gakingmusic 's review for:

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

5.0

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I grew up in Ohio around the same time as Abdurraqib. I got to see LeBron play basketball in high school, like he did. And–like Abdurraqib–I watched from out of state with teary eyes as LeBron won Cleveland a championship in 2016, the first championship for Cleveland in any sport in our lifetime. Beyond that, our experiences as young men in Ohio were very different. I never experienced homelessness, never had to run from the cops or meet with a parole officer. So reading Abdurraqib's memoir of life and basketball in Ohio helped me see these shared experiences of basketball events through the new eyes of someone who had very different experiences beyond the game. Abdurraqib has a lyrical cadence to his writing that reminds me of Ta-Nehisi Coates, and his stories and attitudes remind me so much of his, so I may need to do what I did with Coates and read through everything he's ever written! I really enjoyed this book. It was a great way to kick off the summer.