HOT CORNER

What: “Brian Cook: An Illini Legend.”

Author: Mark Tupper.

Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC.

Price: $5.95.

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Brian Cook appears to be a step ahead of most NBA players. The Lakers’ first-round draft pick already has had a book written about him. Granted, it’s not a big book -- it’s only a 96-page paperback. But it’s still a book.

So why does this young man warrant a biography? Mainly because, besides being a basketball star at Illinois and the Big Ten player of the year, he has led an interesting life.

Cook worked his way up from a tough, poor upbringing. He sometimes had to subsist on syrup sandwiches. His father, Norm Cook, starred at the same high school where Brian was a star in Lincoln, Ill. Norm went on to play for Kansas and was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the first round. But Norm had emotional problems and run-ins with the law, and it was something people in Lincoln talked about. Brian had to deal with that, plus he was teased for having a white mother and a black father.

Cook credits not only his mother but also his grandmother and two uncles for helping him get through the tough times. There were mentors and role models along the way too, such as his eighth-grade coach, Don Williams.

Cook’s mother, Joyce, was a disciplinarian. “She wouldn’t let me get away with anything,” Cook says in the book. “She would say, ‘I have people watching you.’ ”

Cook points out that his mother is only 18 years older than him. “She had been through a lot of the things I was going through,” he says.

One time when Brian got a D, Joyce made him sit out of an important high school tournament. “I told the coach he couldn’t play, and then I went to the game to make sure he didn’t,” she says in the book.

-- Larry Stewart