bdurraqib uses one subject as a lens through which he views the culture at large — it's about hoops, sure, but it's also about so much more. It's another remarkable book from one of the country's smartest cultural critics.

Abdurraqib’s willingness to pile everything he’s able into his quasi-autobiographical, proto-philosophical inquiry into turn-of-the-twenty-first-century basketball.

Abdurraqib has found an entertaining way to make the act of watching sport akin to witnessing miracles. If you are looking to read something that 'pushes against the door of reality and offers an elsewhere', I recommend this title..

Beautifully written. Fans of Abdurraqib and basketball will enjoy the book..

With carefully constructed and imaginative prose, he immerses us in the basketball culture of his native East Columbus, Ohio, telling stories of hoop dreams, both deferred and fully realized.

[A] unique, memoir-propelled, far-ranging, and affecting inquiry.

Lyrically stunning and profoundly moving, the confessional text wanders through a variety of topics without ever losing its vulnerability, insight, or focus. Abdurraqib’s use of second person is sometimes cloying, but overall, this is a formally inventive, gorgeously personal triumph. An innovative memoir encompassing sports, mortality, belonging, and home..

Triumphant.