"Heaven Is A Playground" by Rick Telander Review

A while back, I posted a list of my top ten high school and college basketball books. Along with that, I naturally got some great recommendations for other books I would enjoy (with lots of good ones especially from KraigW)... one great recommendation was The Last Shot by Darcy Frey, and another was Heaven Is a Playground by Rick Telander.

It was a fantastic book, and if you haven't read it, you should. I was a little slow getting into it at first, because there were so many characters. By the end of the book, I came to realize that was the beauty of the book - there were so many characters, so many storylines, so many stories and people intersecting all at one place, the playground.

Ostensibly, the book was in many ways about Fly Williams, a streetball legend that starred at Austin Peay, but never really could control himself (or allow himself to be controlled) to really became a great player in the NBA, which certainly he had the talent to do. He was a guy that had many chances, but ruined them all. Deep down, it seemed, he wanted to make it big, but more that that he didn't want to leave what he had in Brooklyn, because that was the only life he knew.

The most interesting part about the book to me was seeing how the guys did when they got out of Brooklyn, and went away to college. Some guys thrived, some guys came right back home because things were too different. Telander writes:

"Listening to the conversation I have to wonder what college really is like for these Brooklyn youths. Away from neighborhood confines for the first extended period of time, thrown into university environments dominated by whites with little comprehension of street behavior, the players must find themselves in a strange land. Perhaps their whole personality changes to fit the surroundings; perhaps they return to smaller groups of similarly displaced blacks. At the larger, more cosmopolitan schools the change probably is not so dramatic. But at the Austin Peays and Murray States and St. Francises and Fairfields, where Rodney sends most of his players, the social climate occasionally must be so at odds with the experiences of ghetto life as to seem totally bizarre, if not incomprehensible."

Telander goes into more detail also in an excellent interview with Bethlehem Shoals (which you should also read):

We see kids go off to school and get flat-out homesick. They're going to an Ivy League school or a state school that they've always wanted to get into, and people are saying, "Oh man, it's great," and then they come home. Because part of them is comfortable with what they did before, and we all feel that. I was lucky that I had finally gotten over most of that, but I still needed my rootedness -- knowing that I could go home. That's how the book ended, with me going home. I'm saying goodbye to everybody even if they're asleep. Music Smith is just passed out on the bench. I knew some of these guys I would never see again, and some would die, like Music did. He's a nice guy.

That was always there: These are real people who are torn between real choices and real oppression that we all feel, the world's holding you back and yet the world's saying go.

All in all, it was a book that was written about streetball players in 1973, but you get the feeling that more things have stayed the same rather than have changed. As Shoals wrote, "Both of its time and pointedly timeless, Telander's highly personal ethnography captures a moment in history, while at the same time providing the definitive take on inner city basketball."

Judging by the content of this blog, I am confident in saying that anyone who reads this site, will enjoy this book. It's that good.

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Nice Article on PSU Recruit Aaron Moore

When I read and wrote that Portland State had signed JUCO big man Aaron Moore, the name sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. But when reading an article by Rob Dauster of NBCSports, it all became clear.

Moore is a central character in the fantastic book Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine, a book I ranked as the third best high school or college basketball book that I had ever read (and one you should check out if you have not read it yet).

From Dauster's article:

Walker gets the majority of the attention because he is the guy that had Sports Illustrated write about him as a 14 year old, but the fact of the matter is that the book is about an entire team, and Walker was far from that team’s most heartbreaking story.

That title goes to Aaron Moore. Moore was a 6-foot-7 freshman that worked his way into Compton’s powerhouse Dominguez program, which has produced talents like Tyson Chandler and Brandon Jennings. But Moore’s upbringing was quite upsetting to read about. He was molested by his step-father before he even entered elementary school. He was propositioned — although, according to the book, never assaulted — by convicted child molester and former Dominguez head coach Russell Otis. His mother, who was receiving payouts from Otis for her son to play at Dominguez, tried to get Moore to return to the school to keep the money coming in. He was missing class and games as early as his sophomore season, and when he should have been attending prom and picking a school to attend, Moore was a homeless dropout.

Moore is a guy that will be very easy to root for, that is for sure. Here's to hoping he has a stellar two-year career for the Vikings.

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Book Review: "The Last Shot" by Darcy Frey

Last month when I made a list of the ten best high school and college basketball books I had read, I also asked for some suggestions. One of the ones that kept coming up was The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams, by Darcy Frey.

After reading what the book was about, it seemed right up my alley, so I got it and just finished reading it. For anyone that loves basketball, or a look at the inner city, or especially both, this is a fantastic read. Frey does a great job of capturing what life is like for four teenagers in Coney Island in the mid-90s. He gives the setting in this paragraph, and I can only hope that at some time I write something as good as this paragraph.

The experiment of public housing, which has worked throughout the country to isolate its impoverished and predominantly black tenants from the hearts of their cities, may have succeeded here with even greater efficiency because of Coney Island's utter remoteness. On this peninsula, at the southern tip of Brooklyn, there are almost no stores, no trees, no police; nothing, in fact, but block after block of gray-cement project - hulking, prisonlike, and jutting straight into the sea. Most summer night now, an amorphous unease settles over Coney Island, as apartments become stifling and the streets fall prey to the gangs and drug dealers. Options are limited: to the south is the stiff gray meringue of the Atlanic; to the north, more than ten miles away, one can just make out the Statue of Liberty and the glass-and-steel spires of Manhattan's financial district. Officially, Coney Island is part of the endless phantasmagoria that is New York City. But on a night like this, as the dealers set up their drug marts in streets and alleyways, and the sounds of sirens and gunfire keep pace with the darkening sky, it feels like the end of the world. (3-4)

The most famous player that Frey writes about is certainly Stephon Marbury, and it helps you understand why he turned out the way he did. He was a freshman at the time, and has a large sense of entitlement (most famously when he orders McDonald's and just assumes that Frey will be paying for it). But looking at the circumstances described by Frey, it is hard to blame him. He is enabled by coaches at all levels, and given everything he wanted because of his basketball skills. That is the way that the system is set up.

Without a doubt, the most heartbreaking part of the story is http://www.bigskybball.com/2012/01/ten-best-college-and-high-school.html. He is a kid that gives maximum effort - while other kids are playing pickup games, he is doing individual drills; while other kids are eating lunch, he is studying for the SAT. But he is hamstrung by the fact that his education was so poor early in life that he does not have the basic knowledge and foundation that most people do. He lives in the worst part of Coney Island. He comes from a single parent home. He is the character that you root for all book long (and I don't want to say anymore because I don't want to spoil it!)

If you like books about basketball, if you like books about society, this is a book I would highly recommend. If I were to remake my list, this book would probably come in number four.

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Best Basketball Books

Just in case you missed it, please check out my post from last week on the best high school and college basketball books I have read. Would love to hear any feedback or suggestions on the list!

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Ten Best College and High School Basketball Books I Have Read

This is obviously not Big Sky related, but I thought it would be fun to go through the list of the top 10 high school and college basketball books that I have read. I don't pretend to have read them all, and I am positive that if I make this list again in 5 years it would look much different, but I thought it could spark some good discussion, maybe give some ideas to readers on books to read, and hopefully elicit some good suggestions from you guys on what I should read. So, without further ado:

1. Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball's Most Improbable Dynasty
This book shadows head coach Bob Hurley of St. Anthony's in New Jersey, and talks about the incredible run that Hurley has had. His teams do not always have the most talent, but his no-nonsense approach works well with kids who come from varied backgrounds. This is not a book about basketball, per se, but about a coach that loves his school and his players, and does what he can to help them out (even if, as in the case of some of the guys, they can't always see it). This is not just one of my favorite books about sports ever written, but one of my favorite books.

2. John Feinstein - A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers
Perhaps the best book about college basketball ever written, it was an eye-opening look at Bob Knight. Chuck Klosterman for Grantland wrote an excellent review of the book here, and I would like to quote a small snippet of his review.

Early in the text, the NCAA suspends junior guard Steve Alford for one nonconference game after his photograph appears in a charity calendar (the charity raised money for handicapped girls who wanted to attend summer camp). It was a crazy, inappropriate penalty that Knight (and pretty much all of America) disagreed with, and the Hoosiers ended up losing the game Alford missed to Kentucky, 63-58. Yet this was how Knight showed his support at practice, three days later: "Alford, you really cost us that game on Saturday and I want you to know I really resent it. I can't forget it. I'm just out of patience with you. … This is a habit with you. You don't listen, whether it's defense or playing hard or this. I don't know about anyone else in here but I resent it and it pisses me off. Because of you we lost to a chickenshit operation. I won't forget that."

More than three weeks later, this was still totally true. "I want to tell you just how mad I was after that Kentucky game," Knight inexplicably tells Alford after throwing him out of practice for disobeying his authority. And what had Alford done to deserve this expulsion? He had looked at Knight3 while being screamed at.

It should be noted that Alford was Knight's most beloved player.

There is a lot more known about Knight than there was at the time this was written, but it still remains a must-read for all college basketball fans to get to know and understand (somewhat) one of the most successful college basketball coaches ever.

3. George Dorhmann - Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine
If you have ever been intrigued by AAU basketball, and in particular the worst of AAU basketball, then this is the book for you. It is a compelling look by Dohrmann at Joe Keller, and the team he ran, built around Demetrius Walker. It is a disturbing look into the recruitment and marketing of kids as young as 6th grade, who are pushed to be basketball stars by the men hoping to catch a break off of them. This is not a book that will be easy to put down, or easy to remain emotionless about.

4. Ben Joravsky - Hoop Dreams: A True Story of Hardship & Triumph
Certainly the documentary is the best hoops related documentary or film ever, and the book is a nice complement to it. I assume everyone that would be reading this is familiar with what Hoop Dreams is, but if not, go rent or buy the documentary now. The book is summed up with its most famous quote by William Gates: "People always say to me, 'When you get to the NBA, don't forget about me.' Well, I should've said back, 'If I don't make it to the NBA, don't you forget about me.'"

5. John Wooden - A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring
Two comments. One, I have not read Wooden's other books (yet), but I have a feeling they may rank higher than this one. Two, I realize this is not directly about basketball, but it's written (in part) by the best basketball coach ever, so it counts here. The first half of the book talks about Wooden's mentors, and it is a great look at how he became the man he did.

6. John Feinstein - The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball
Since I write a blog about Big Sky basketball, it is no surprise that I loved this book, which follows the Patriot League for a season. It is a good look at small conference basketball, featuring players that will (as the commercials say) go pro in something other than sports. If you want to read a book on low-major basketball and the beauty of the one bid conference, this may be the one.

7. Seth Davis - When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball
This was a great look by Davis at the 1979 college basketball, culminating in the national championship game between Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores, and Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans. Especially interesting to me was the writings on Bill Hodges, the first year coach for Indiana State. Good research and well written by Seth Davis of SI.

8. John Feinstein - A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference
This is very similar to #6 on this list, only it covers the ACC conference, covering coaches like Coach K and a young Rick Barnes. It is especially compelling when contrasted with The Last Amateurs, as it is interesting to see the difference in the mentions of academics. In all, I highly recommend reading both, especially if you can read them in a similar timeframe.

9. Mitch Albom - The Fab Five: Basketball Trash Talk the American Dream
Obviously, this book is about the career of the Fab Five at Michigan, starting from their recruitment and going through their collegiate careers. It is an interesting look at how they were treated (both good and bad), or given special treatment at times because of their star status. My only complaint about this book was that it doesn't stand the test of time in one respect - the Wolverines eventually came under scandal and scrutiny, but Albom, who followed them closely (enough to write a book) was apparently not close enough to uncover the scandal.

10. Michael Litos - Cinderella: Inside the Rise of Mid-Major College Basketball
I wanted to love this book, as it follows the CAA for the year that George Mason made it to the Final Four. The subject was certainly compelling, and for that I would recommend giving it a read. However, I didn't find all of the writing to be extremely compelling, and thought it didn't do as good of a job of covering the inside of a conference like Feinstein's books did. Still, it is worth a read for the Jim Larranaga quotes alone!

What are your thoughts? What did I miss that I should read? I would love any suggestions!

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