Feinstein built a career on connections
Feinstein allowed readers to go behind closed doors 14 Mar 2025 The Washington Post At some point during the 198788 academic year, Gary Williams — then the men’s basketball coach at Ohio State — was planning on taking a recruiting trip to Sparta, New Jersey, to see a 6-foot-7 shooting guard named Chris Jent. At that time, John Feinstein — the prodigious sports reporter and author who died Thursday at 69 — was working on his second book, the follow-up to the groundbreaking “A Season on the Brink.” The book’s premise: show everything that went on behind the scenes in college hoops. In those days, there were no restrictions on who could come to these visits. Feinstein called Williams: Can I accompany you on an in-home visit? Williams’s response: Sure. “He was good,” Williams said. “He didn’t try to dominate anything. He just sat there and took notes.” Jent committed to Ohio State. “John never let me forget that,” Williams said. “He wanted credit for his outstanding recruiting ability.” Th...