Customer Reviews

Hoopman

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This is a funny, witty, spell-binding novel of any man's truest desire---to actually play for a team and the game he loves. It has a central character, Chuck "Hoopman" Hayes, that many a reader will identify with and supporting characters that will simply blow you away. Being from a military family, I liked seeing the inner-working, wheeling and dealing that went on for Chuck's little "favors" from various sources. Also, the simple camaraderie of individuals in the various teams, both on and off the court, is inspiring. BOTTOM LINE, if you are a sports fan you'll love this book; if not, you will still get an excellent story that is real hard to put down. I loved it!

This is the story of a thirty-something man who returns to college to play basketball. He finds more than he expected, both on and off the court. The novel is well written and quite funny. I recommend it.

Just how good can life be? The lead character here has it all - a succesful enlisted Army career behind him and on retirement the dream of at least half the North American Continent - to go to college AND play college basketball! Even better Chuck gets to play at the top when approaching middle age.
Mike Gregory's first novel showed a flair for developing characters from his own military background, Hoopman goes far beyond this, demonstrating real maturity across a wide band of characters. It doesn't matter whether they are immature, semi-corrupted black players, overweight yet gutsy hispanics, nerdy computer geeks, or bent coaches - they are come to life through Mike's pen.
This book aches to be made into a film - Keanu Reeves has shown he can play baseball and is the right age - could he be Hoopman? Any Hollywood Scriptwriter would want to be first to get their hands on this one - it has all the components to make a blockbuster, accurate tactics for the knowledgable, computer hacking for the nerds, a love element and in particular a sensitive yet determined hero living the ultimate American Dream.
How Mike must wish he could play the beautiful game the way he describes it - no doubt he would be a great coach.
Despite not being a basketball fan I couldn't put this book down...