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BIO
Craig Leener got his start in organized basketball at the age of 9 in a Southern
California YMCA youth league. He later secured a roster spot on the varsity
squad at Van Nuys High School, where he was considered to be the 13th-best
basketball player on a team of 13 players.
Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in Radio/TV/Film from California State
University, Northridge. While at CSUN, he served as a board op at campus radio
station KCSN 88.5 FM, engineering live broadcasts of men’s basketball games.
Today he sits on the board of directors of CSUN’s Journalism Alumni Association,
where he mentors student journalists.
Craig worked in human resources management within the entertainment industry
for many years before landing his dream job as a sports journalist at The Signal
newspaper in Santa Clarita, California. One summer, while working as a staff
writer for The Signal, he traveled to every Major League Baseball stadium with
his son, Zachary, delivering a series of articles from the road on fathers and sons
and baseball.
Craig lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles with his wife, Andrea, and their two
mischievous but well-meaning dogs, Sophie and Beau. He is a passionate,
lifelong opponent of the instant replay in sports. “This Was Never About
Basketball” is Craig’s debut novel.
BOOK SUMMARY
Seventeen-year-old high school basketball star Ezekiel “Zeke” Archer has it all: a
sweet jump shot, a full-ride scholarship to a Midwestern basketball powerhouse,
and the brightest future. But when Zeke’s temper gets the better of him in the city
championship, he is expelled from school, has to forfeit his scholarship, and is
left to ponder his once-hopeful future.
While finishing his final high school days in the California educational system’s
version of purgatory, Zeke makes a stunning discovery. With the help of a young
autistic classmate Zeke befriends, he learns that the mysterious 7th Dimension,
which brought basketball to Earth more than a century ago, has decided to take
the game away for good — all because of the ugly event Zeke set into motion in
his final game!
As he embarks on the ultimate cross-country road trip to save basketball, Zeke
must confront his unsettled past — including a father he’s not heard from in years
and a brother fighting in a war half a world away — in order to set his life on the
right path and rescue the game he loves.
The LOWE-Down!
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