Customer Reviews

Heaven Is a Playground

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I've read a few really good books on basketball -- David Wolf's "Foul," and John Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink" immediately come to mind -- but Rick Telander's "Heaven Is a Playground" is the best, for my money. This book captures not only the spirit of the game, but also vividly recreates a time (the mid-70s) and a place (Brooklyn).

Telander was in his 20s in 1974 when he went to Brooklyn to spend a summer, in part because he was in search of the elusive playground legend James "Fly" Williams, who figures prominently in the book. During the course of the three months he was there, however, he met, played with, interviewed and befriended a host of regulars at the courts in Foster Park in the Flatbush section of the borough. They were African-American boys and men for whom basketball was far more than recreation. For many of them, the game was a way of life and even more importantly a form of self-expression.

Besides Williams, Telander also met Albert King, then an astonishingly gifted 14-year-old, who was to go on to a successful NBA career. Telander brings to life the court skills of King and others, but he humanizes them, and this is where the great strength of the book lies. For example, King agonized over his talent, which brought him attention and adulation that embarrassed him and sometimes made him angry and withdrawn. Williams' incredible pure talent was married to an unpredictable and sometimes violent temperament that ultimately shortened his career.

Despite an obvious empathy for his subjects -- he wound up coaching a group of teenage park regulars, with mixed on-the-court success -- Telander does not romanticize them. Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville, where the action of the book primarily takes place, were poverty-stricken, crime-ridden places. Many of the people Telander spent extensive time with were scarred by their environment, and he does not try to hide that. Though the book is refreshingly free of a sense of "white guilt," Telander does agonize at one point over a boy he left off his team who succumbed to drug use and was later killed.

At times funny, often poignant, and filled with a love for its subject, "Heaven Is a Playground" remains an engrossing, and still timely, read nearly 30 years after its publication.

I read this book around '93, just after having read the "white version" in both Larry Bird's biography and autobiography. What was interesting was these two very similar yet distinct experiences and how they related to my own experience, growing up it what would seem like a very safe and socially adjusted rural town.

Heaven is a Playground was a departure for me in to a world where basketball had the utmost symbolic and cultural meaning - where legends were born and died and everybody else was willing to take the gamble. Was basketball more a sacrifice of a better future (missing school) or a one shot escape from certain poverty? Telander would probably argue the latter. What I found interesting was that only a few of the characters in the story actually had the potential for professional basketball, yet all the other young men seemed (unconsciously) willing to sacrifice their own futures for those players. Not so much blinded by their dreams they were living them.

Certainly some other reviewers have me beat in the department of basketball-related literature, but I count "Heaven Is A Playground" amongst the many social science books that I have read. And indeed, it matches up quite well with the best reads of the past few decades. On the surface, the book seems to be about inner-city basketball, but within the pages, it is a complete dissection of the (one segment) inner city African-American man.

The amazing book "Tally's Corner" managed the same feat in its analysis of street corner men. Both have achieved great feats with their respective works. For basketball fans like myself, "Heaven Is A Playground" not only reads as great/sad/true/mystifying social commentary, but also as plain sports entertainment. Rick Telander, as a sports writer, was really able to hit home with the writing, really giving readers a feel of the 1970s game - which has many similarities and differences to the game of today.

Another great aspect of the book is that it reads as if you there. Telander makes only the necessary analysis in the pages about what went on, and basically leaves the facts as they are. The book could have easily become a textbook lesson on sociological concepts, a lofty preaching on the ills of inner city life, or a rambling 200+ page play-by-play. Fortunately, the easy going style of writing is great journalism. Telander's style fit me well.

Thanks Rick for a great read.

I have read this book once a year since I first picked it up 14 years ago as a 16 year old playground junkie. It is a primer for learning the rhythms of America's premiere urban sport, basketball. It is also about Telander's love for the game. I always remember the manifesto on a sticker in Rodney Parker's Flatbush apartment - "Basketball - it's a way of life" One of the great thrills of my life was having the opportunity to interview Rick as an undergrad at DePaul University in Chicago for the student newspaper. He was encouraging to a young, aspiring writer to undertake such a project like this while still young if that's what I wanted to do. A couple of years later, I found myself living in Newark, NJ. While there in 1994, I went on a Saturday afternoon to Foster Park and hooped all day long. I remember being so happy going home on the subway, thinking, "I did it! I played in the spot that has given me such happiness over the years." To anyone who wants to visit Foster Park to go play, I say do it! You won't be disappointed.

With this book Rick Telander has captured the sociology of inner-city basketball. These kids do not see basketball as merely a sport but as a means to an end. It is a ticket to a better way of life that can become an obsession for some (such as Clavin Franks). In this book Telander points out all that is good about basketball and some of the bad. This book should be read by all basketball fans, especially those who dream of playing in the NBA. If you liked this book you should also check out the movie "Soul in the Hole." It is a movie about Brooklyn playground legend Edward "Booger" Smith.

This is the best book on basketball I've ever read. First read it when I was a kid in the late '70's, and it still rings as true today. Just about the best sportswriting ever.

Rick Telander is visiting Brooklyn to write a magazine article and locate all star legend Fly Williams. He plans to stay in Brooklyn for a few days, but ends up staying a whole summer. Brooklyn is a hard core place to play basketball, expecially street ball in the poverty stricken, crime filled parks of Brooklyn. Seventy percent of the boys are African American and are there because basketball is their life and that's what they're depending on to get them somewhere in life. Telander lets the kids speak for themselves in this book. It's full of real life situations and tends to be a little vulgar.
I love basketball so that's one reason this book was appealing to me, but it also grabbed my attention with the detail. The detail in all their conversations is remarkable.
A reader of this book would have to be open minded about all subjects or like basketball. This book is very intense, the players tend to get a little veral at times, but it's still a great book. I recommend this book for ages 15 and up. This is a phenomenal book, and must be read by all those lovers of basketball.

Rick Telander is an incredibly gifted writer - with Sports Illustrated (senior writer) last I knew, and one of the "guys" on TV on the Chicago WGN "Sports Writers" show. This is the show portrayed in Saturday Night Live of the guys that sit around drinking beer smoking cigars and talking about Mike Ditka and Da Bulls. Anyway, this book was Rick's big break as a writer. He captures the heart of basketball for teenage boys. The focus of course is the inner city black kids. I have two teenaged boys (white, small town Midwest USA) who have read it and saw themselves in it, too. Transcends race/region/city-vs-country boy.

Captures above all what it is to be young, hopeful, and scared. Not a sports book, but a book about young men facing life who love sports.

If you are a hoops junkie of any kind, read this book. It tells all about the playground game. The players whose dreams were a reality, and those whose dreams were shattered. It tells the lifestyle of young, upstart ballplayers in the ghetto and what they needed to overcome to make it in the big time. Two main people it focuses on are Albert King and Fly Williams. It tells you the coaching point of view on a ghetto team- the Subway Stars. Read this book, you won't be disappointed.

Great look into life on the 1970s playgrounds of NYC and the kids who became stars there -- or didn't.