More than Just a Game: The Black Origins of Basketball

This nonfiction book highlights the history of the Black community and basketball. It records teams and people that have now been remembered. It explains how the game went from being segregated to united.

The text is written in a typical nonfiction fashion. I appreciated how much research the author did on the history of Black people and basketball. Most of the book flowed very well and gave the reader a good picture of the timeline. The illustrations were very well done. I like the realistic-looking pictures. The emotion on the players’ faces was a truly great addition to the book.

I think this is a great book for schools and parents to show history told differently than we’ve heard before. Each group’s and person’s story needs to be told so we can get a clear picture of the true history. I look forward to sharing this with my children, so they can see multiple sides of the history of basketball. I find it interesting that it went from a segregated sport to now, when seventy percent of NBA players are Black. It just goes to show that we should let everyone have a chance to try everything.