A hopeful and inspiring treatise on the power of playing basketball
When high school basketball player LeBron James was selected as the
top pick in the National Basketball Association draft of 2003, the
hopes of a half-million high school basketball players soared. If
LeBron could go straight from high school to the NBA, why couldn't
they? Such is the allure of basketball for so many young African
American men. Unfortunately, the reality is that their chances of
ever playing basketball at the professional, or even college, level
are infinitesimal. In Living Through the Hoop, Reuben A. Buford May
tells the absorbing story of the hopes and struggles of one high
school basketball team. With a clear passion for the game, May
grabs readers with both hands and pulls them onto the hardwood,
going under the hoop and inside the locker room. May spent seven
seasons as an assistant coach of the Northeast High School Knights
in Northeast, Georgia. We meet players like Larique and Pooty Cat,
hard-working and energetic young men, willing to play and practice
basketball seven days a week and banking on the unlimited promise
of the game. And we meet Coach Benson, their unorthodox,
out-spoken, and fierce leader, who regularly coached them to
winning seasons, twice going to the state tournaments Elite Eight
championships. Beyond the wins and losses, May provides a portrait
of the players' hopes and aspirations, their home lives, and the
difficulties they face in living in a poor and urban area-namely,
the temptations of drugs and alcohol, violence in their
communities, run-ins with the police, and unstable family lives. We
learn what it means to become a man when you live in places that
define manhood by how tough you can be, how many women you can
have, and how much money you can hustle. May shows the powerful
role that the basketball team can play in keeping these kids
straight, away from street-life, focused on completing high school,
and possibly even attending college. Their stories, and the
double-edged sword of hoop dreams, is at the heart of this
compelling story about young African American men's struggle to
find their way in an often grim world. Visit the author's YouTube
channel!
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