Five Banners

“Feinstein was on the scene for so much and seems to have forgotten nothing. Telling stories that will be a revelation to even the most devoted followers of Duke basketball and college sports in general, Five Banners is the definitive book by the definitive chronicler.” - Alexander Wolff, author of (Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure) "There is nobody better to chronicle Duke’s championship culture than John Feinstein. John has been close to Coach K and his program from Day One and takes us all behind the scenes for each of Duke’s quintet of titles in Five Banners. Nobody captures the essence of sport better than John Feinstein, and he’s written another great one." - Jay Bilas (ESPN) "It’s a look at Duke Basketball’s epic run under Mike Krzyzewski and it’s not a good read. It’s a great read." - J. D. King (Duke Basketball Report) "A fresh look at the historic program that has hovered near the apex of the college basketball world for nearly four decades. . . . Five Banners reads more like a journal than a history book, with anecdotes from players, coaches, and other important figures throughout the program." - Justin Laidlaw (Indy Week) "A shrewd reader can fast-break through the game accounts, the way readers breeze through battle descriptions in a Civil War history, and get to the good Coach K vignettes. There are many." - David M. Shribman (Wall Street Journal) "The stories Feinstein shares in his book do more than retell the history of Duke basketball. Through his unparalleled access to one of the most impressive leaders of all time in Krzyzewski, Feinstein gives a blueprint into what leadership looks like and how greatness is made." - Dom Fenoglio (Duke Chronicle) "Feinstein’s prose is a river of basketball minutiae, toggling between a particular game and all the complicated history between these coaches and these teams, before getting into a brief summary of the game and then the culminating events, the last-second shots made or missed. There are so many names of players and coaches, so many dates of epochal matchups, so many games recounted, so many brief synopsis of a coach’s record at a particular school. These details are tossed off in such a way as to make the reader feel as though they were driving by the open door of a cathedral that is adjacent to the main cathedral, and are able to glimpse just enough of the interior to understand that it, too, is a world worthy of entire books." - Thomas Beller (The Assembly) "There is some fun information revealed along the way. . . . [T]his easy read is certainly a well-done assignment on Feinstein's part, and certainly those in Durham will love revisiting those times." - Budd Bailey (Buffalo Sports Page)