THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR: ON BASKETBALL AND ASCENSION

Growing up in Columbus in the 1990s, Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron were forged, and countless others weren't. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tensions between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with memoir. Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father's jumpshot, Abdurraqib writes. The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.