown girls basketball Kindred captures the spirit and stories of the Morton High School lady Potters basketball team a team that despite its size and scope has profoundly impacted his life and his career joining me now is sports journalist Dave Kendra Dave it's good to meet you thanks so much for being here tonight um

I got the book this is this is a great read uh with such a legendary career covering all those iconic figures and sporting events I just mentioned um you were inspired to write about the Morton High School lady Potter's basketball team tell us how that happened what was not so much inspired as that as attending a game saw a friend's daughter play and after 50 years

of being in press boxes and at Courtside I wanted to write something now I've been doing it for 14 years I've probably written 500,000 words about this girl's basketball team more anything in my life with the possible exception of Muhammad Ali what was it about the lady Potters basketball team and the competition that Drew you into this the way you've been drawn into Pro Sports well

they were very good to start with you know and I think it at the bottom at bottom all the great athletes the good athletes you know these are not Elite athletes they're Elite high school girls but at the same time they have the ambition they have the toughness they have the drive they they want to succeed um in the book you write I understood my real

reason for writing about the lady Potters they kept me alive you say not in the sense of giving me a reason to live but they made it possible for me to believe I existed people I loved were gone the newspaper work I love was gone I refused to be gone to be disappeared tell me about that feeling and and and what these sports-loving high school girls

you know brought to you clearly having you on the sidelines once they figured out who you were and what you've done in your life and your career must have been just so cool to have you there but what did they do for you they gave me a community you know I was afraid as I said newspapers I I love newspapers I worked for newspapers for 50

years newspapers went away when I wasn't ready to go away uh I didn't know that at the time I thought I was retiring but then I discovered that gave me a community gave me people you know and I was at an age you know I'm 82 now but I was at an age when people were dying my wife had a catastrophic stroke had a grandson who

died my mother died you know I needed to be with people and being in that small gym that's where I started as a as an athlete that's where I started as a sports writer my first job bloming Pantagraph covering high school basketball so it was like literally going home that's where the title came from my home team because it it became my home team and we

just showed video of you up there on the ladder cutting down the cutting down the net which is really cool I want to ask you one quick question before you go I mean you've interviewed had a legendary career in sports Muhammad Ali you talk about Tiger Woods Michael Jordan Super Bowls on and on and on I've always thought as a journalist every time I interview someone

I learned something from that interview about myself about the person about journalism and that follows me to the next interview I'm wondering did interviewing any of those iconic athletes uh help you in interviewing any of these young women every one of them I never treated the I never treated these girls any different than I treated Ali or Jordan or tiger you know they all are they

weren't eager to answer questions but maybe I helped them learn how to answer questions I was asking them questions that a professional sports writer would ask a professional basketball player I wanted to know what happened why' you do that why' you make that spin move why why' you throw the pass out of bounds I asked them serious questions I treated it as serious basketball I mean

I had fun with it I hope the girls liked it I hope the coaches liked it uh but I had fun with it and I treated them um as seriously as I ever did anything Dave thanks so much for joining us the book is great my home team a sports writer's life and the Redemptive power of smalltown girls basketball it's available to purchase wherever books are

sold nice to meet you sir thank you very much Phil hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching