Ex-WSU star’s book a behind-the-scenes look

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FAIRBORN — Vernard Hollins remembers basketball fans in Hungary heating up coins with a lighter so that when they threw them at opposing players they would stick to skin.

In Macedonia, fans threw rocks and pebbles at the former Wright State star. In Mexico, he experienced an eight-hour bus trip to a game on perilous mountain roads without ledges or railings. In Turkey, the first time he got paid he met team officials in a park and was handed an envelope with $15,000 in cash.

Those stories are just a taste of life overseas for a professional basketball player, and they are one reason Hollins, whose Wright State career ended in 2004, felt compelled to write a book about his life in basketball. He also wanted to honor his late father, Tharnell Hollins, and that’s why the book — available on Amazon.com — is titled, “The Disease Didn’t Kill the Dream.”

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