[ARETE] Bradburd review

[Duncan Jamieson]

All,
Please find below and attached Myles Schrag's review of Roy Bradburd, *All
the Dreams We've Dreamed: A stroy of hoops and handguns on Chicago's West
Side.*
Thanks
Duncan

*All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed: A Story of Hoops and Handguns on Chicago’s
West Side*,

by Rus Bradburd



Review by Myles Schrag, Soulstice Publishing



How fitting last week for me to sit down and write my review of Rus
Bradburd’s *All The Dreams We’ve Dreamed: A Story of Hoops and Handguns on
Chicago’s West Side*, and perk up when a woman on my local NPR station
recited Langston Hughes’ heart-wrenching poem, “Let America Be America
Again,”  from whose words Bradburd based his title.

I was already pondering the takeaways of Bradburd’s 2018 book, which was
released in paperback earlier this year, in the context of the tragic death
of George Floyd by Minneapolis police that has led to a swell of protests
around the United States and renewed conversations about race in our
society. Bradburd’s book is not about police violence, though there is some
of that, along with a better understanding of police relations with
citizens and school officials in Chicago’s dangerous West Side
neighborhoods. Reading *All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed* in these turbulent
times is to be reminded that American racism and riots don’t appear out of
a vacuum. Inertia and indifference are powerful factors that kill dreams.

At the macro level, the book is about the violence in inner-city Chicago.
That story has been told many times, and quite well. Add in the basketball
overlay and again, been there, done that … successfully (including in the
ground-breaking documentary *Hoop Dreams*, whose influence oozes all over
Bradburd’s story in setting, themes, and even some casting crossovers). *All
the Dreams We’ve Dreamed* is a masterful and heartfelt story of a
neighborhood, a school, and a basketball team caught in a web of violence.
But the through-line of the author, a former coach of the book’s
protagonist, Shawn Harrington, trying to help that player, creates a rich
opportunity to dive deeper into the societal frustrations that keep
conditions in a place like Chicago’s West Side mired in hopelessness.

Bradburd injects himself into the story with a display of self-awareness
that is refreshing and rare for college sports. He provides thoughtful
details about a host of dysfunctions—fickle healthcare insurers and
feckless administrators, the contemporary gang landscape, high school
sports transfer rules, to name a few—but he doesn’t spare the ethical
morass that is college athletic recruiting and his past role in
perpetuating a transactional system that treats athletes as disposable. His
doggedness on behalf of Harrington feels like penance and is essential to
understanding the heart of this book. Bradburd’s honesty is admirable; he
never fully lets himself off the hook.

This review is purposely vague in plot details. The map in the front matter
of Harrington’s neighborhood where he grew up and played ball at Marshall
High School will tell you plenty about killings and shootings (my
recommendation is that you flip past it until you’ve finished reading the
book). But even if you know the broad strokes of what is going to happen,
Bradburd deftly leaves multiple storylines hanging to create narrative
tension. He travels back two decades to provide vital background to his
connection with Harrington and Chicago hoops before culminating in his
investigation into why one player was killed; a desperate PR campaign for
his friend that includes the likes of former LSU coach Dale Brown and his
star Shaquille O’Neal, journalist Bryant Gumbel, former US Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan, and many others; and finally a climactic trial.

The randomness of the tragedies is distressing, even if you believe you
understand the extent of Chicago’s violent reputation. However, strangely,
you will find something to smile about in this book, primarily thanks to
Harrington and his family and the two Marshall coaching legends to whom the
book is dedicated. Their moral compass is what we have to cling to as we
follow Harrington and Bradburd’s journey.

Bradburd ends with strands of hope, much like Hughes’ poem, whose
penultimate stanza proclaims that in spite of centuries of broken promises:


*O, yes,*

*I say it plain,*

*America never was America to me,*

*And yet I swear this oath—*

*America will be!*



We need authors of Bradburd’s caliber to tell more stories like this—no
matter how often or how well similar stories already have been told—in
hopes we will pay attention and someday not have such a distressing volume
of them to tell. Bradburd’s contribution deserves to be part of that
collection, with distinction.


Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past

Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.
Professor of History
Book Review Editor
*AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature*
Ashland University
Ashland, OH  44805
USA
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