The true story of Jack Molinas is one of the legends of basketball. Several prominent sportswriters have previously attempted to tell it, but until now none have succeeded. Among the most talented and brainiest to ever play the game of basketball, Molinas is also credited, by some, with having single-handedly corrupted it. Jack Molinas was already a certified NBA All-Star who could score whenever he wanted to by the time he was a rookie with the Fort Wayne Pistons. Moreover, he was an Ivy League graduate with a genius-level 175 I.Q. Rich, handsome, young, sweet, charismatic, Molinas was irresistible to women.
But he also had a flair for larceny—he'd much rather swindle two bits from somebody than earn an honest dollar. Throughout his illustrious career, from Stuyvesant High School, to Columbia University, and then in the NBA, Molinas had conspired to fix the outcomes of more than half of the games he played and had led dozens of other players to do the same. Jack Molinas's real game was power—taming the unknown, manipulating people, odds and possibilities, making the future dance to his own secret music, gambling and winning. "Dont worry," was his motto.
In The Wizard of Odds, renowned and best-selling basketball writer Charley Rosen brings us for the first time the full life story of Jack Molinas, one of the greatest basketball players of his era, a man whose gambling addiction and hubris caused his ultimate demise. Drawing on numerous, previously unavailable first-person accounts, including Jack Molinas' own journal, and trial transcripts, Rosen presents the saga of a man who perhaps better than anyone around him understood the weaknesses of the system in which he lived—so much so that he convinced himself that he could manipulate that system to his advantage with total impunity.
By the time Molinas was arrested, on January 9, 1954, for conspiring to fix NBA games, he was already deeply involved with the Mafia. Banned from playing in the NBA, he pursued a law degree, then turned back to illegal gambling, forming a large-scale bookmaking operation that was financed by members of the five Mafia families of New York. He was arrested again, and on February 11, 1963, he was sentenced to 10 to 15 years for bribery and conspiracy.
After his parole in 1968, Jack picked up right where he left off. Before long, thanks to the generosity of a gracious Mafia (Molinas never ratted anyone out), Molinas was co-founder of a thriving pornographic film production company and he was doing some legal work; he was playing basketball on the LA playgrounds with the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor; and he was dating a 19-year-old porn star. But things fell apart rather quickly, and in the early morning hours of August 4, 1975, Jack Molinas was shot in the head and killed on his patio, a dark testament to the terrible human power of self-destructiveness.
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.
