Expensive Basketball

By: Shea Serrano

Narrated by: Cary Hite

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Year Book and Basketball (and Other Things), a clever and inventive examination of some of basketball's most iconic players, moments, games, and more.

Everything in basketball is measured. Everything in basketball is counted, and quantified, and computed. And yet, no matter how expansive the list of various pinpoint-specific statistical categories gets, some basketball things remain uncountable, and unquantifiable.

Some moments are more poetry than calculation; more art than numerical value; more feeling than data processing. And thus: Expensive Basketball.

From the final 196 seconds of Kobe Bryant’s playing career to the Sue Bird backpedal, from the erosive terror of Tim Duncan to the Larry Bird memory carousel, Expensive Basketball is an affirmation of feelings.

It’s an affirmation of basketball as virtuosity.

It’s an affirmation of how sometimes you watch a person perform on the basketball court and it feels the same way it does when you lie in the grass at night and stare up at the moon for long enough that you start to think about how incredible it is that you really, truly, honestly, actually exist.

Critic reviews

"Serrano is one of the few writers whose on-the-page enthusiasm is infectious, who can describe a particular spin move executed during a regular season game from 2006 and successfully transfer his excitement about it to the reader—even if you didn’t watch that game, never cared about that team, are only hearing about that player for the first time."—LitHub, Most Anticipated List

Decent book; Great reader

I really liked Basketball and Other Things and enjoy Shea Serrano on podcasts. This book is nowhere near as fun as his other books. There are definitely things he writes in here that are laugh out loud funny. And I agree with many of his conclusions. But he’s very biased in favor of the last 35 years, and ignores things from before that. It can also be a little repetitive and there were sometimes too many stats. I found myself skipping through that in the A’ja Wilson and Tracy Mcgrady chapters.

The narrator was excellent. He really understood the assignment and Shea’s tone. He truly enriched the read, especially in the chapter on Jordan’s connection to the number 6. It’s a sendup of the terrible film the Number 23, and it’s both great writing and great reading.

This Book Is Fantastic

Basketball is amazing and Shea Serrano writing about it makes the sport that much better.

Shea Serrano DOES IT yet again

Expectations were high with this new book, but they were hugely exceeded. A great sequel from Basketball & other things with interesting concepts and analysis of beloved teams, players & moments, just exceptional.