Shooting Stars

June 22, 2009
James, the highest-paid athlete (including endorsement deals) in the NBA, turns to Bissinger (Friday Night Lights
) to tell the story of his meteoric rise as a high school basketball player, when he and his teammates took a private school in Ohio to state and national championships. Looking back at the media circus that put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated
at 17, James accuses the media of overexposing him for their own benefit. It feels like the young superstar is working out some grudges against the athletic officials who challenged his amateur status after he accepted two jerseys from a sporting goods store as a gift, along with his school for failing to take his side in the controversy, but Bissinger smoothes out the rough edges, letting very little anger show. That polish is the as-told-to memoir's biggest problem—despite stylistic flourishes like shifting to present tense to write about James's big games, his passion seems muted. James hits all the right moments, from the childhood promise he made to himself to put Akron on the map to the graduation day photo with his teammates, but it's a story readers hear rather than feel.

September 1, 2009
James may be the best basketball player in the world right now; he's definitely one of the most popular. And Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights" became a national sensation, spawning a movie and a successful television series. They should make for a powerful combination as they present the story of James's amazing Akron, OH, high school basketball team, which won multiple state titles and a national championship. Many readers will be interested to know the details surrounding his suspension during his senior year for accepting free "throw-back" jerseys from a local sports dealer and his mother's controversial purchase of a $50,000 Hummer. Unlike "Friday Night Lights", few details of the lives of either James himself or his best friends/teammates, the "Fab Five," are given. VERDICT People will want to read this because of James's star power and the controversies he addresses. Both fans of James and of books on high school sports will find the story of the games, the players, and the coaches engaging, but they may be disappointed with matter-of-fact game descriptions that fail to build much excitement.Todd Spires, Bradley Univ. Lib., Peoria, IL

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2009
NBA superstar James and Vanity Fair contributor and acclaimed sportswriter Bissinger (Three Nights in August, 2005, etc.) profile James's championship high-school basketball team.

Although Bissinger's authorial stamp can be somewhat heavy at times, there's still plenty of conversational snap in James's modest but passionate first-person voice. The co-authors adequately humanize all five starting members of Ohio's St.Vincent-St. Mary Shooting Stars. Of course James is the focus here, and he provides ample biographical details about his fatherless upbringing in the Akron housing projects. James proved to be not only a gifted athlete—effortlessly excelling in both football and basketball—but also an honor-roll student. His teammates were an eccentric mixed bag, but all hailed from economically underprivileged backgrounds and ended up on scholarship at the mostly white private high school. As a result, they were often considered traitors by the black community, while never feeling wholly accepted in white society. It was James's remarkable individual play that eventually brought national attention to the team. During his senior season, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and suddenly his team was pushed into the national spotlight—with all the attendant accolades, pressures and pitfalls. When James accepted $850 in merchandise from a local Cleveland clothing shop—in violation of an obscure and rarely enforced rule—he was temporarily suspended and then dragged into a court hearing. The inspirational heart of the book is James and his teammates' gutsy performance in the face of the tornado-like media frenzy. The co-authors dramatically re-create the minute-by-minute highlights of key games in St.V's national-championship drive, but they also interject some serious social commentary on the vindictiveness, greed and exploitation that can infect the seemingly pristine world of amateur sports.

A simple but moving story about the double-edged sword of precocious athletic talent and the redemptive power of teamwork.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2009
LeBron James is the best basketball player in the world. Sorry Kobe. He entered the NBA immediately after high school and has been piling up awards ever since (including Most Valuable Player for the 2009 season). But the NBA isnt his subject here. Writing with coauthor Bissinger (of Friday Night Lights fame), James recalls his youth, the son of a teenage single mother, growing up poor in Akron, Ohio, and playing basketball for the Shooting Stars, an amateur team whose players formed the nucleus of the St.VincentSt. Marys high-school squad that won Ohio state titles in three of James four prep years. Though theres enough game action described to satisfy hard-core hoopsters, the book is really an extended and heartfelt thank-you to all the people who helped LeBron negotiate the potential minefield of his youth. That group includes fellow players, coaches, his mother, and the family that took him in for a year during a particularly difficult time. A warm, thoughtful memoir by a young man who, it seems clear, will never forget his humble origins.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)