Cartoonist/math teacher/father of four Gene Yang has never liked sports, but he loves stories. He's never paid much attention to the basketball teams at O'Dowd, the private Catholic high school where he teaches, but when he starts hearing people call the men's varsity teams' aim for State Championship "the story of the season" his ears prick up. Yang begins talking to the team couch, Lou Richie, who is also an O'Dowd alumni. He begins attending games and practices and interviewing the players. He starts reading about the development of basketball- a sport specifically designed to use little equipment and only a small space, not needing a grassy field for play. These factors made basketball accessible in a way baseball and American football often are not. Yet racism and exclusion have haunted basketball as well, and Yang talks about early black teams such as the Harlem Globetrotters, the prejudice against women's basketball, the racism faced by the first Chinese players to join the NBA. Despite himself, Yang is draw into the O'Dowd Dragon's 2014/2015 season as they chase a State Championship which the school has missed out on eight different times. This is an engaging and informative story which left me (another cartoonist with lukewarm feelings on sports) with a greater appreciation for the game. I read this 450 page book in under 24 hours!