I received an ARC of this novel from First Second in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book really surprised me. Going in I didn't see the need for a 400+ graphic novel about the author learning about basketball. The synopsis really threw me off. However, this book was very insightful and redeemed itself from American Born Chinese, Yang's backlisted title that I didn't enjoy so much.

I'm a big hockey fan and I've never sought out any other sport because basketball, baseball and football are particularly not interesting to me. So, like Yang, I too think basketball is boring. However, being a hockey fan, I understand how important a sport or team can mean to you which is why I enjoyed this graphic novel and the story Yang told.

This book is more than Yang learning about why people love basketball specifically The Dragons, the popular varsity basketball team at the high school he teaches at. Yang spends the whole book dividing chapter by chapter each significant player and focusing on their role on the team and in basketball. This was a wholesome and insightful novel tackling hardships in basketball such as race, size, and gender with history spread throughout. Yang wrote and illustrated this book like a documentary, even if he says it wasn't mean to be, it would be a great documentary.

I learned a lot about the sport I knew so little about and like Yang, I too have a newfound respect for the sport of basketball.