As interesting as social commentary as it is about hoops | Heaven is a playground

All the Great Themes of Basketball | Heaven is a playground | Rick Telander

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	• Heaven is a playground Rick Telander St. Martin's Press, 1976 - 282 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews
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highly recommended

This will be a short book review...

This is the best book on basketball I've ever read. First read it when I was a kid in the late '70's, and it still rings as true today. Just about the best sportswriting ever.

As interesting as social commentary as it is about hoops

Certainly some other reviewers have me beat in the department of basketball-related literature, but I count "Heaven Is A Playground" amongst the many social science books that I have read. And indeed, it matches up quite well with the best reads of the past few decades. On the surface, the book seems to be about inner-city basketball, but within the pages, it is a complete dissection of the (one segment) inner city African-American man.

The amazing book "Tally's Corner" managed the same feat in its analysis of street corner men. Both have achieved great feats with their respective works. For basketball fans like myself, "Heaven Is A Playground" not only reads as great/sad/true/mystifying social commentary, but also as plain sports entertainment. Rick Telander, as a sports writer, was really able to hit home with the writing, really giving readers a feel of the 1970s game - which has many similarities and differences to the game of today.

Another great aspect of the book is that it reads as if you there. Telander makes only the necessary analysis in the pages about what went on, and basically leaves the facts as they are. The book could have easily become a textbook lesson on sociological concepts, a lofty preaching on the ills of inner city life, or a rambling 200+ page play-by-play. Fortunately, the easy going style of writing is great journalism. Telander's style fit me well.

Thanks Rick for a great read.

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All the Great Themes of Basketball

Rick Telander brings all together all the great themes of basketball in this unforgettable book. He stays true to the sport and never strays too far from it (or its many characters). With great books, readers say they never want to see the characters potrayed in the movie because it will never live up to the image/character they've envisioned. In "Heaven Is A Playground", I never want to see Fly Williams or Albert King play ball because I'd rather keep the court wizardry, provided by Telander, permanently embedded in my brain.

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A Great Story of Spirit, Struggle, and Escape

I read this book around '93, just after having read the "white version" in both Larry Bird's biography and autobiography. What was interesting was these two very similar yet distinct experiences and how they related to my own experience, growing up it what would seem like a very safe and socially adjusted rural town.

Heaven is a Playground was a departure for me in to a world where basketball had the utmost symbolic and cultural meaning - where legends were born and died and everybody else was willing to take the gamble. Was basketball more a sacrifice of a better future (missing school) or a one shot escape from certain poverty? Telander would probably argue the latter. What I found interesting was that only a few of the characters in the story actually had the potential for professional basketball, yet all the other young men seemed (unconsciously) willing to sacrifice their own futures for those players. Not so much blinded by their dreams they were living them.

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2ND Best book on inner N.Y.C. basketball

This book is about a hot bed of baketball in inner N.Y.C. namely Bklyn in the mid 70's When the King wasn't called Lebron James, but King Albert (Albert King) averaging 44 a game in H.S. he was hailed & christianed the greatest ever to come out of New York City (although his pro career did not live up to the billing Albert & brother Bernard will always be fondly remembered). This book is about Albert and his come up through Bedstuy and so forth. It also gives you an inside look at some of BK'S playground legends circa 1970's and some of their tragic downfalls. The best N.Y.C. ball-book ever written will always be "The City Game" by Pete Axthlem, but this is a close 2nd.

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In 1974, Rick Telander intended to spend a few days doing a magazine piece on the court wizards of Brooklyn?s Bedford-Stuyvesant. He ended up staying the entire summer, becoming part of the players? lives and eventually the coach of a loose aggregation known as the Subway Stars. Telander tells of everything he saw: the on-court flash, the off-court jargon, the late-night graffiti raids, the tireless efforts of one promoter-hustler-benefactor to get these kids a chance at a college education. He lets the kids speak for themselves, revealing their grand dreams and ambitions. But he never flinches from showing us how far their dreams are from reality. The roots of today?s inner-city basketball can be traced to the world Telander presents in Heaven Is a Playground, the first book of its kind.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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