In The Last Amateurs, Feinstein chronicles the 1999-2000 basketball season in the Patriot League, an obscure Division I “mid-major” conference that at the time was comprised of Army, Navy, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Bucknell.

Feinstein wanted to write a book about true “student athletes” who take both sides of that phrase seriously. They are athletically gifted enough to play Division I college basketball as well as serious students who graduate with decent GPAs in rigorous academic programs.

For all their academic and athletic gifts, however, these players spend their college careers far from the limelight of what Feinstein calls the “TV leagues”: the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, etc. There are no agents or Nike reps. lingering in the hallways after their practices or games. In fact, very few of these players receive any scholarship money. A couple of them will go to play professional ball in Europe, but most will enter the work world inhabited by the rest of us.

Feinstein obviously had a good time interviewing and writing about these players and their coaches. There is no little amount of sacrifice, yet they continue to play and coach out of their love for the sport.

His main interest is that these players and the game they play do not mock the universities they represent. They take scholarship seriously, and do not view their studies as an unfortunate obstacle on the road to professional athletics. They are true scholar athletes, seeking honor far from any promise of wealth or fame.