Dragon Hoops

Coach Lou and Mr. Yang sit down for an interview, during which Coach Lou explains that he is an alumnus of Bishop O’Dowd and a member of the Class of 1989. An extra-wide comic panel shows Mr. Yang opening a yearbook page and seeming surprised as he looks at the high school yearbook picture of Llewellyn Blackmon Richie. Coach Lou explains to Yang that he used to be taunted in his school, sometimes called “Sue Ellen,” and that his enrollment at Bishop O’Dowd inspired fear in him, as the school had a reputation as “the rich white kids school” (18). A close-up comic panel shows Coach Lou making a fateful step down the concrete corridor to begin his education at Bishop O’Dowd. This image is evocative of the step—also shown in close-up—on a similar paved road when Mr. Yang crossed over to initiate their interview. An especially caricature-like vertical panel shows Llewellyn as a 110-pound freshman with glasses, skinny legs, and a small Afro. He was often compared to advertising personality Mars Blackmon, who advertised Air Jordan shoes alongside basketball legend Michael Jordan. Panels alternate between the present and past as Coach Lou continues to tell Mr. Yang about how his interest in basketball inspired him to work hard in the gym with a view to joining the men’s basketball team. Finally earning a spot as a backup point guard on the Bishop O’Dowd varsity team, the Dragons, during his junior year, the young Lou vividly remembers a hard-fought game during the California State tournament against the Martial Arts Toilers. A full-page spread reading “BLAAAR!” shows Coach Lou hitting a three-point shot and his teammate slam-dunking soon after that shot (29). The Dragons are up at halftime, but the Toilers make a comeback that forces Dragons coach Mike Phelps to call a timeout. Down by one point with seven seconds left on the clock, a cocky Lou points to the announcers and says, “You tell everybody down in Southern California that Lou Richie’s about to bring the championship home for Northern California” (34). In fact, Lou manages to hit a three-point shot at the buzzer, seeming to prove true to his word and winning the game. However, the referees call goaltending, resulting in a loss for the Dragons. A series of panels shown in flashback reveals Coach Lou reliving this difficult loss while in the classroom, playing other sports, and in the lunchroom. Back in the present, a stocky Coach Lou stands 5’9” and wears a goatee. He tells Mr. Yang—who listens keenly from a wooden chair opposite him, smartphone in hand—that he began as an assistant to Coach Mike Phelps, and he was promoted to head coach of the Dragons in 2012. As a coach, Lou has brought his team to the state tournament eight times, but the team has never managed to win. He is convinced that this year will be different thanks to two promising players, Ivan Rabb and Paris Austin.

The beginning of the chapter shows a full-page view of two Black student athletes, one towering two full heads over the other. Discrepant with the title page, the beginning of the chapter shows a tortured Mr. Yang lying in bed with a thought bubble in which he expresses a degree of self-doubt. Specifically, he wonders if he is truly capable of writing a novel about basketball. Curious to know more about the history of basketball, Mr. Yang visits a library, where he learns about the 31-year-old physical education teacher, James Naismith, who is often credited with inventing basketball. In 1891, Naismith found himself at his wits’ end trying to keep his adult men’s physical education class motivated and entertained with the conventional calisthenics classes. During the cold winter months in Springfield, Massachusetts, Naismith tried to bring the sports of lacrosse and football to an indoor gym, but the comic captions explain that the equipment was too bulky, and the illustration reveals windows being broken. Naismith, who sports a blonde mustache and wears a suit, continues to ponder his conundrum while sitting at a desk in his office. Naismith finds two buckets to suspend from the ceiling, and he challenges his players to pass—not dribble—a soccer ball and toss it into the buckets. (At first, only passing, not dribbling, was permitted.) In 1896, the concept of dribbling was introduced, and the five conventional positions were solidified. Although at first only a few fans attended the indoor games, the new game of basketball slowly gained popularity. A comic panel with an urban skyline of Chicago explains that the game of basketball gained special popularity in cities—including Oakland, represented by a full-page image of famous stars such as Gary Payton—which lacked the space required for many outdoor sports.

Mr. Yang decides to interview Paris and Ivan, Coach Lou’s two star players. Mr. Yang notices some striking similarities between the two, including that they are both Black Oakland natives raised by single mothers. Paris is agile on the court and outspoken, while Ivan is shy, yet dominant on the court. Another close-up image of adolescent shoes stepping on concrete paving accompanies a YouTube video of Ivan that Mr. Yang watches, in which the young player explains that Coach Lou always encourages him to prioritize homework as well as basketball. Paris explains that the two are like brothers, and a full-page spread shows them performing an alley-oop that reminds Mr. Yang of Superman. Ivan’s reticence about his experience growing up in a crime-ridden Oakland occupies Mr. Yang’s thoughts, even in a series of panels that show him at home washing dishes with his wife, who reminds him that to these players who are used to enjoying near-celebrity-level attention, Mr. Yang is like the media. The quiet player does reveal to Mr. Yang his disappointment at the Dragons’ loss to the Mater Dei Monarchs at the state championship during the previous year. This is shown in vivid flashback scenes, which include a press release and close-up scoreboard. The chapter’s close returns to Mr. Yang’s interview with Coach Lou, in which he expresses unrelenting confidence that his team stands a strong chance at the state tournament in the upcoming year. A full-page spread shows that the team’s lineup includes players of various ages, heights, and ethnicities. Mr. Yang’s interview with the assistant coach—a new father who carries a baby while they talk—reveals that most of the players, however, are upperclassmen, thus positioning the team for a difficult subsequent season.

The opening panels show Coach Lou conducting passing drills with his team. The players count to four in English and then in Spanish. One player comments that Zhao, an Asian player, cannot count in Spanish, but he must know Mandarin. Coach Lou predicts that they will blow the De La Salle Spartans out of the water in their upcoming exhibition game. Mr. Yang admits being distracted by that evening’s news, in which a Black high school senior, Michael Brown, was shot by a white police officer, who was found not guilty. Here, a panel illustration shows a poignant photo of the victim wearing his graduation robe. Coach Lou explains to Mr. Yang that he was asked to make a statement at the opening of the La Salle game, but Lou prefers to let the players’ performance speak for itself.

Mr. Yang is shown sitting in the bleachers at the game, where he listens to the Spartans’ fans commenting at the side of the Dragons. The Spartans taunt the Dragons, singling out Paris as “overrated” (91). Isaiah Thomas goes up for a slam dunk, shown in a series of full-page panels, including a schematic drawing that shows the Dragons’ passing patterns (93). Despite a strong initial showing by the Dragons, the Spartans start to make a series of three-point shots, affording them a 21-18 lead on the second-period scoreboard (shown in a comic panel) and a 45-37 lead in the third period, at which point Coach Lou benches Alex Zhao after he draws a foul. The Dragons lose 74-69, leaving the players demoralized. Jeevin is especially disheartened, but Coach Lou and his assistant, Lawrence Monroe, encourage him to be grateful for his loving family and strong GPA. As Mr. Yang arrives home, his wife, shown sitting on the sofa, having put their children to bed, notices that he is upset. Mr. Yang explains that he does not like that “you do not have any real control over the ending” (105). As she frequently does during the sections that show Mr. Yang at home, his wife listens patiently and empathizes. When she expresses surprise at the loss, Mr. Yang—in an especially self-reflective and revealing moment of the book—expresses the chief reason for his concern: His book will fail if the team does not win the state tournament. Despite his wife’s encouraging him that they don’t have to win for the book to work, the closing panel shows Mr. Yang on his couch looking distracted and worried, not quite convinced.