Summer Ball

In Mike Lupica’s Summer Ball, published in 2007, 13-year-old Danny Walker heads to an elite basketball summer camp called Right Way. Here, he will match his nationally-recognized skills against some of the best young basketball players in the country. The New York Times-bestselling novelpicks up where Lupica’s previous novel, Travel Team, leaves off: Walker, cut from his local Middletown basketball travel team because he’s too short, leads his new team to the seventh-grade national championship. Using his particular brand of talent and sportsmanship, Walker defies expectation once againin Summer Ball.

After a stunning championship win, Danny’s team experiences a mediocre season. This dampens Danny’s previous high from the championship. Danny then begins to dwell on his height again, worried that the taller players will outperform him at camp and in high school. Despite encouragement from his best friends and teammates, Ty Ross and Will Stoddard, Danny faces basketball camp with the wrong attitude. Danny usually rises to any challenge. However, he lets his height undermine him before he even steps onto the court. At the same time, Danny believes his crush, Tess Hewitt, will fall into the arms of new, talltennis prodigy Scott Welles.

Heading to Right Way camp with a defeatist’s attitude proves self-fulfilling. Instead of seeing challenges to overcome, Danny sees obstacles he cannot beat. Accordingly, he runs into an old rival, Rasheed Hill, a Baltimore player with the skill and height to make any player jealous. Danny faced Rasheed in the championship and Rasheed clearly holds a grudge over his loss to Danny. When the two get assigned to the same team at Right Way, the Celtics, Danny gets the impression Rasheed hates him. To make matters worse, Rasheed appears to be the clear favorite of the Celtics’ coach, Ed Powers. Danny tries to impress Coach Powers, but seemingly to no avail.

After a number of unimpressive plays, Danny’s worst fears seem confirmed. Each time he runs, a faster player beats him. Each time he shoots, a taller boy blocks him. Without the ear of the coach, Danny’s impressive basketball knowledge also goes to waste. Coach Powers tells Danny he does not have what it takes to be a competitive basketball player. Only Zach Fox, another camper, provides Danny with some hope: Zach looks up to Danny, and Danny, in turn, becomes Zach’s mentor.

Despite his friendship with Zach, Danny feels like the laughingstock of Right Way camp. He plans the unthinkable: he decides to fake an injury to return home early. Normally a player with consummate class, humiliation and self-doubt lead Danny down a coward’s path. As a result, Danny loses the respect of the basketball player who means the most to him: his father.

A pep talk from Tess makes Danny think twice about compromising his ethics. Tess happens to be on vacation next to Danny’s basketball camp, and an escape to her cabin provides Danny with a welcome escape from the camp’s pressures. She even gives Danny some perspective after the two talk, reassuring him that he has what it takes to compete at Right Way. He returns, ready to build his relationship with his team and work on new shots to get around his taller adversaries. Danny’s greatest antagonist is the bully Lamar Parrish. Throughout the novel, Danny battles Lamar’s selfishness both on and off the court.

The other adversary Danny must face is himself: he must overcome his own crippling self-doubt. Once he does, positive things start to happen. In defending Zach against Lamar’s bullying, Danny earns the respect of Rasheed, and the two boys decide to put any remaining differences aside and start working together. Rasheed uses his influence over Coach Powers to get Danny more playing time, and the Celtics begin to flourish, working their way through the quarter and semi-finals and facing Lamar and his team in the finals.

For Danny, this championship game brings together everything and everyone that matters to him: Tess and Ali, Danny’s beloved mother, his loyal friends, and Rasheed. This spotlight also provides the opportunity to finish his ongoing rivalry with Lamar and prove himself to Coach Powers. Danny can also win back his father’s respect. Ultimately, this game represents Danny’s belief in himself: to win, Danny must believe he deserves to be at Right Way with the best basketball players in the country. Once Danny believes in himself, he shows everyone what an elite ballplayer, even a short one, can do.