58 pages • 1-hour read
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
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Index of Terms
King James
“King James” is a moniker popularly associated with LeBron James, the basketball prodigy from Akron, Ohio, whose extraordinary athletic talent elevated him to global stardom. In There’s Always This Year, Abdurraqib interrogates the implications of the title, drawing historical parallels to the Scottish kings of the same name, whose rule ended in bloodshed. By emphasizing that no one he knew “wanted the head of King James I from Akron, Ohio” (141), Abdurraqib contrasts the destructive legacy of monarchy with the community’s protective reverence for LeBron.
NBA
The NBA, or National Basketball Association, serves in the text as both a literal sports institution and a symbolic stage where narratives of Black performance, labor, and expectation are constructed and contested. Abdurraqib tracks the rise of players like Michael Jordan and LeBron James within the NBA to examine how Black excellence is commodified, scrutinized, and racialized in American culture. The NBA Draft Lottery, for instance, is portrayed as a ritual steeped in hope and futility—akin to the purchasing of lottery tickets by his grandmother—with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rare win in 2003 standing out as an almost miraculous exception.
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers (Cavs) are more than just a basketball team in Abdurraqib’s memoir—they are a symbol of collective identity, longing, and betrayal for Ohioans. The Cavaliers’ history of underdog perseverance and their brief periods of glory—especially during LeBron’s tenure—mirror the struggles and hopes of the communities Abdurraqib grew up in. When LeBron left the team for Miami in 2010, the public’s response was visceral, with fans burning jerseys and removing murals, reflecting a deeper sense of abandonment. Yet the Cavaliers also serve as a metaphor for flawed resilience, with players like Boobie Gibson representing the beauty of imperfection.
Begging Song
A “Begging Song,” as defined by Abdurraqib, is a musical form across genres—blues, country, rock—in which a speaker simultaneously admits wrongdoing and pleads for forgiveness, often from a position of emotional desperation. He likens the communal plea to LeBron James to a Begging Song, especially in moments like the ad-hoc anthem “We Are LeBron,” created in Cleveland to try to keep him from leaving for Miami (192). He describes these songs as simultaneously pathetic and poignant, rooted in the kind of yearning that can distort dignity but also illuminate deep emotional need. Abdurraqib uses this term to illustrate how longing, particularly in marginalized communities, is both a survival mechanism and an expression of love that borders on absurdity.
Gang
Adburraqib uses the term “gang” to refer to organized groups of disenfranchised people of color—a term he deconstructs and recontextualizes throughout the memoir. In his examination of hand gestures, hair styles, and camaraderie among Black youth. He resists the stereotypical association of such signals with criminality, arguing instead that these symbols often signify affection, loyalty, and cultural fluency—"we’ve put some work into our love for each other” (5). This reframing challenges mainstream perceptions that reduce Black expressions of unity to threats and insists on the humanity and emotional depth embedded in those signifiers.
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