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What: “Venus to the Hoop” by Sara Corbett.

Price: $23.95. (Doubleday).

So often, a season-in-the-life-of-a-team book comes down to a trite formula, a mind-numbing recitation of play-by-play and few reasons to care about the athletes.

This book steps well beyond those three-point confines. Sara Corbett obtained exclusive and exhaustive access to the USA women’s national basketball team on its winding journey toward Atlanta and the gold medal last summer.

And she brings the who’s who of American women’s basketball to life, chronicling the public struggles of Rebecca Lobo, the emerging media star Lisa Leslie and the quiet determination of veteran Teresa Edwards.

A backdrop is the off-court battle between the two start-up pro leagues, the ABL and the WNBA. The ABL arrived first, and most of the women’s Dream Team signed on. Others held back and some changed their minds.

Still, the controversy never invaded the basketball court, although coach Tara VanDerveer addressed the problem in a team meeting.

“None of this means anything without a gold medal,” VanDerveer told the players two months before the Olympics.

VanDerveer was not an ABL backer, which made for one shortcoming in the book. She is never asked about her reservations regarding the league and her reasoning. Her thoughts emerge through secondary observations, in a conversation with Edwards, an ABL advocate.

An angered Edwards recounts the conversation with VanDerveer:

“She kept saying, ‘How do you know these guys are on the up and up? The NBA is established, you know. They know what they’re doing.’ She was on the NBA trip, big time, and I’m up there fighting tooth and nail with her, telling her why we believed in the ABL.”

With the ABL-WNBA war underway, “Venus to the Hoop” is a useful scene setter.