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Description
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has always been fascinated by history-nineteenth-century American history in particular. Tired of L.A., restless and looking for a new adventure, challenge, and discovery, he decides to go live among the Apaches he's read about. He encounters a complex reality. The kids on the Alchesay Falcons team don't easily embrace what he's trying to teach them on the court. Gradually they begin to learn from him as he begins to learn from them.
He teaches them to push out of their comfort zone and try new things, both in sports and in life. They give him something he didn't quite expect: a way to reconnect with his passion for basketball. This is a story about the qualities we have in common and the things that still divide us in terms of race, culture, and history. Along the way, we get to know the kids, the coaches, the town of Whiteriver and Alchesay High, the tribe-but most of all, we get closer to Kareem, a man well into middle age who wants to pass along his knowledge and experience in basketball and life. Kareem gives something back, and in so doing receives more than he ever imagined.
Reviews
...the reader can witness to how a season on the other side of the stripe can yield truths about a world on the other side of one's experience. --The New York Times Book Review, Michael E. Ross
YA-The death of his mother, interest in a Buffalo Soldier named Glass, and a growing friendship with Apache Indian Edgar Perry all lead the former NBA star to White River, AZ, and the reservation of the White Mountain Apaches. He came full circle as he volunteered to help coach the Alchesay Falcons during their 1998-99 basketball season. After eight years of retirement, coaching was both frustrating and meaningful for the athlete. He saw the same desire in these players to run and gun in lieu of the fundamentals that he had seen in young professional players who want only the huge bonuses. Just as the former superstar has learned to step out of his own "comfort zone," so too did he want to teach that skill to these young men. This is Abdul-Jabbar's story and readers not only learn his feelings about cultural differences but also about his own need to find his center and have thinking time. Exciting replays of basketball games juxtaposed against a look at one facet of Native American culture from a minority's perspective add up to a solid book. --Pam Spencer, Young Adult Literature Specialist, Virginia Beach, VA
Through his players, Abdul-Jabbar finds himself getting caught up in the competition--his passion for basketball obviously rekindled. Readers may find the end of the Falcons' season rather abrupt, but perhaps that's the nature of high school sports. They also may be a bit put off by Abdul-Jabbar's occasional arrogance, especially when talking about his professional days ("The 1985 Lakers would have taken [Jordan's Bulls] in a championship series.") or when dissing later NBA stars such as Shaq ("He's publicly referred to the way I used to play as 'old man's basketball,' which it may have been, but it earned me six more rings than he's got so far."). Overall, however, A Season on the Reservation is infused with an obvious love of the White Mountain Apaches, their land, and the sport of basketball. --Sunny Delaney Amazon.com
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