Hoops

“You need somebody to tell you how good your game can be.” 

As Cal challenges Lonnie to better himself and rise to a new challenge, Cal also explicitly sees and values Lonnie. This is an important feeling for Lonnie, and it gives him the courage to start trying out new experiences. Cal’s initial faith in “how good” Lonnie can be is the foundation of their relationship and of Lonnie’s path towards becoming a better player.

“I was glad that he was back, and I felt funny about that, too.” 

At the beginning of the novel, Lonnie has a negative association with fathers and father figures; he is still reeling emotionally from his father’s decision to leave. When Cal initially disappears after agreeing to coach the team, it triggers Lonnie’s feelings about abandonment. Cal’s return prompts Lonnie to have a complicated set of emotions: Although he is happy that Cal is back, he is unsure how to feel about the unresolved anger he experienced. This is an important parallel for Lonnie’s internal healing about his father.

“With our bags and that jacket everybody knew we were a team.” 

Although it’s more of an underlying theme, class privilege plays an important role in the lives of the young people in Lonnie’s community. The team uniforms that they acquire are a critical status symbol and a turning point in their confidence as a basketball team. Much later in the novel, this is again reflected by Lonnie’s pride in wearing and having a warm-up jacket during the championship game.

“For the first time I felt that I had something that nobody else had.” 

Lonnie develops a new confidence in himself through Cal’s leadership. Much of Lonnie’s life has been spent feeling the lack of things he doesn’t have, rather than feeling positively about what he does. As his basketball abilities improve, so does Lonnie’s sense of pride.

“He’s going to tell you anything you want to hear as long as he can get you to play for his team. That’s how he gets paid, by delivering the right flesh to the right team.” 

One of the lessons Cal insists on teaching Lonnie is that white men do not have Lonnie’s best interests at heart. Cal pushes the idea that to the predominantly white audience, Lonnie and his teammates are little more than “flesh.” Although Lonnie feels like this is somewhat of a harsh take, he slowly sees this perspective and is able to have a more nuanced understanding of what shape his future might take.

“I just wanted to drag out the day as long as I could.” 

As Lonnie begins to trust Cal, he is like a small child looking up to his father on a special day. Lonnie reflects that feeling when he says he wants to “drag out the day” so that he can keep the positive emotions longer. Lonnie doesn’t have his biological father in his life anymore, so having a close relationship with Cal serves as a healing experience for him.

“You say ‘girl’ like girl is something bad when I start getting close to you. You think because you acting like some kind of wild animal, I can’t deal with you?” 

Lonnie’s most intimate relationship with a woman is with Mary-Ann. Lonnie trusts her deeply and listens when she talks to him. In this quote, Mary-Ann challenges Lonnie’s understanding of her strength; this is a critical point in the novel because Lonnie begins rethinking his ability to be vulnerable and fully himself with Mary-Ann. Rather than hide his emotions underneath the “wild animal” act, Lonnie begins disclosing what he feels.

“Just because you good at something don’t mean you have to make it. Especially us. Every time you see a black person who’s got it halfway made you can bet there’s a dozen more just as good as he is waiting for a chance.” 

One of the complicated aspects of Cal’s character is his oscillation between being supportive and sharing his pessimistic views of the world. Yet rather than this being negative or confusing for Lonnie, it serves as an important lesson in the nuance of what life will be like. As Lonnie builds his confidence in himself, it’s important, especially from Cal’s perspective, that Lonnie simultaneously understand that he doesn’t “have to make it.”

“On my way back to the Grant I felt every eye on the street was on my back. It wasn’t a good feeling.” 

Throughout the novel Lonnie engages in different behaviors that are illegal, from stealing alcohol to cashing stolen checks. In these moments, he displays the ability to be hyper-vigilant: watching closely for people’s reactions and dynamics to respond as quickly as possible. Myers’s decision to include these interactions and decisions is critical: The author creates a protagonist whom readers can empathize with and then challenges readers to accept Lonnie’s decisions, even if they aren’t necessarily good ones.

“Look at me!”

In his intense dream in Chapter 5, Lonnie shouts to be seen by a white audience. Myers includes this portrayal of Lonnie’s psyche to show his transition to seeing the world in a new, more complex way. Rather than only dreaming of playing basketball, Lonnie now has the cognitive dissonance of wanting to play but not wanting to be objectified: He wants to fully be seen.

“And to get all these two inches, you have to try a little harder than what you think your best is right now.” 

None of the team is able to achieve Cal’s challenge, which is to jump higher but from a harder position than when they jumped the first time. Although Cal says his lesson is that they must “try a little harder,” this activity is also about being able to keep trying even when the task is impossible. As a Black coach of a team of Black teenagers, Cal knows it’s necessary to nurture their resilience.

“‘People see in you what they need,’ he said. ‘You got to be what you need.’” 

The closer Lonnie gets to being fully an adult, the more imperative it is that he understand the ways people project things onto him because of his athletic ability, his Blackness, and his masculinity. Lonnie’s great struggle is to figure out how to be his full self, and to resist pulls to be something for someone else. He is able to achieve this through his relationships with Cal, Aggie, and Mary-Ann, three people who see him for who he is and nurture that.

“First he sniffed it; then he took a little pair of scissors from his pocket and cut the end off; then he lit it. All the time me and Cal is sitting there, waiting for him to finish.”

Myers’ choice to include this very specific detail about O’Donnel is critical to some of the larger threads in the novel regarding race, gender, and class. A wealthy white man, O’Donnel intention is to make Cal and Lonnie uncomfortably aware of their lack of power in his presence. By slowly cutting and lighting his cigar, O’Donnel asserts himself and minimizes the comfort of the two Black men he has asked into his office. Overall, this kind of intentional position is reflected in other interactions with white people in the novel, though O’Donnel is characterized as one of the most egregious examples.

“The day of the game I woke up nervous. Basketball never made me nervous before.”

As the novel approaches its climax, Lonnie changes his approach to playing basketball. His description of being “nervous” for the first time is important because it shows a distinct emotional shift in how Lonnie feels about himself and his capabilities. This nervousness sometimes causes Lonnie to behave with unregulated emotions, though he eventually is able to get those under control.

“I loved her more than anything that I had ever loved before. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, to let her know how much I felt for her, but I wasn’t sure I could. But I knew, somehow, that I would have to if I wanted her to love me.” 

One of Lonnie’s most important areas of growth over the course of the novel is his ability to express his deep emotional needs. Even though he has been unable to tell Mary-Ann how he really feels, he becomes more aware that he will “have to” if he wants to cement the relationship. Myers includes this internal dialogue to illustrate Lonnie’s transition into becoming someone who is more comfortable being vulnerable in intimate relationships.

“You say he’s the coach. He ain’t the coach. He’s Cal. When you take off the title, that’s what he is. Cal.” 

For much of the novel, Cal is a positive, inspiring presence in Lonnie’s life. At the moments when Cal fails, though, Lonnie struggles to reconcile Cal’s negative behaviors with his status as Lonnie’s coach. To fully resolve this tension, Lonnie eventually has to accept that Cal is both people: the motivating coach and the flawed human.

“What they’re all about is controlling things. It makes them feel big.” 

Throughout Lonnie’s journey to understanding the world more is the theme of power and control. Lonnie wants to feel powerful and in control, yet he repeatedly finds himself in situations where he is stripped of his agency or where he is assumed to be less capable than he is. This is an important reflection of larger social dynamics: Myers wants readers to understand the intense psychological ramifications of living in a racist society where white people want to be in control and “big[ger]” than other people.

“They’re going to hurt you until you know how to protect yourself. And if you blow your cool and throw away your game, they don’t care. They getting theirs to beat you, not to look good.” 

Lonnie finally learns to protect himself not through physical violence but through controlling his own emotions and protecting his “game.” This transition is the resolution of many of Lonnie’s earlier struggles. He learns to rely less on the reactions of others and more on his internal compass and courage.

“When you’re little and you get hurt it’s bad, because when you’re big it’s too late to make a comeback.” 

Since the novel opens on Lonnie still stuck in memories of his father leaving, this later realization is a critical moment for his development. Lonnie realizes that childhood trauma can have a significant impact on a person by watching Cal struggle with his father. Through this, Lonnie begins thinking about his own history and the long-lasting effect his pain has had on him.

“Things like who the hell is this tournament for in the first place?”

Much of the conflict in the novel revolves around the very exciting basketball tournament. However, Lonnie’s understanding of the tournament’s purpose becomes significantly more nuanced over time. As he begins to realize that the tournament isn’t just for his success or enjoyment, Lonnie is able to shift his larger understanding of whether people are truly there to support him, especially in basketball.

“When I stood up and took my warm-up jacket off, everybody from our neighborhood stood up with me.” 

In this triumphant moment, Lonnie feels fully seen and backed by his community. The championship game is the resolution to multiple conflicts: Lonnie demonstrates his strength both in his emotional control and athletic ability, but this is also a moment when his community can feel proud in the face of a largely white audience. By having the support of more people, Lonnie also feels more fully connected to a larger goal, not just his own dreams.

“Five days later, on a sunny morning, Cal was buried.” 

Although Cal’s death is a tragic event, his murder and the events surrounding it reveal his growth as a character and spur Lonnie on in pursuing his dreams. Myers’s choice to include the note that Cal is buried on a “sunny morning” is critical to painting Cal’s death as part of a larger positive event, rather than a sad moment that would pull Lonnie down. After Cal’s death, Lonnie reflects more fully on what comes next for him.

“Her face had all the hurt in it that I felt, and the tears were running down over her mouth.” 

Lonnie makes great strides towards greater emotional vulnerability in the novel but still never cries in public, no matter how sad he is. When he sees Aggie fully embracing her feelings, he has a tender moment of empathy, feeling that they share the same “hurt” over Cal’s death. For Lonnie, seeing emotions reflected in other people helps him become more in touch with his own experiences.