Book Birthdays, Nebraska

Happy Book Birthday to Life in the G

Book Birthdays celebrate one year of a book’s life in social media posts, reviews, and more. This month we’re saying Happy First Book Birthday to Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA (Nebraska, 2023) by Alex Squadron.

About the Book:

Welcome to the G League—the official minor league of the National Basketball Association. Life in the G is about the arduous quest to achieve an improbable goal: making it to the NBA. Zeroing in on the Birmingham Squadron and four of its players—Jared Harper, Joe Young, Zylan Cheatham, and Malcolm Hill—Alex Squadron details the pursuit of a dream in what turned out to be the most remarkable season in the history of minor league sports.

Life in the G League is far from glamorous. Players make enormous sacrifices and work unimaginable hours in the hope that someone in the NBA will give them a chance. To this day, very few fans—even the most passionate followers of the NBA—know much about the G League. In the fall of 2021, the Birmingham Squadron granted author Alex Squadron complete access to the team to capture the experience of playing in the league.

That year, with hundreds of NBA players sidelined by the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19, the G League saw a record number of call-ups. Sports Illustrated labeled it “the year of the NBA replacement player.” Many of those players stayed in the NBA, earning life-changing contracts and taking on significant roles for their new teams. In addition to recounting the organization’s inaugural season, Squadron’s access to the Birmingham Squadron enabled him to document the incredible journeys of G League players and to tell the larger story of life in the G. This is the inspiring tale of an unforgettable season and the emotional roller coaster for everyone involved in the chase for an NBA dream.

Reviews:

“It all makes for a compelling case study of the human heart, and Squadron’s book captures that beauty with one wonderful story after another.”—Joseph Goodman, AL.com

“This is an unforgettable view of an aspect of the NBA that most of us don’t see, in which the glitz and glamour we’re used to are replaced by the true, day-to-day grind of the $37,000-a-year-earning NBA hopeful.”—Philip Zozzaro, Booklist

“Squadron’s book is filled with colorful, interesting characters . . . make no mistake about it, despite the underlying and ever-present humor in the book, it depicts G League players as professionals.”—Lukasz Muniowski, Sport in American History

“It’s a fun ride through the season that will
bring the reader much closer to the life of a minor league basketball player.”—Lance Smith, The Guy Who Reviews Sports Books

“I can’t recommend Life in the G enough. It’s an instant classic on the level of ‘Hoop Dreams’ and ‘Friday Night Lights.’ For sports fans, it’s essential reading. Any fan of basketball will absolutely cherish every single word, but Life in the G is so much more than a book about basketball. . . . Squadron is a first-class reporter and a brilliant writer. Life in the G is American basketball canon.”—Joe Goodman, al.com

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