The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams

It ought to be just a game, but basketball on the playgrounds of Coney Island is much more than that — for many young men it represents their only hope of escape from a life of crime, poverty, and despair. In The Last Shot, Darcy Frey chronicles the aspirations of four of the neighborhood’s most promising players. What they have going for them is athletic talent, grace, and years of dedication. But working against them are woefully inadequate schooling, family circumstances that are often desperate, and the slick, brutal world of college athletic recruitment. Incisively and compassionately written, The Last Shot introduces us to unforgettable characters and takes us into their world with an intimacy seldom seen in contemporary journalism. The result is a startling and poignant expose of inner-city life and the big business of college basketball.

• The Breaks of the Game
• Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sports
• A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers
• The Jordan Rules
• The City Game: Basketball from the Garden to the Playgrounds
• Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association
• Friday Night Lights, 25th Anniversary Edition: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
• Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made
• Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
• Ghosts of Manila: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier