Heaven Is a Playground

Rating:
Summary: Great read for any hoops junkie!
Review: a great basketball book for anybody who likes the playground legends and stories.

Rating:
Summary: If you are a hoops junkie, you must read this book
Review: I have read this book once a year since I first picked it up 14 years ago as a 16 year old playground junkie. It is a primer for learning the rhythms of America's premiere urban sport, basketball. It is also about Telander's love for the game. I always remember the manifesto on a sticker in Rodney Parker's Flatbush apartment - "Basketball - it's a way of life" One of the great thrills of my life was having the opportunity to interview Rick as an undergrad at DePaul University in Chicago for the student newspaper. He was encouraging to a young, aspiring writer to undertake such a project like this while still young if that's what I wanted to do. A couple of years later, I found myself living in Newark, NJ. While there in 1994, I went on a Saturday afternoon to Foster Park and hooped all day long. I remember being so happy going home on the subway, thinking, "I did it! I played in the spot that has given me such happiness over the years." To anyone who wants to visit Foster Park to go play, I say do it! You won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Basketball Is Life
Review: I've read a few really good books on basketball -- David Wolf's "Foul," and John Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink" immediately come to mind -- but Rick Telander's "Heaven Is a Playground" is the best, for my money. This book captures not only the spirit of the game, but also vividly recreates a time (the mid-70s) and a place (Brooklyn).

Telander was in his 20s in 1974 when he went to Brooklyn to spend a summer, in part because he was in search of the elusive playground legend James "Fly" Williams, who figures prominently in the book. During the course of the three months he was there, however, he met, played with, interviewed and befriended a host of regulars at the courts in Foster Park in the Flatbush section of the borough. They were African-American boys and men for whom basketball was far more than recreation. For many of them, the game was a way of life and even more importantly a form of self-expression.

Besides Williams, Telander also met Albert King, then an astonishingly gifted 14-year-old, who was to go on to a successful NBA career. Telander brings to life the court skills of King and others, but he humanizes them, and this is where the great strength of the book lies. For example, King agonized over his talent, which brought him attention and adulation that embarrassed him and sometimes made him angry and withdrawn. Williams' incredible pure talent was married to an unpredictable and sometimes violent temperament that ultimately shortened his career.

Despite an obvious empathy for his subjects -- he wound up coaching a group of teenage park regulars, with mixed on-the-court success -- Telander does not romanticize them. Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville, where the action of the book primarily takes place, were poverty-stricken, crime-ridden places. Many of the people Telander spent extensive time with were scarred by their environment, and he does not try to hide that. Though the book is refreshingly free of a sense of "white guilt," Telander does agonize at one point over a boy he left off his team who succumbed to drug use and was later killed.

At times funny, often poignant, and filled with a love for its subject, "Heaven Is a Playground" remains an engrossing, and still timely, read nearly 30 years after its publication.

Rating:
Summary: Basketball Is Life
Review: I've read a few really good books on basketball -- David Wolf's "Foul," and John Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink" immediately come to mind -- but Rick Telander's "Heaven Is a Playground" is the best, for my money. This book captures not only the spirit of the game, but also vividly recreates a time (the mid-70s) and a place (Brooklyn).

Telander was in his 20s in 1974 when he went to Brooklyn to spend a summer, in part because he was in search of the elusive playground legend James "Fly" Williams, who figures prominently in the book. During the course of the three months he was there, however, he met, played with, interviewed and befriended a host of regulars at the courts in Foster Park in the Flatbush section of the borough. They were African-American boys and men for whom basketball was far more than recreation. For many of them, the game was a way of life and even more importantly a form of self-expression.

Besides Williams, Telander also met Albert King, then an astonishingly gifted 14-year-old, who was to go on to a successful NBA career. Telander brings to life the court skills of King and others, but he humanizes them, and this is where the great strength of the book lies. For example, King agonized over his talent, which brought him attention and adulation that embarrassed him and sometimes made him angry and withdrawn. Williams' incredible pure talent was married to an unpredictable and sometimes violent temperament that ultimately shortened his career.

Despite an obvious empathy for his subjects -- he wound up coaching a group of teenage park regulars, with mixed on-the-court success -- Telander does not romanticize them. Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville, where the action of the book primarily takes place, were poverty-stricken, crime-ridden places. Many of the people Telander spent extensive time with were scarred by their environment, and he does not try to hide that. Though the book is refreshingly free of a sense of "white guilt," Telander does agonize at one point over a boy he left off his team who succumbed to drug use and was later killed.

At times funny, often poignant, and filled with a love for its subject, "Heaven Is a Playground" remains an engrossing, and still timely, read nearly 30 years after its publication.

Rating:
Summary: The "Mother" to all subsequent inner-city hoop stories...
Review: One of the best books I've ever read! I spent some time in Brooklyn playing 'ball in the early 80's and must admit that this book was my guideline. Believe me, this is how inner-city basketball was in the 70's - 80's timeframe and R. Telander is to be highly commended for getting it right. I've probably read this 40 times since it came out and can still not put it down. I would just die for a follow-up story of what happened to all these people (from Fly Williams to Roy Hill)...Highest recommendation!

Rating:
Summary: An astounding book!
Review: Rick Telander is an incredibly gifted writer - with Sports Illustrated (senior writer) last I knew, and one of the "guys" on TV on the Chicago WGN "Sports Writers" show. This is the show portrayed in Saturday Night Live of the guys that sit around drinking beer smoking cigars and talking about Mike Ditka and Da Bulls. Anyway, this book was Rick's big break as a writer. He captures the heart of basketball for teenage boys. The focus of course is the inner city black kids. I have two teenaged boys (white, small town Midwest USA) who have read it and saw themselves in it, too. Transcends race/region/city-vs-country boy.

Captures above all what it is to be young, hopeful, and scared. Not a sports book, but a book about young men facing life who love sports.

Rating:
Summary: An astounding book!
Review: Rick Telander is an incredibly gifted writer - with Sports Illustrated (senior writer) last I knew, and one of the "guys" on TV on the Chicago WGN "Sports Writers" show. This is the show portrayed in Saturday Night Live of the guys that sit around drinking beer smoking cigars and talking about Mike Ditka and Da Bulls. Anyway, this book was Rick's big break as a writer. He captures the heart of basketball for teenage boys. The focus of course is the inner city black kids. I have two teenaged boys (white, small town Midwest USA) who have read it and saw themselves in it, too. Transcends race/region/city-vs-country boy.

Captures above all what it is to be young, hopeful, and scared. Not a sports book, but a book about young men facing life who love sports.

Rating:
Summary: Guide through Brooklyn inner city hoops
Review: Rick Telander is visiting Brooklyn to write a magazine article and locate all star legend Fly Williams. He plans to stay in Brooklyn for a few days, but ends up staying a whole summer. Brooklyn is a hard core place to play basketball, expecially street ball in the poverty stricken, crime filled parks of Brooklyn. Seventy percent of the boys are African American and are there because basketball is their life and that's what they're depending on to get them somewhere in life. Telander lets the kids speak for themselves in this book. It's full of real life situations and tends to be a little vulgar.
I love basketball so that's one reason this book was appealing to me, but it also grabbed my attention with the detail. The detail in all their conversations is remarkable.
A reader of this book would have to be open minded about all subjects or like basketball. This book is very intense, the players tend to get a little veral at times, but it's still a great book. I recommend this book for ages 15 and up. This is a phenomenal book, and must be read by all those lovers of basketball.

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Summary: The sociology of inner-city basketball
Review: With this book Rick Telander has captured the sociology of inner-city basketball. These kids do not see basketball as merely a sport but as a means to an end. It is a ticket to a better way of life that can become an obsession for some (such as Clavin Franks). In this book Telander points out all that is good about basketball and some of the bad. This book should be read by all basketball fans, especially those who dream of playing in the NBA. If you liked this book you should also check out the movie "Soul in the Hole." It is a movie about Brooklyn playground legend Edward "Booger" Smith.