Living Through the Hoop: High School Basketball, Race, and the American Dream

By Reuben A. Buford May

When high school basketball player LeBron James was selected as the top pick in the NBA draft of 2003, the hopes of a half-million high school basketball players soared.  But the reality is that their chances of playing basketball at the professional or even at the college level are infinitesimal. 

      In Living Through the Hoop, Reuben A. Buford May tells the story of the hopes and struggles of one high school basketball team. In the narrative, readers meet players like Larique and Pooty Cat, hardworking and energetic young men, willing to play and practice basketball seven days a week and banking on the unlimited promise of the game. Coach Benson, an unorthodox, out-spoken, and fierce leader, who has regularly coached the team to winning seasons, is also highlighted.

      May provides a portrait of the players’ lives and aspirations—the temptations of drugs and alcohol, violence in their communities, run-ins with the police, and unstable families.  He also shows the powerful role that the basketball team can play in keeping these kids away from street life, focused on completing high school, and possibly even attending college.

                May, associate professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, is the author of Talking at Trena’s: Everyday Conversations of an African American Tavern, by the NYU Press.

For information on this book and others published by NYU Press, visit www.nyupress.org.