At TrashTalk, we like to write articles, books or jokes of a more or less sweet taste on social networks. We like to organize events to bring together orange ball fans as often as possible. We like to make videos to talk NBA throughout the year. But we also like to read and that’s good because books around basketball, that’s not what’s missing. From now on, we will share with you our impressions of the books we read, just to make you discover or rediscover them, to make you want (we hope) to browse them. Come on, today: “Fred Weis – So far so good”.
2m17. As Jacques Monclar says from the first lines of the preface: “crossing or meeting Fred Weis is a physical shock”. Reading this book is another kind of shock, emotional this time. This book changes us from the classic or even linear bio. “Until then, it’s okay” is much more personal, more intimate, deeper. Because the life of Weis is a novel which sometimes looks like a daily drama, a drama of life. And Big Fred chose to tell us regarding this life, to open up without detour or ambiguity. This book reminds us all that professional athletes, however talented and excessively physical they may be, remain mere mortals made up of joys, sufferings, emotions, hopes, doubts, desires… The visible face of their lives revolves around the land but they also have human problems that go far beyond the framework.
From his first dunks at 9 years old (not Fred Weis who wants to) to his current position on television and radio, passing by CSP Limoges with his successes and his galleys, by PAOK Salonika and Spain, Big Fred tells us everything. The competitions, the hotels that follow one another, the training sessions, the matches, the planes, the buses… He also tells how he learned to run, the taunts he suffered, the depression that almost got the better of his desire to live, the respect earned through performances on the court, group life, injuries, his family, his son’s illness. Everything he achieved, everything he’s proud of and everything he regrets. All. Without any filter and without forgetting the experience of the Olympic Games in Sydney. Ah Sydney… Vince Carter’s dunk yes of course but above all an incredible adventure for the Blues. At 23, Weis was part of a France team – made up of monsters of French basketball like Antoine Rigaudeau, Laurent Sciarra, Stéphane Risacher or Jim Bilba – which proudly stood up to the Americans in the final of the Olympic Games.
“So Far So Far” is the story of a player tall in size and tall in courage. Because courage is needed to give yourself up like this. This testimony might be useful to many young people who want to follow in the footsteps of Fred Weis, Evan Fournier or Nicolas Batum. We read it, we project ourselves, we relive the greatest moments of a very full life and career.
Fred Weis – So far so good
- Auteur : Fred Weis, with Geoffrey Charpille
- Publisher: Amphora
- French release: June 9, 2022
- Prix : 18€
