Dragon Hoops - Gene Luen Yang

⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

This is a graphic novel about basketball, and pretty much the only reason why I read it is because it's by Gene Luen Yang, who wrote the Avatar comics. I'm pretty sure it was well done (I still don't know comics), and I did get kind of invested in the fate of the team, though!

It's autobiographical, about Yang deciding to look into his school's basketball team, which is doing really well. He's always been terrible at sports, but he wants to find out what the big deal is, and he knows a good story when he sees it. It goes into details about the history of basketball and how it's grown into such a popular sport, and some issues along the way, which was my favourite aspect. As he tells the story of the team's season, he focuses on different players and gives us some backstory on them, leading to reflections on what sports can mean to people, team spirit, etc.

The fact that it could make me a little interested in basketball was quite a feat, probably because it was written by a non-sportsy person. But basketball people would like it more, even if they'd likely know most of the history stuff already.