天美传媒

W. Charles Bennett 鈥�74 is a by-the-book guy, a straight-laced forensic accountant who had witnessed some injustices and wanted to set the record straight.

Early in his career, he investigated white-collar crime for three years as an FBI special agent, then moved to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where for 14 years he conducted fraud investigations related to disaster cleanups. But it was in his work as a certified public accountant and consultant to professional sports organizations and figures where he ran into some situations that didn鈥檛 sit right with him.

He has written a book to give his version of the stories and exonerate a few former colleagues whom he thinks were treated badly in the news media, largely because the whole story didn鈥檛 get told. 鈥淒irt Under the Cap,鈥� a self-published tome that came out last fall, is Bennett鈥檚 attempt to fix things. The title emanates from Bennett鈥檚 audit of the National Basketball Association鈥檚 salary cap, one of several stories he tells.

His book has been 20 years in the making. Back then, Bennett and Charles Grantham, the former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, were interviewed at length by two journalists for a book about struggles in the association. But the writers were primarily focused on events that led to Michael Jordan鈥檚 second retirement from basketball in January 1999.

鈥淭his was way too much embellishment, and so we decided not to do that,鈥� Bennett said. So he and Grantham 鈥� who had been investigated by federal agents on a separate matter 鈥� considered writing their own book. Although Grantham was never charged, he decided against writing one, telling Bennett that doing so 鈥渨ould just cause some more pain.鈥�

All these years later, it still bugged Bennett that Grantham had been wrongly accused. He also was troubled that the reputation of basketball star Isaiah Thomas, who bought the Continental Basketball Association, was, in Bennett鈥檚 view, unfairly sullied when the association went bankrupt. Bennett, who was a consultant to Thomas, decided to write about that too.

He started the book around 1999 and worked on it intermittently until 2020, when a friend challenged him to finish it.

鈥淚鈥檝e kept a diary for probably 40 years as to what I do every day,鈥� and that eased the writing process. 鈥淚 just basically started writing from my calendar. 鈥� The editing part was the toughest part. What did I miss? What should I not include? And what鈥檚 not clearly explained?鈥�

He said the experience taught him that the most important ingredient for someone to write a book 鈥渋s the motivation. 鈥� That鈥檚 what will help you bridge the gap between the concept and the actual, published document.鈥�

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