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WTR (What’s Toby Reading)? provides unsolicited and unsponsored (I don’t get paid) opinions of books I have recently finished.
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As I read Jon Finkel’s Hoops Heist, I could not resist creating an ESPN “30 for 30” in my mind. While Finkel’s latest book begins with Tinker Diagonal in Central Oklahoma, my own vision began with the Seattle fog lifting on an empty Rainier Beach court.
The style of Hoop’s Heist would not allow the “30 for 30” feel to leave my mind – from the chronicling the beginning and end of the Seattle Supersonics, to the top-notch ballers produced by the area.
Finkel is one of my favorite sports-biography writers (see his books about Nate Robinson, Charlie Ward, Chad Henning, and “Mean” Joe Green). His adept storytelling strikes the right balance of hard statistics and endearing anecdotes.
At its simplest, the book is about basketball in Seattle – a subject that, at face, did not have me standing in line in the Florida cold to buy. Seattle seemed obscure and a sports world that would only become important on an Eastern Time Zone sleepless night on a fall Sunday.
I was wrong.
Despite tip-toeing in, it did not take me long before I began mentally repeating, “I had no idea Seattle _________.”
I had no idea the work done to, initially locate a franchise in Seattle.
I didn’t have a clue that the team struggled to draw fans to various arenas over the course of its first years of futility.
Lost on me was the (rightful) contempt felt by the city when the franchise, under new ownership, relocated to Oklahoma City after drafting future Hall of Famer, Kevin Durant.
I had no idea of the lineage of college and professional basketball superstars that have been harvested in the Pacific Northwest gloom.
Topic 1: Basketball in Seattle
The first half of Hoops Heist, walks the reader through the city of Seattle through the lens of a vibrant, sports-crazed culture. The book provides an adequate (but not exhausting) fix of NBA game recaps, stat lines, forgotten names of the past, and reintroduces the reader to the Seattle Supersonics – teams led by Shawn Kemp, “Downtown” Freddie Brown, the X-man, Slick Watts, and Gary “The Glove” Payton.
Topic 2: He’s from Seattle?
I would describe the second half of the book as numerous, in-depth profiles of Seattle-based basketball talent that flourished after being inspired (and, at times, personally embraced by) Seattle Supersonic players.
A critical connection between the first and second half of Hoops Heist is the intentional link created between Seattle’s NBA franchise and their community – through camps, pick-up games, and charity work that spawned future generations of home-grown basketball talent.
Again, I had no idea that Seattle produced professional stars, like:
- Isaiah Thomas
- Brandon Roy
- Jason Terry
- Nate Robinson
- Jamal Crawford
- Doug Christie
Finkel’s highlighting of these players goes far beyond the basketball floor, through their upbringing in the Seattle area, and reacquaints the reader with the desire of each to, one day, bring an NBA franchise back to their hometown.
The details of Nate Robinson’s athletic prowess caught my eye – likely because I am of similar stature (ie: under six feet tall is not the ideal build for an NBA scorer/slam dunker).
Commonly remembered as an NBA scorer and slam dunk champion, Robinson was a better football player growing up. He starred on the University of Washington’s football AND basketball team as a freshman. The book details Robinson’s day at UW – starting before dawn and ending in a gym just shy of midnight. Rarely is such uncanny athleticism coupled with such grit.
OMG – the research!!!
The book concludes with a list of references that would impress any professor. Let’s just say that Jon Finkel’s melting together of these sources of information (from local papers to the autobiographies of basketball legends) to tell a compelling story is as impressive as the job Lenny Wilkens or George Karl did in helping the Seattle Supersonics franchise achieve respectability.
As much as I enjoyed the read, as I closed the book, my “30 for 30” came to mind.
I might change a few minor things.
I yearned for more about plans to resurface an NBA team in Seattle. Who are the current players in those discussions? How might Seattle might “steal” back a fledgling team in the next five years?
I’d keep most of Finkel’s work, though.
My version would end, I think, with the “tink” of a metal basketball net as a young man knocks down a free throw at Rainier Beach. On the final camera shot, the frame would cut to the same (now grown) man, donning a Sonics’ green and gold jersey, hitting a game clenching three a la “Downtown” Freddie Brown or “Slick” Watts. He’d salute the rawcus crowd and point at a teanager in the rafters. The circle of basketball life in Seattle, at least in my “30 for 30” would continue.
Hoops Heist makes me believe that pro basketball HAS to resurface in Seattle and, just maybe, this book was part of the initial building blocks of that resurrection.
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