Ralph Sampson pens foreword to Team of Destiny

Posted on Wednesday, May. 1, 2019, 8:39 pm

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We are delighted to announce that Ralph Sampson, the greatest player in Virginia history, has written the foreword for our upcoming book: Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship.

The book, which chronicles the entire season and features the stories of the Cavaliers’ principle players and Coach Tony Bennett, is written by Jerry Ratcliffe and Chris Graham, with additional reporting by Zach Pereles, Scott Ratcliffe, and Scott German. Both Sampson and longtime ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale have written blurbs for the book.

Due out in mid-May, fans can pre-order Team of Destiny at a discount price through May 15 only.

Click here to pre-order.

Sampson, who was a three-time National Player of the Year while at Virginia, was recently named to Vitale’s “Mount Rushmore of All Impact Players,” in Vitale’s new book covering his 40 years with ESPN. The rest of that Mount Rushmore also includes Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Christian Laettner.

Vitale wrote of the Virginia star: “Sampson is as good a big man as ever to play in college basketball. At 7-4, 215 pounds Ralph was bigger than life as Virginia’s center. His impact on the Charlottesville campus from 1979 through 1983 may have been greater than any one person since President Thomas Jefferson, who founded the school.”

Vitale went on to say that Sampson was characterized as the most graceful center since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and may have had more impact on a school than any player in ACC history.

Both Sampson and Vitale are in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

By Jerry Ratcliffe