Star basketball player, coach, and novelist, Charley Rosen is steeped in his subject and is the first writer to make basketball the stuff of the great American novel.
With Barney Polan's Game, Rosen takes on the legendary point-shaving scandals of 1950 and '51, when the best of the college basketball players took money from gamblers in return for affecting the outcomes of games, never knowing that in the process they were trading in their innocence and love of the game—until they were caught, and the scandal moved them from the sports pages to the news pages across the nation. Barney Polan's Game is based heavily in fact and weighs in on the issues of character and morality that were in the balance.
Barney Polan's Game's cast of characters includes Barney Polan himself, veteran sportswriter and "minor celebrity in all five boroughs"; Jimmy O'Hara, second-string clerk in the Manhattan D.A.'s office, "with his long bony nose that always reminded Barney of a can opener"; gambler Johnny Boy Gianelli; coaches Matt Fleischer and Henry Carlson; and the players, black, white, Jewish, and Catholic: black star Otis Hill and his protégé, newcomer Royce Johnson; Ray Paluski, Jr., son of a basketball legend; and high-scorer Stevie Schreiber, among many others. No one will walk away from the scandals unscathed; many of the guilty will have their lives and careers ruined, others among the guilty will end up in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Remembering Charley Rosen (1941-2025)
We're very sad to share the news that Seven Stories author, former basketball player, and minor-league coach, Charley Rosen, has passed away at age 84. Below, our editorial director, Dan Simon, shares a few words about his literary collaborator, colleague, and friend.
To celebrate Rosen's life and legacy, we're offering free downloads of two of his books through the end of the weekend: The House of Moses All-Stars and The Wizard of Odds.
Ps. The New York Times has published a particularly touching — and thorough — obituary to Rosen. We'd love you to read that too. You can do so here (gift link).
A Note From Dan Simon
Difficult to write about Charley Rosen, who died last Saturday at the age of 84. It’s the rare author who brings a larger human story to the daily drama of professional—or college—sports. Charley Rosen did that time and time again. He knew the game in and out, having played for Hunter College and then coached in the CBA and for college teams. He knew everyone in the world of basketball and everyone in basketball knew him. He loved the game and the people who kept it alive.
Charley was always writing, literally nothing could stop him. Up until six weeks ago he was writing away on his next book. And he believed in every book he wrote. The best of them — The House of Moses All-Stars, The Wizard of Odds, to name just two of the more than 30 books he wrote — are teeming with life. And no one could describe game action the way Charley could. The only thing comparable that I know of is Nelson Algren describing the pummeling that goes on in the ring.
A great writer will try each time to outdo themselves in every book, and succeeds in accomplishing the impossible at least some of the time. That was Charley.
His latest book, a coming-of-age basketball novel called Dribbling a Basketball to Damascus, drawn heavily from his own life, will be released on October 28th. And The Fight Game in Black and White, by legendary NBA player and coach Ray Scott, with Charley as his wingman, comes out next summer.
Last spring I asked him if he was watching the playoffs. “No way,” he said, “why would I? Show me a team that plays the game right. They just hoist 3s. Most teams don’t play defense anymore.” One of the true patriots of Hoops Nation, who wasn’t afraid to criticize the country he loved most, RIP Charley Rosen.
—Dan Simon
A native of the Bronx and longtime pal of basketball guru Phil Jackson, CHARLEY ROSEN led the league in technical fouls during each of his six years as a coach in the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association. Since then he has become the world’s foremost writer of fiction and nonfiction on the subject of basketball, chronicling the drama that takes place both on and off the court. His many novels include The House of Moses All-Stars, a New York Times Notable Book, and Sammy Wong: All-American. His non-fiction works include The Scandals of ’51: How the Gamblers Almost Killed College Basketball and More than a Game, co-written with Phil Jackson. Rosen is a devotee of the Triangle Offense. He lives in Accord, NY.
