Structure

The structure of the book is both linear and recursive, balancing an approximate chronology with frequent returns to earlier memories and cultural touchstones. On its broadest level, the book traces a trajectory from the teenage years of LeBron James and of Abdurraqib himself, through the course of their diverging lives, and culminates in the Cavaliers’ 2016 championship victory. This loose progression establishes a temporal spine, allowing the book to move toward a collective moment of triumph that anchors the narrative. Within this broad frame, the structure is less straightforward. Abdurraqib consistently interrupts the flow of time with memories of childhood, meditations on police violence, digressions into analysis of music and film, his own poetry, and portraits of figures who shaped his community even if they never reached national fame.

This layering produces a structure that resists being read as a conventional memoir or sports history. Instead, it functions...