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Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen
An expose of sexual recruiting tactics from the journal pages of an escort queen.Breaking Cardinal Rules is an exposé by escort Katina Powell based on her experiences providing sexual services for the basketball program at the University of Louisville. It is written with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Dick Cady.Powell has filled five journals with details of her escort escapades, sexual encounters and her activities at the University of Louisville. Most of the U of L services she provided took place in the men's dormitory where most of the basket players reside.Her main contact and the man with the money–the school's former director of basketball operations and former graduate assistant, Andre McGee–kept Powell and her girls busy from 2010 to 2014.Powell does not present a sympathetic character. Her life is full of contradictions. She has no remorse over the choices she has made. Her story is true in all its graphic detail."If you think you've heard seamy tales about recruiting before, wait till you get a load of this. The Louisville high command has vowed to take the matter very seriously. It should."-Mike Lopresti, retired USA Today sports columnistAbout the ABOUT DICK CADYDick Cady worked for the Dearborn (Michigan) Guide, Ypsilanti Daily Press, Detroit News, Indianapolis Star and Newsday and also wrote for The Nation, NUVO Newsweekly, Indianapolis Monthly Magazine, the Johnson County Journal and Bloomington Herald-Times. He won 51 local, state and national journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for special local reporting, the Associated Press Freedom of Information Award, the Drew Pearson Award, George Polk Memorial Award, Sigma Delta Chi national journalism society Gold Medal, an American Bar Association special certificate of merit, and two National Headliners awards. In 1976-77 he was assistant director of "The Arizona Project" sponsored by Investigative Reporters and Editors, which examined organized crime, political corruption and land fraud after the assassination of Phoenix reporter Don Bolles. The project won a special gold medal from Sigma Delta Chi as "the outstanding investigative reporting effort of the year." Cady is the author of six University Of Louisville, Cardinals, Recruitment, Basketball, College, Sports, Recruitment Violations, Sex, Striptease Andre Mcgee, Escorting Services
- GenresSportsNonfiction
104 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 2, 2015
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88 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 3, 2015
This is not a good book. It serves its purpose as a data dump for the allegations, but is tonally all over the place in regards to its treatment of Katina Powell. It is also literally all-over-the-place, due to a large lack of editing or organizational structure; it has no real narrative or arc.
This is a complicated story and issue. As a University of Kentucky basketball fan, my favored program and coach has been on the reviving end of personal attacks on players (Derrick Rose, Eric Bledsoe, etc etc). The trend of adult men attacking basically children in hopes of journalistic back-patting and awards is reprehensible. This book's treatment of Antonio Blakeney is pretty upsetting. That poor kid, it is not his fault that he was thrust into an environment and posturing culture at such a young age.
I'm absolutely OK with going after adults who contribute to that culture and environment. That stuff is great and a journalistic service, and really the extra star above one star comes from that. The evidence presented isn't great, but I personally believe there is likely some truth to them.
The book makes weird choices in how it handles the content. Lots of it is from Powell's journals, text messages, and from speaking with her. Large passages of Powell's primary voice is included in italics, although it isn't clear if the source is a journal or speaking about it after-the-fact often, which is important for how we readers interpret what's presented.
Chapter 2, which includes many details of Powell's life story, is atrocious. I was worried the book, and moreso people's response to it, would feature misogyny and sex negativity, with some subtle racism thrown in. Chapter 2 is weirdly puritanical and condemning of Powell, and speaks of her abstractly and not-as-a-human. The final chapter, however, contradicts this opinion and is quite accepting of her. Chapter 2 is problematic, the subtle prejudice your conservative grandparents might have, and Chapter 10 is the much more modern, enlightened view that was very fair toward Powell. In the same book!
The editors include the f-word and n-word, and they should, yet strangely censor what I imagine was a specific 5-letter word for genitalia for "privates." The book also has a strange negative and sensationalized tone about drug use and marijuana by adults and Powell.
I, like I imagine the editors if there were multiple or maybe just Cady himself, am conflicted on how to feel on the subject. I tend toward sex positivity and am not opposed to sex work at all, however Powell willingly roped her underage daughters into her jobs. So I'm not arguing she is beyond reproach. I suppose Chapter 2 is the product of this, in that she wished to "tell her story" in this book and the nefarious components of what she did needed to be addressed.
It's a very messy issue. But it's an even messier book.
This is a complicated story and issue. As a University of Kentucky basketball fan, my favored program and coach has been on the reviving end of personal attacks on players (Derrick Rose, Eric Bledsoe, etc etc). The trend of adult men attacking basically children in hopes of journalistic back-patting and awards is reprehensible. This book's treatment of Antonio Blakeney is pretty upsetting. That poor kid, it is not his fault that he was thrust into an environment and posturing culture at such a young age.
I'm absolutely OK with going after adults who contribute to that culture and environment. That stuff is great and a journalistic service, and really the extra star above one star comes from that. The evidence presented isn't great, but I personally believe there is likely some truth to them.
The book makes weird choices in how it handles the content. Lots of it is from Powell's journals, text messages, and from speaking with her. Large passages of Powell's primary voice is included in italics, although it isn't clear if the source is a journal or speaking about it after-the-fact often, which is important for how we readers interpret what's presented.
Chapter 2, which includes many details of Powell's life story, is atrocious. I was worried the book, and moreso people's response to it, would feature misogyny and sex negativity, with some subtle racism thrown in. Chapter 2 is weirdly puritanical and condemning of Powell, and speaks of her abstractly and not-as-a-human. The final chapter, however, contradicts this opinion and is quite accepting of her. Chapter 2 is problematic, the subtle prejudice your conservative grandparents might have, and Chapter 10 is the much more modern, enlightened view that was very fair toward Powell. In the same book!
The editors include the f-word and n-word, and they should, yet strangely censor what I imagine was a specific 5-letter word for genitalia for "privates." The book also has a strange negative and sensationalized tone about drug use and marijuana by adults and Powell.
I, like I imagine the editors if there were multiple or maybe just Cady himself, am conflicted on how to feel on the subject. I tend toward sex positivity and am not opposed to sex work at all, however Powell willingly roped her underage daughters into her jobs. So I'm not arguing she is beyond reproach. I suppose Chapter 2 is the product of this, in that she wished to "tell her story" in this book and the nefarious components of what she did needed to be addressed.
It's a very messy issue. But it's an even messier book.
December 28, 2015
I don't mind paying for this 'book,' since I am a college basketball fan and I wanted to hear the story from the prostitute herself. It's basically a very long magazine article about how Katina Powell set up sex parties for the University of Louisville athletes (including their parents and coaches sometimes).
I read the whole thing in just a couple hours (it would have taken less time if I didn't have to attempt to decipher her attempts at English). She's pretty much a piece of garbage who also pimped out her daughters. Give her credit for at least being smarter than the morons who paid her: She knew her end game from the beginning and documented every step of the way. The pictures of a few girls are helpful to understand why some recruits eventually backed out of their commitments to the university.
If you've watched the news coverage about the story, then reading this book probably isn't essential. There's nothing really shocking or revealing in it, except at how poorly structured and written it is.
I read the whole thing in just a couple hours (it would have taken less time if I didn't have to attempt to decipher her attempts at English). She's pretty much a piece of garbage who also pimped out her daughters. Give her credit for at least being smarter than the morons who paid her: She knew her end game from the beginning and documented every step of the way. The pictures of a few girls are helpful to understand why some recruits eventually backed out of their commitments to the university.
If you've watched the news coverage about the story, then reading this book probably isn't essential. There's nothing really shocking or revealing in it, except at how poorly structured and written it is.
March 7, 2016
Not worth reading..
This book was poorly written by a prostitute down on her luck. She ruined her life and those of her friends and daughters. That's the only thing believable I can see in this fiasco. She needs to be prosecuted for pushing her own children into this kind of lifestyle. Teaching them that they should, "do whatever it takes to make money" isn't something she should be rewarded for. And to think of how many innocent people who have had their future ruined by her "Story", it's unfathomable!
This book was poorly written by a prostitute down on her luck. She ruined her life and those of her friends and daughters. That's the only thing believable I can see in this fiasco. She needs to be prosecuted for pushing her own children into this kind of lifestyle. Teaching them that they should, "do whatever it takes to make money" isn't something she should be rewarded for. And to think of how many innocent people who have had their future ruined by her "Story", it's unfathomable!
December 4, 2015
Terrible
This has got to be one of the worst written pieces I have ever read. I used to teach lower level English in a rural county and Katina's writing is worse than any I've ever seen. I'm embarrassed, not only for her writing, but for her total lack of moral character and her actions of pimping her daughters out for sex.
I'm even more embarrassed that I paid money to read this mess.
This has got to be one of the worst written pieces I have ever read. I used to teach lower level English in a rural county and Katina's writing is worse than any I've ever seen. I'm embarrassed, not only for her writing, but for her total lack of moral character and her actions of pimping her daughters out for sex.
I'm even more embarrassed that I paid money to read this mess.
September 16, 2017
Poorly written, and I am not sure how factual the information really is - Katina Powell- in her own words was a prostitute /escort for U of L's basketball team, and also - she believes she and her "girls" are responsible for getting some of the recruits to sign with U of L.
I had a lot of issues with this book.
The writing was jr high at best.
Not only did Katina prostitute herself, she also pimped out her under age daughters.- I have issues with that.
She named a lot of names in her book, former athletes, McGhee is named all over the place - and most of the book was written from either her journals or her memory,
There was nothing added from the school -whether it really happened or not.
I had a lot of issues with this book.
The writing was jr high at best.
Not only did Katina prostitute herself, she also pimped out her under age daughters.- I have issues with that.
She named a lot of names in her book, former athletes, McGhee is named all over the place - and most of the book was written from either her journals or her memory,
There was nothing added from the school -whether it really happened or not.
December 15, 2017
It was sad reading her story.
July 10, 2023
This is the true story from the escort at the University Louisville Kentucky. It was an ok read. The author spent too much time trying not to incriminate herself and the writing was choppy at times.
November 26, 2015
3 thumbs down
I did not want to give this book any stars and would "booooo" every time it was written in the search engine. I, personally, feel like I wasted money and brain cells on this. This seemed to me like an attempt by the author to justify the lifestyle in which she subjected herself and her family to. The socio-economics I am sure played a huge factor in this story, not excluding the purpose of writing the book.
I did not want to give this book any stars and would "booooo" every time it was written in the search engine. I, personally, feel like I wasted money and brain cells on this. This seemed to me like an attempt by the author to justify the lifestyle in which she subjected herself and her family to. The socio-economics I am sure played a huge factor in this story, not excluding the purpose of writing the book.
January 16, 2016
Poorly organized; seemingly a collection of diary entries and texts. Hard to tell time flow of the book and what happened when to whom. Spike Lee's "He Got Game" covers some of the same territory and though not his best film, won't give you the headache this book does. I'm surprised it got published.
October 26, 2015
Breaking rules
I wanted to read this book is because of all the media attention that it's receiving. It's an okay book , but how could a mother put all of her daughters out there to prostitute.
I wanted to read this book is because of all the media attention that it's receiving. It's an okay book , but how could a mother put all of her daughters out there to prostitute.
October 7, 2015
Wow
Wow-the author is a Pulitzer Prize winner so understand the level of research and analytical skills used in developing this sordid story....
Wow-the author is a Pulitzer Prize winner so understand the level of research and analytical skills used in developing this sordid story....
January 11, 2016
Definitely tells about the scandal but nothing really redeeming in the book
July 1, 2016
I read this out of curiosity. It's very sad but worth reading you've followed the news in Louisville. Be warned if you're easily offended, it's quite graphic.
Read
December 2, 2017Very informative. Play football for her father... Great man.
This happens at most Universities and colleges. They have made movies about stuff like this. Johnny B. Good for one.
This happens at most Universities and colleges. They have made movies about stuff like this. Johnny B. Good for one.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews