Expensive Basketball

From #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Year Book and Basketball (And Other Things) Shea Serrano, a clever and original examination of some of the most “expensive” moments, players, and games in basketball.
 
Everything in basketball is measured.

Everything in basketball is counted, and quantified, and computed.

And yet, no matter how expansive the list of various pinpoint-specific statistical categories gets, some basketball things remain impossible to assess with numbers.

Some basketball things are more poetry than calculation; more art than statistical value; more feeling than data processing. And thus: EXPENSIVE BASKETBALL.
 
From the night LeBron James made The Leap to Michael Jordan’s cosmic relationship with the number six, from the way Sue Bird backpedaled down the court after hitting a big shot to the nefariousness tucked inside the way Isiah Thomas dribbled a basketball, from the velvet brilliance of Tracy McGrady to the specific kind of terrifying magic that only Kobe Bryant ever seemed to be able to summon.
 
EXPENSIVE BASKETBALL is not a refutation of stats.

It’s an affirmation of feelings.

It’s an affirmation of basketball as virtuosity.

It’s an affirmation of how sometimes you watch a person do a thing on a basketball court and it feels the same way it feels when you lie in the grass at night and stare up at the moon for long enough that you start to think about how incredible it is that you really, truly, honestly, actually exist.

Shea Serrano's most recent book, Movies (And Other Things), was, among other things, a #1 New York Times bestseller. His previous book, Basketball (And Other Things) was also a #1 New York Times bestseller and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite reads of the year. His book before that, The Rap Year Book, was also a New York Times bestseller, and was turned into a documentary that aired on AMC. Currently, he is a staff writer for The Ringer where he co-hosts the popular rap podcast No Skips.