Hoop Dreams

Foul Lines, Jack McCallum and L. Jon Wertheim. This novel by a couple of my former co-workers has been languishing on my “To Read” pile for over a year now, mainly because I can’t say the idea of a novel about a fictional pro basketball team really piqued my interest. I’m ashamed to admit what finally got me to read it was, I was looking for some reading material for the bathroom, and this was the first book that came to hand. I figured it would at least be good enough to help pass the time. But 3 hours later, long after I had left the bathroom, I found myself halfway through the book and enjoying the ride.

The story follows the Los Angeles Lasers of the NBF (see what they did there? so clever), tracking a tumultous season through the eyes of the Lasers’ star player, their fresh-out-of-college PR director, and the young female business writer-turned-beat reporter at the LA Times assigned to the team. Despite the obvious hyperbole and players who are changed just enough so they don’t exactly match up with any real people, there is some serious craft in this book. McCallum and Wertheim know their stuff, drawing on their many years of experience covering basketball themselves. Once you peel back some of the layers of satire, the story really does offer a good look into the warped dynamic of pro basketball, where overpaid, undereducated and spoiled players are supposed to be watched over, coached, and in many ways, babysat, by people who make 1/100th of what the athletes are getting paid. The authors use that situation to full comedic effect, and in several cases had me laughing out loud, especially in the scene where a routine practice turns into a brawl. Foul Lines may not be Nobel Prize-winning literature, but it was still an enjoyable read, and sometimes, that’s all a book really needs to be.