Summer Ball

These chapters precede Danny’s trip to Right Way and provide valuable background information on the novel’s main characters. The book sets up an interesting dynamic between Danny and his father. Overall, Danny has a good relationship with his parents. As he sits with his mother and father, joking about basketball and a growth spurt, Danny reflects: “He didn’t know if other kids liked sitting around with their parents this way. But he never got tired of it” (2). Partially, this statement relates to the years Danny spent raised alone by his mother, Ali, until his father reentered their lives. Readers find out that a series of injuries and personal issues drove Danny’s father from his wife and son. Danny is overjoyed to have his family back together.

Chapter 1 reveals that Danny’s father, while loving and supportive, tends to push his son to adopt his own never-say-die attitude. When Danny expresses a legitimate concern about his height, Danny’s father brings up his own short stature and the great achievements he managed. When Danny’s father begins to list his awards, Danny remarks, “[t]here was no stopping his dad on this one. It was like he was driving to the basket” (2), implying that arguing or injecting his own opinion is pointless. Danny’s father, having suffered career-ending injuries in a car crash, attempts to recreate his past glories through his son. This weighs on Danny; he only feels comfortable expressing his true feelings to his friends, afraid of incurring his father’s disapproval if he reveals self-doubt.

Danny also often speaks and acts much older than his thirteen years. He often quotes his father; for example, at the prospect of leaving past victories behind and facing new challenges, Danny remarks, “‘You gotta keep taking it to the next level, or you’ll never leave the one you’re at” (5). This advice comes, again, in the form of his father quoting an old player: “‘He said that we all start out just wanting to be the best kid on our block, and some of us get to be that. But as soon as we do, almost like the minute we do, you know what happens, right?’” (7). Danny readily answers, as though trained: “‘You find out about the kid on the next block’” (7). Danny displays this maturity often in the novel, such as when he references old basketball players with intelligence and class, seeking to imitate their style. While other players follow a coach’s lead, Danny uses his maturity to devise his own strategy.

These chapters also introduce the idea of pressure. Children like Danny, who play at an elite level, often feel pressure differently than other children. Danny feels he must live up to his father’s expectations for him, which are extremely high. Also, Danny, the star of a national-title team, experiences the pressure of being the best: every hungry basketball player wants to take Danny’s place. He fears he will not defend this title against taller, stronger boys. Danny is “scared that the seventh-grade travel championship that he and the Warriors had won might be the best it would ever be with him in basketball” (8). Athletes, even those as young as Danny, worry over the precarious nature of sports, constantly anxious their best days are behind them. Though Danny puts on a brave face, access to his inner thoughts underscore the anxiety Danny feels about competitive basketball.

Finally, the chapter explores the impact of Danny’s height. In Danny’s case, people assume that because he is small and he should not play basketball. He remembers what starts it all: “When he’d gotten cut from travel that time, he knew in his heart it was because a bunch of adults thought he was too small” (9). For Danny, this has psychological ramifications: he grows weary of having to prove himself every time he steps onto the court. The taller players do not have this pressure. He even develops an inferiority complex over his friend and love interest, Tess Hewitt. He is shorter than she is; moreover, her new tennis partner, Scott Welles, towers over Danny. Every way Danny looks, he sees how his height holds him back. Despite the encouragement of his family and friends, being short sometimes makes Danny feel small inside.