Full Description
Welcome to the G League, the official minor league of the National Basketball Association. Life in the G is about the arduous quest to achieve an improbable goal: making it to the NBA. Zeroing in on the Birmingham Squadron and four of its players-Jared Harper, Joe Young, Zylan Cheatham, and Malcolm Hill-Alex Squadron details the pursuit of a dream in what turned out to be the most remarkable season in the history of minor league sports.
Life in the G League is far from glamorous. Players make enormous sacrifices in the hope that someone in the NBA will give them a chance. To this day, very few fans-even the most passionate followers of the NBA-know much about the G League. Beginning in the fall of 2021, the Birmingham Squadron granted author Alex Squadron complete access to the team to capture the experience of playing in the league. That season, with hundreds of NBA players sidelined by the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19, the G League saw a record number of call-ups. Sports Illustrated labeled it "the year of the NBA replacement player." Many of those players stayed in the NBA, earning life-changing contracts and taking on significant roles for their new teams. In addition to recounting the organization's inaugural season, Squadron's access to the Birmingham Squadron enabled him to document the incredible journeys of G League players and to tell the larger story of life in the G.
Contents
Foreword by Andre Ingram
Author's Note
Introduction
1. What's the G League?
2. It's Nice to Have You in Birmingham
3. Tryouts
4. Draft Day
5. Training Camp
6. Winning Matters
7. The Marshmallow Experiment
8. November 17, 2021
9. The Panic Button
10. The Price of a Dream
11. Basketball in the Magic City
12. Omicron
13. Showcase
14. Going Up
15. Centimeter of Chance
16. Can You Pass This Test?
17. A Ruthless Business
18. Keep Going
19. Malcolm Hill's Here
20. At Peace
21. Thinking about Life
22. For the Love
23. We All We Got
24. Win or Go Home
25. Never Ending
Acknowledgments
Notes
