Coach Garner (Situational Irony)
When Jordan's pre-algebra teacher, Mr. Garner, asks how he is adjusting to being a RAD student, Jordan complains that people have been mixing him up with Maury and Drew with Deandre. Jordan implies that the white students and faculty can't tell the difference between Black pupils, but Mr. Garner tells him to not read into it, suggesting the mixups are happening because Jordan and Drew are new. However, just then a white teacher refers to Garner as "coach" in passing, angering Garner, who has been at the school fourteen years. In this instance of situational irony, Garner experiences the same frustration Jordan is complaining about and that Garner tried to dismiss.
Fortune 500 CEO (Situational Irony)
At the book fair, an elderly white teacher tries to convince Maury, one of the school's few Black students, that he will relate to the main character of a book targeted at African American youth. She says DaQuell, the protagonist of The Mean Streets of South Uptown, grows up in poverty without a father. Maury hands the book back to her and explains that his father is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company—meaning Maury both has a father and is extremely wealthy. In this instance of situational irony, the white teacher ignorantly assumes any Black student at RAD receives financial aid and that they have grown up with none of the privileges of the white students.
NBA2K Deluxe (Dramatic Irony)
Because Jordan's family isn't very wealthy, Jordan usually won't receive a video game until the store has discounted the title to below fifty dollars. However, his dad splurges on the newest release of NBA2K, a basketball video game. In an instance of dramatic irony, Jordan thanks his parents and tells them Liam just got him a pair of salmon-pink shorts as a joke. What the reader sees—and Jordan's parents don't—is that Liam has already given him the “Super-Duper Millennium Prestige Gold Edition” deluxe edition of NBA2K.
Metaphor vs. Simile (Situational Irony)
In the book's final scene, Jordan's parents pick him up from his last day of the school year at RAD. His neighborhood friends Kirk, Kenny, and Carlos are waiting on the Banks's front steps. As Jordan sets off to play basketball, he tells friends that his grandpa always says friends are like training wheels in that they keep you from falling down. Like a know-it-all, Jordan explains that this is a metaphor, something he learned about in English class. However, his friends correct him, saying it's a simile, not a metaphor, since it's a comparison using the word "like." In this instance of situational irony, Craft shows that Jordan's private school education does not mean he is always smarter than his friends in the public system.
