By the Grace of the Game. The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an unprecedented American Dream.
Dan Grunfeld.
If you happen to be a basketball fan, the Grunfeld name may sound familiar. Ernie Grunfeld was a star player for the Tennessee Volunteers in the 1970’s, a hometown hero with the New York Knicks and later became a successful general manager for a few NBA franchises. Son, Dan, was a solid college player in his own right at Stanford and carved out a professional playing career in Europe and Israel. What most may not know is the story of the authors grandparents and how they came to America. In this book, By the Grace of the Game, it is proclaimed that the authors father is believed to be the only NBA player whose parents survived the holocaust.
The author admits to leading a privileged life while growing up in New Jersey and later Milwaukee, Wisconsin in his youth. Grunfeld did, however, form a very strong bond with his paternal grandmother. The relationship along with the experiences of his father serve to be the impetus of this book. The author, through stories of his grandmother and other extensive research, writes about the family’s origin in Romania. Life was comfortable and supportive for his grandmother until the outbreak of the war in Germany. Soon after, though, the Adolph Hitler and the Nazi’s targeting of Jews put those families at risk throughout much of the continent.
Upon surviving the holocaust, getting married and starting a family, the Grunfeld’s leave Romania, via Italy and make their way to the Bronx as an early landing spot. The second part of the story revolves around the authors father, Ernie, and his exposure to a new life as an immigrant in Queens. The author tells the story of how and why his father learned to play the city game of basketball in the neighborhood parks. Ernie Grunfeld was blessed with good genes. Already big for his age, he learned the game and through much work and practice, he gradually became a pretty fair player. It helped that Ernie Grunfeld grew to 6’6 in high school with some useful girth to his frame as well.
Dan Grunfeld alternates both poignant stories in every other chapter of the book. Certainly, the experiences of his grandmother and her family were difficult, dangerous and harrowing. She lost most of her family during the holocaust as they did not survive the concentration camps that they were forced to matriculate. In many ways, son and grandson are fortunate to be here.
The author’s father was an All-American high school player at Forest Hills High School. He ended up wearing the orange and white in Knoxville, Tennessee as a valued member of the Volunteer basketball team. Interestingly enough, the Tennessee coaching staff successfully recruited and landed another impact player from New York a year later by the name of Bernard King. King and Grunfeld were a feared and formidable pair in the SEC.
Both were good enough to be drafted in the first round of the 1977 NBA draft. One became a star player and the other was a solid journeyman. Eventually Grunfeld, after leaving the game as a player, worked in the front office of his home town New York Knicks while ultimately reaching the role of general manager. Grunfeld also went on to serve in management with two other franchises in the league. Basketball had clearly taken this one-time New York City immigrant, who could not speak the language upon arrival to Queens and had never seen a basketball game in his young life, to a lofty career as a player and administrator at the highest levels in that very same country.
From the reading, it is obvious that the author, an Academic All-American at Stanford, was heavily influenced by his family’s background. The relationship forged with his grandmother educated him on the struggles and atrocities of the holocaust and second world war especially for those living in that part of the world. It is also pretty apparent that his father’s success and status as a basketball player and manager transformed the author at a young age into a basketball zealot. Due to the writer’s own life experiences, the escapades that shaped the selection of going to school on the west coast are passed on to the reader. Furthermore, Grunfeld also details, in a bit of a compare/contrast with his father, his own basketball playing career in college and eventual trials and tribulations overseas.
The book is well written, the research is impeccable but most importantly the story idea was meant to be told from a grandson’s point of view. The book really has two stories but are intermittently woven into an interesting journey and adventure but yet also a reminder that life is precious, should not be taken lightly and that circumstances can change often with little warning. The two hundred and sixty pages or so will inspire the reader on how a simple city game could influence at least two generations of families and yet also continue to edify us about what once was but yet still dare to dream again.
· You might like to read this book if you are a fan of basketball.
· You might like to read this book if you read stories taking place in the second world war era.
· You might like to read this book if you seek stories about survivors of the holocaust.
· You might like to read this book if you enjoy learning about immigrant families experiencing the American Dream.
Read more about the author on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dan_Grunfeld
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