Hoops Part 1

Author- Walter Dean Myers


Chapters 1-5
Summary
The book starts of with a character named Lonnie Jackson. He lives with his mother, his father left them when Lonnie was young. Lonnie has an okay relationship with him mother. They get into fights often however. Lonnie works at a small hotel known as the Grant. He usually sleeps here. The next day Lonnie goes over to one of his friends house Paul. Paul has a sister Mary-Ann who Lonnie likes. Mary-Ann works at a club. Paul is not home however Lonnie has a discussion with Mary-Ann about how Paul has been acting kind of weird. Eventually Lonnie finds out about a basketball tournament that is happening. He learns that there are college scouts there looking for people to draft. Lonnie finds this as a perfect opportunity to play pro ball. He gets his team together at a gym and they wait for their new coach. There new coach arrives and it turns out to be a much older man named Cal. Lonnie reconizes Cal, he found him drunk on a basketball court when he was playing one day. Lonnie tells the team he does not want to play for a drinker. Cal says that if Lonnie can beat him one on one he will not coach. If he wins he will coach. At first Lonnie thinks this is a joke because he is the best player on the team. The play and it ends in Cal winning after Lonnie does not try that hard.
After this happens Lonnie constantly refuses to play or show up to practices. However Cal tells him that he must play. Cal decides to tell Lonnie that a famous basketball player will show up. The practice starts and Cal teaches everyone somewhat basic moves. Lonnie decides that he was not going to practice by not bringing any sneakers to play in. Instead he just watches. Everyone is waiting for someone to arrive but it looks as though Cal lied to them. Cal tells everyone to gather around. He tells everyone they must bring in fourteen dollars for uniforms. As he is telling them this a man comes in. Ox one of Lonnie's team members instantly reconizes the man as Sweet Man Johnson, a famous pro player. Lonnie feels embarrassed and stupid that he did not wear sneakers or listen to Cal.
After the practice ends Sweet Man Johnson asks everyone if they want to go out to eat. Everyone agrees including Lonnie. Johnson, Lonnie and Cal have a discussion about they way Lonnie plays and bad things that could happen to him if he makes a wrong decision. The next week and a half the team practiced hard. Cal said that he believed they were ready for their first game. Cal also mentioned that the uniforms would come in time for their first game. The day of the game it turns out that Cal does not show up for the beginning of the game. The team does not play well and loses. The team wonders where Cal was.
While at a hangout place known as the center Lonnie gets a call from Mary-Ann. She is worried because her boss has been giving and getting letters from Paul her brother. She is concerned because Paul does not work there and she thinks they could be doing something illegal. She has aksed her boss about it but he just gets mad. The same thing with Paul. Lonnie tells her not not worry about it too much and that it is not that big of a deal. She gets mad and hangs up.
Eventually Cal arrives at the center with uniforms and Lonnie is furious. He attempts to attack Cal but his team holds him back. He even takes out a gun but after wrestling around with it with his other teammates he shoots himself in the hand. Cal takes care of it but Lonnie is still furious. Cal tells him nothing about where he was and just tells him to get his team together and meet at the Lincoln Center. Cal then leaves.
For the first time the team practices at a very nice school. Everyone is surprised at how Cal got the place. Cal decides everyone worked hard that day at practice so he cancels it the next day. However he goes over to have a talk to Lonnie and says that he still has practice. The two play a game, this time Lonnie gives it is all. Lonnie is impressed by the way Cal plays. He ends up losing to him again. Cal says that Lonnie has a lot of game but he needs to work on it.
Lonnie catches up with Paul again. Paul has some new friends from out of town named Lenny and Leora. Paul tells him that Lenny is going to play for the team. Lonnie thinks that Lenny is too soft to play basketball. It seems that Paul and Lonnie's friendship is drifting away.
The team then plays another game against an okay team. The team does terriable the first half. Lonnie gets angry and Cal says he is leaving. However after a pep talk the team does great the next half and Lonnie can see Cal in the bleachers. The team still losses though.
Lonnie apologizes about what he says to Cal. Cal tells him that the wants to show Lonnie something. When they get to Cal's place Cal takes out a scrapbook. Inside the scrapbook are tons of photos of Cal playing basketball. Lonnie is surprised at the fact that Cal played professional basketball. However when Lonnie gets to the end of the scrapbook there are news articles of how Cal was shaving points or blowing games to make money off gamblers. Cal tells Lonnie that he wasn't thinking right. He doesn't want Lonnie to make the same mistake because he knows it will cost him his career. Cal also asks Lonnie to see his ex-wife.
Lonnie meets Cal's ex-wife. He has dinner as well as a good discussion with the two. However he feels kind of left out because Cal and his ex-wife are having a very enjoyable conversation.
After they leave the house Lonnie can see that Cal is very lonely without his wife. Lonnie feels bad.
Days pass and Lonnie one day gets a call from Mary-Ann. Mary-Ann says she saw her boss get into a fight with someone on the phone. After a while he asked her to get Paul. She is curious about what they are doing. Lonnie tells her that they will steal the letter and find out what is in it. Lonnie and Mary-Ann go into the club and into the boss's room. The find a locked drawer which Mary-Ann is able to pick. They find all the letters with Pauls name and take them. They also take more things so it seems like a robbery. They leave successfully. They decide to open up the letters and it turns out to be checks. However the checks are not made out to Paul or her boss. Instead it is made out to Marry-Ann's neighbor. Lonnie take all the checks and money and through it in the garbage. Lonnie says he will find out more later.
Lonnie wakes up late forgetting he needs to see his mother. When he gets to his moms house she is angry saying that she will not be living forever. She also says that she had to pay a young boy to help with her groceries because Lonnie was not around. They have a small conversation. Lonnie then needs to go and says goodbye. Lonnie decides that it is time to start finding out what Paul was doing. He decides to go to Highbridge which is the place where the checks were cashed. He finds a man nicknamed Ugly. Lonnie has known Ugly for a long time. He ran a black market selling illegal things such as marijuana. Lonnie tells Ugly about what has happend. Ugly confesses that Paul has been selling him the checks for fifteen dollars apiece. Lonnie thanks him for the information but Ugly asks him to say we never had any conversation. Lonnie then heads over to the center. At the center Lonnie finds Paul. He tells him that he wants a private talk in a different room. Lonnie asks Paul what is up. He says that ever since Paul started hanging out with Lenny and his other friends he has been different. Lonnie also asks him about the checks and his relations to Marry-Ann's boss who is known as Tyrone. Paul starts to get mad and tells Lonnie to stay out of his business. Paul then hits Lonnie with a lamp and the two fight. Lonnie tries not to hurt Paul to much because he knows they are still friends. Lonnie is then knocked out. When he wakes up he sees Paul sitting in the corner crying. He gets the two of them sodas and he talks to Paul. Paul apologizes for what he has done and tells Lonnie everything that has happened. He explains how after hanging out with is new friends he wanted to be like them in terms of money. They were wealthy and he was poor. Ugly told him that he would give him money if he could get stolen checks. He found out that if you hit locked mailboxes hard enough they would open. Eventually he tells Lonnie that Tyrone found out and he said he knew someone from the postal service that would get Paul arrested. Paul said he gave Tyrone the mail and Tyrone burned it. Lonnie thanks Tyrone for his story and leaves. Lonnie is very suspicious because he saw the checks unburned. Later Lonnie forgets he was suppose to meet up with Mary-Ann. He figures he will call her in the morning.

Who would like this book
I think that anyone that likes realistic fiction in somewhat modern times would enjoy this book. I also think that anyone that likes competiton or sports would enjoy reading this as well. Anyone that likes a bit of violence and bad language would like this book as well. Finally anyone that has lived in a troubled city and dangerous people could relate to this book and might enjoy reading it.

Why would the like this
This was a great book for anyone that likes realistic fiction. This book makes you want to keep reading more to find out what happens. This book's plot has a lot to do with competition and scandal in sports. The book also has a lot of basketball game sections that people who like basketball would enjoy. There is some violence in this book and some language however some people like that in the story and it will make them want to read more. Finally this book takes place in a dangerous neighborhood which will help relate to some people.

Did I enjoy this section
Overall I really enjoyed this section of the book. First of all it was realistic fiction which is my favorite genre of book. This book had me interested almost the entire time. The book is also slightly difficult to understand because there is some slang terms that people mostly in the city use. I was still able to understand the book though. I also like the plot of the story and it makes me want to keep reading the book. The violence in the book made it more interesting and the language did not really bother me. I also like the scandal they add in this book. It relates to real sports problems. Overall I really liked this section of the book.