FILE – Sports activities author and creator John Feinstein poses in Washington, Feb. 28, 2006. (AP Photograph Caleb Jones, file)
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WASHINGTON — John Feinstein, one of many nation’s foremost sports activities writers and the creator of quite a few bestselling books, together with the groundbreaking “A Season on the Brink” about faculty basketball coach Bob Knight, died unexpectedly Thursday. Feinstein was 69.
He died of pure causes at his brother’s dwelling in McLean, Virginia, based on Robert Feinstein, who stated he found John’s physique.
John Feinstein was a full-time reporter for The Washington Publish from 1977 to 1991, a commentator for retailers resembling ESPN — the place he made common appearances on The Sports activities Reporters — and the Golf Channel, and a voter for greater than 20 years within the AP High 25 males’s faculty basketball ballot. He remained with the Publish as a contributing columnist, and he additionally hosted satellite tv for pc radio applications on SiriusXM.
“He was very enthusiastic about issues,” Robert Feinstein stated in a phone interview. “Individuals both cherished him or hated him — and equally strongly.”
John Feinstein — at all times a storyteller, whether or not by way of the written phrase or when chatting with different journalists in an area’s media room or press field — was working till the time of his dying. He was within the Washington space this week to cowl the Atlantic 10 Match forward of March Insanity, and he filed a column for the Post about Michigan State coach Tom Izzo that appeared on-line Thursday.
“He was sturdy along with his opinions,” Izzo stated Thursday, “however very attention-grabbing to speak to.”
Feinstein was comfy writing fiction and nonfiction, and took on an array of sports activities, together with golf and tennis, however he was recognized most for his connection to school basketball due to A Season on the Brink. He took a go away of absence from the Publish in 1985 to embed with Knight’s Indiana group.
Knight’s status for having a sizzling mood was well-established by then, and Feinstein relayed behind-the-scenes proof in a approach that was unusual in sports activities writing on the time. Feinstein additionally successfully portrayed the non-public relationships Knight had along with his gamers, which alternated between heat and abusive.
“I can not probably overstate how necessary Knight was in my life,” Feinstein wrote within the Publish after the coach’s dying in 2023.
“Not as soon as did Knight again away from the entry, even throughout some tough moments for his group,” Feinstein wrote. “Though he did not communicate to me for eight years after the guide’s publication — upset, of all issues, with seeing profanity within the guide — he finally determined to ‘forgive’ me, and we had a distant although cordial relationship for the remainder of his life.”
Reward for Feinstein’s work — and the type of entry and expert reporting that had been its hallmarks — was throughout social media on Thursday, together with from others within the enterprise of writing or talking about faculty basketball.
And, after all, the information reverberated round faculty basketball as its season approaches its crescendo. Feinstein appeared to know each coach within the sport — and so they all appeared to know him.
Marquette coach Shaka Sensible realized about Feinstein’s dying from a reporter at Madison Sq. Backyard after the Golden Eagles beat Xavier within the Huge East Match.
“Oh, wow,” Sensible stated. “I’ve recognized him for a very long time. He is the most effective sports activities writers ever. I obtained to know him as a author earlier than I obtained to know him as an individual, studying a few of his stuff after I was in highschool. He cared in regards to the groups and he cared in regards to the gamers and he cared in regards to the coaches — which isn’t as frequent today.”
Feinstein wrote greater than 40 books, together with “A Good Stroll Spoiled” (1995), about skilled golf, and “A Civil Battle” (1996), in regards to the Military-Navy soccer sport. After that guide’s publication, he labored for a few years as a radio commentator for Navy soccer.
“The Historic Eight,” about Ivy League soccer, was revealed final yr. Feinstein additionally wrote sports activities novels geared toward youthful readers.
Feinstein graduated from Duke College and later taught there. He started educating — and was a writer-in-residence — at Longwood College in Virginia throughout this faculty yr.
Barry Svrluga, a Washington Publish columnist who stated he took Feinstein’s sports activities journalism course as a senior at Duke, recalled the expertise Thursday.
“He obtained whoever he may to speak to the category — Gary Williams on a sport day when Maryland was on the town, Billy Packer, Bud Collins. Bob Woodward referred to as in,” Svrluga stated. “And you may simply inform that a part of his reporting prowess — how he obtained into locker rooms and entrance places of work and onto the vary and in clubhouses at PGA Tour occasions — is as a result of he may actually develop relationships, and folks simply preferred to speak to him. A part of that needed to be as a result of he did not pander. You knew precisely the place he stood. And that gained respect.”
One other Publish colleague, Dan Steinberg, Feinstein’s editor lately, stated: “He would inform me, ‘Oh, yeah, I am going downtown to satisfy Steve Kerr for lunch right this moment,’ or ‘Oh, yeah, Jim Larrañaga referred to as me a couple of months in the past and requested me how we may repair basketball.’ He cherished sports activities, adored them, watched them consistently even when he wasn’t writing about them, had an opinion about every thing and everybody. … He cherished Wimbledon, swimming, the Olympics, faculty basketball, the Naval Academy, West Level, the Mets, and individuals who returned his calls.”
Along with Robert, John Feinstein is survived by his spouse, Christine, daughters Brigid and Jayne, and son Danny, in addition to a sister, Margaret.
