Heaven Is a Playground by Rick Telander

From the Publisher

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.

Atlantic

Telander's open-ended chronicle of inner-city playground basketball life is a model of clarity and restraint. No one has written a more resonant or understanding book about kids playing basketball, and few books about sports have willingly pulled together so many truths about the disappointments and dislocating fantasies of athletic competition.

Christopher Lehman-Haupt

Rick Telander, in his low-key way, makes us care deeply about the [subject]. He also tunes our senses to the sights and sounds and talk of the ghetto playground.
-- New York Times

Chicago Daily News

Even those who know little about the game should appreciate this intense and penetrating peek at growing up in the ghetto.

New York Times Book Review

Funny, sad, superbly written and intensely involving.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents