From the ultimate team—basketball superstar LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August—a poignant, thrilling tale of the power of teamwork to transform young lives, including James’s own
The Shooting Stars were a bunch of kids—LeBron James and his best friends—from Akron, Ohio, who first met on a youth basketball team of the same name when they were ten and eleven years old. United by their love of the game and their yearning for companionship, they quickly forged a bond that would carry them through thick and thin (a lot of thin) and, at last, to a national championship in their senior year of high school.
They were a motley group who faced challenges all too typical of inner-city America. LeBron grew up without a father and had moved with his mother more than a dozen times by the age of ten. Willie McGee, the quiet one, had left both his parents behind in Chicago to be raised by his older brother in Akron. Dru Joyce was outspoken, and his dad was ever present; he would end up coaching all five of the boys in high school. Sian Cotton, who also played football, was the happy-go-lucky enforcer, while Romeo Travis was unhappy, bitter, even surly, until he finally opened himself up to the bond his teammates offered him.
In the summer after seventh grade, the Shooting Stars tasted glory when they qualified for a national championship tournament in Memphis. But they lost their focus and had to go home early. They promised one another they would stay together and do whatever it took to win a national title.
They had no idea how hard it would be to fulfill that promise. In the years that followed, they would endure jealousy, hostility, exploitation, resentment from the black community (because they went to a “white” high school), and the consequences of their own overconfidence. Not least, they would all have to wrestle with LeBron’s outsize success, which brought too much attention and even a whiff of scandal their way. But together these five boys became men, and together they claimed the prize they had fought for all those years—a national championship.
Shooting Stars is a stirring depiction of the challenges that face America’s youth today and a gorgeous evocation of the transcendent impact of teamwork.
"We all we got." That epigram --- from the front of this book --- tells you all you need to know about LeBron James' memoir. He may be the world's best basketball player. Entire chapters may be devoted to chronicles of games. But this is not a book about basketball.
Shooting Stars is a book about race, about being born black and poor and fighting your way around drugs and gangs and despair to become a decent human being. It's about character.
Those are big subjects, bigger and more urgent every day. Ever since an African-American moved into the White House, the idea that a black man can be worthy has come under withering attack. And don't think for a minute that the Limbaughs, Becks and Hannitys are interested only in de-legitimizing Barack Obama. They want "their" country back --- and when you shake the rhetoric away from the message, you can pretty easily see that they want the black man to "know his place."
But here's the catch. LeBron James --- who is now, at 24, the world's third-highest paid athlete --- had no place. Born in Akron, Ohio to a 16-year-old, he never knew his father. He moved a dozen times before he was 8. When he was 9, he missed 100 days of school, and his mother placed him in another home until she could get her life together. At 11, he had never been to Cleveland, just 39 miles away.
What saved LeBron James from the streets?
The friends he made when they were 10 and 11: Dru Joyce III, Willie McGee and Sian Cotton. They called themselves "The Fab Four" and they celebrated their brotherhood in their neighborhood, at school, and, most of all, on basketball courts.
"We all we got." I'm not ashamed to say I cried when I read those words for the first time, and I mist up even now --- those words, and what's behind them, are the difference between life and death, success and failure. No one gets anywhere in life alone; everyone needs support. A family, a religious group, a circle of friends. Especially if you're poor and marginalized.
As a group portrait, "Shooting Stars" is the story of some teenagers who worked at basketball until they were just about the best team in the country. It's about the many games they won, and how they did it, and the few they lost, and why. And it's about a boy of immense talent and deep wounds, who became, at 18, so remarkably good that he skipped college and went right to the NBA.
Ultimately, though, it's about a young bodhisattva --- a boy with a vision, and great teachers, and greater friends. It's about the struggle to fit in at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, where the kids were white and there was a dress code, and zero tolerance for facial hair, tats or bling. It's about being hated for being good, and burrowing deeper into your brotherhood.
And it's about teams. The truth of basketball, as Michael Jordan had to learn, is that scoring champions don't win championships. Teams do. And that is true of so much more than basketball. "We all we got."
So you'll read the story of the $50,000 Hummer that LeBron received on his 18th birthday, the late-night parties in hotels before tournament games, the inability to handle what happens when you're on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a high school junior --- and, yes, you will think he's blown it forever. And then, because LeBron James and his friends really are exceptionally good students in the subjects that matter, you'll get redemption that's far more exciting than any three-pointer at the buzzer.
Who should read this book? Everyone who loves basketball, of course. But more: kids on the fence, mothers of teenage sons, teachers and preachers. And --- how could I forget? --- a few million aging whites who categorically demonize young black males as thugs but who don't have a fraction of the character of LeBron James and his friends.
"We all we got." Those kids believed. And they knew: what they achieved on their court was nothing compared to what they achieved in their lives. They made it out.
I don't usually read sports books, but I follow the NBA religiously. Living in LA, I am, naturally, a fan of my hometown team, but I think LeBron James is pretty amazing at what he does. Yes, maybe more so than a certain man who wears jersey 24 was at his age..
That said, I picked up this book when it was offered and once I started, I found it to be a quick and entertaining read.
The book doesn't tell LeBron's story after the NBA draft, but rather focuses on his basketball background and how he came to be King James. Having never read Buzz Bissinger's work before, I was surprised by how casual the writing was; it was almost as if LeBron himself was telling you a story, rather than the reality of you reading through a book of his life.
All in all, I thought that this was a good read that provided a little insight into his early basketball career. Well-written and almost conversational, I would recommend this book to any of LeBron's fans.
I enjoyed this book - it is probably worth 3.5 stars. The basic story is LeBron playing basketball - from a young kid through his senior year of high school. I did not know much about him and I found his past life very interesting and inspiring.
The story focuses on high school - where he and some of his closest friends decided to go to a private Catholic school, much to the chagrin of the community at large. He dominated. He had ups and downs and it wasn't all victories and state championships, but he and his team dominated.
I liked that LeBron really focused on his team - you can tell he had some solid friendships and teammates and he is who he is because of them. He gives a lot of credit to his coaches too. He sets out the controversies and his defense, and they are what they are.
It's a good story, not super compelling, but an interesting read. He is a great athlete and I hope to see him win some NBA championships down the road.
