We Are Family

This section further establishes the off-the-court lives of the young people as the story returns to the struggle of keeping Hoop Group afloat. They remain undesirable underdogs, with no additional kid wanting to try out for the team. Their struggles continue when the Lady Legion defeats them. However, losing to 10-year-old girls isn’t embarrassing or funny but constructive. After Anthony and Dex convey expected disheartened reactions, Tamika replies, “I can’t believe y’all are talking like this. Maybe we lost, but at least we look like a team” (154). This moment highlights Tamika’s evolving leadership style—rather than measuring success purely by wins, she recognizes that building chemistry and cohesion is just as important. Her ability to shift perspective reflects the novel’s engagement with Demonstrating Leadership and Fostering Community, as she teaches her teammates to embrace growth over immediate success. Thinking beyond the binary of winning and losing, Tamika sees hope. Hoop Group receives a further boost when Chris rejects the Ballers and rejoins Hoop Group for good.

Chris gradually transforms in this section. In creative writing class, he becomes less stubborn, allowing Dex to coax him back to practice, yet bits of antagonism remain. He won’t commit to Hoop Group unless Jayden rejoins the team. He also spurns Tamika’s assessment of him, telling her, “I don’t need you to critique my game. I know I can hoop” (155). The overconfident tone shows that Chris still has an issue with arrogance and isn’t ready to be a part of the Hoop Group community in good faith. Chris’s resistance to feedback mirrors his initial unwillingness to see basketball as a team effort rather than an individual showcase. His journey toward understanding that personal growth depends on collective effort ties into the novel’s broader exploration of Daily Persistence and Self-Control. 

In Chapter 16, Chris has an epiphany at the Ballers’ practice. His father tells him, “Honestly, we just don’t really need you right now” (185). Chris seizes the implication. His father doesn’t need him because his father only wants the $200 fee. The Ballers is about money, not creating a winning basketball program. Chris has flaws, but he’s not irredeemable; he sincerely cares about basketball, so he rejects his father’s corruption. This moment solidifies Chris’s realization that Hoop Group, despite its struggles, is built on something authentic—camaraderie and mutual growth—while the Ballers is simply a transactional enterprise. His choice to return to Hoop Group represents a turning point in his arc as he begins to value the integrity of the game over external validation.

Daily persistence and self-control manifest in Jayden, Dex, and Anthony. Jayden applies the same determination he has for basketball to his job search, and he achieves his goal when Roddy hires him. His willingness to take on work to support his family—even as a 12-year-old—further develops the theme of Sacrificing for Other People, as Jayden internalizes the pressure of economic hardship, even when his family assures him that it is not his burden to carry. His choice to work instead of immediately returning to basketball foreshadows the difficult decisions he will have to make about balancing personal ambition with familial responsibility. 

Anthony continues to struggle with self-control, attacking Dex, yet Dex doesn’t let Anthony’s behavior frighten him. He remains committed to Anthony, preventing him from getting into further trouble with Principal Kim. Dex’s insistence on standing by Anthony—despite the physical altercation—reinforces the novel’s message that true friendships are built on patience, understanding, and resilience. In this way, the relationship between Dex and Anthony mirrors the dynamics of teamwork in basketball: Mistakes and conflicts happen, but success depends on how players respond to those setbacks. The dynamic between Dex and Anthony reveals that friendship, like basketball, depends on perseverance.

Creative writing becomes a parallel pursuit to basketball. Rather than presenting writing as a substitute for basketball, the novel equates both disciplines as requiring rigor, collaboration, and vulnerability. On the court, the characters must work together. In creative writing class, Ms. Cahill divides the students into pairs, compelling them to become teammates. Anthony’s devotion to writing mirrors Jayden’s and Tamika’s dedication to basketball, as they constantly practice basketball and think about it. Creative writing has the same kind of possessive hold over Anthony. The narrator explains, “For hours, Anthony sat at the rickety table in their small kitchen and wrote and wrote and wrote” (166). The imagery of Anthony’s repetitive writing process mirrors the muscle memory required in basketball drills, reinforcing the idea that mastery—whether in athletics or in art—is a product of sustained effort and discipline. 

Further, Anthony sees creative writing as competitive, wondering, “How could he hang with someone like Derek Walcott, who published his first poem when he was just fourteen?” (168). The diction—“hang with”—turns writing into a game with a clear winner and loser. Anthony doesn’t feel like he can beat Walcott, just as Jayden didn’t feel like he could score off Roddy in Chapter 1. Thus, writing and basketball require persistence. However, unlike basketball, which is often measured in points and wins, writing’s success is more subjective, making it a deeply personal form of self-expression. Anthony’s struggle with sharing his work reflects his internalized doubts, reinforcing the novel’s exploration of hope as a motif—hope that his words have meaning, that his perspective matters, and that his skills will develop with time.

Hope as a motif becomes more prominent in Chapters 11-16 for the other characters, especially as Jayden grapples with his family’s financial instability. Jayden’s decision to get a job rather than continue training for basketball signals a crisis of hope—he momentarily believes that his dreams must be set aside to support his family. However, Roddy’s presence serves as a crucial intervention, reminding Jayden that hope does not mean surrendering ambition, but rather finding ways to sustain it even in difficult circumstances. Roddy pays Jayden to clean the tables, take out the trash, and wash dishes, but he also pushes Jayden to remember his original goals. This moment reinforces the novel’s approach to sacrificing for other people: Sacrifice does not mean abandoning one’s potential but instead finding sustainable ways to uplift others while still striving for personal fulfillment.