"Okay. Basketball is way tougher to play than I thought. According to my watch, I’ve been out here practicing for almost two hours. Except for two really close shots, I’ve made zero baskets. Zero.."
This book tells the story of two protagonists from two separate perspectives. Half the chapters are written from the perspective of Marco, who is a very good student, but no athlete. Marco's best friend is the exact opposite: a great athlete, but not much of an academic standout. A series of unexpected events has Marco getting his buddy Isaac to teach him how to play basketball in the hopes of fulfilling misplaced dreams and expectations. It is for this reason that Marco discovers that playing the game is hard whereupon he proves it by playing quite badly. This quote represents the centerpiece of the story. Marco exhibits a willingness to step outside his comfort zone and try something completely new even when recognizing that it is very difficult. The quote demonstrates not just that Marco finds playing basketball difficult, but also that he fully recognizes the absurdity of his desire to become a competitive basketball player. That he has put two hours into this proving this absurdity also provides insight into his dedication to learning something difficult and being willing to try something external to his established abilities.
“Dude. You can be the Muggsy Bogues of our team...He was the smallest player in NBA history but a real legend. All five feet three inches of him. He was a beast. All the players were super scared of dribbling around him.”
The reason that Marco is trying to master the game of basketball in the first place is that he learns about the legend of Muggsy Bogues. Bogues was an actual player in the NBA, and he was infamously short and not just by NBA standards. At this point at which he listens to Ryan telling him the legend of Bogues, Marco decides to pursue the possibility of becoming a jock. The history of Bogues finding success in the NBA is actually significant to the story because he is mentioned by name many times beyond this example. His presence lingers over the narrative like a specter haunting Marco's drive to become a player despite the overwhelming odds against him. He actually even goes to the point of trying to recreate what he sees on the video of Bogues playing. The former NBA phenom eventually comes to represent the very concept of overcoming expectations and limitations for Marco. This drive begins with simply hearing encouraging words from his friend Ryan about the actual possibility of accomplishing such an unlikely feat.
"Dad just stood there and rolled his eyes, looking bothered. Only not as bothered as he was seeing the way I crossed my legs. Right there, in front of Isaac, he gave out a sort of guttural grunt and kicked my legs apart. `The least you could do,' he said with a disgusted look on his face, `is sit like a man.'
And just like that, he left . . . permanently."
One of the themes pursued by the book is the impact of toxic masculinity. Marco's dad is definitely an example of toxic masculine narrow-mindedness. The reference to the way Marco is sitting and his dad's melodramatically violent reaction to that is a commentary on the kind of masculinity that is terrified of even the possibility of homosexuality or effeminacy in males. Marco's situation as an academically gifted student who is attempting to become a jock is a reaction to the societal placement of these two extremes which is embodied within the character of his father. A multitude of fathers—and men in general—equate athleticism with expectations of "proper" manhood while also equating intellectual pursuits with an inferior type of masculinity. It is also worth noting that the initial disgust manifested by Marco's dad is instigated by the fact that Marco is cooking dessert. The permanence of the man's absence suggests the depth of absurdity of toxic masculinity in action as Marco's father would rather abandon him than understand him.
