Squadron, Alex. Life in the G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2023. Pp. 288. $34.95 hardcover and e-book.
Reviewed by Łukasz Muniowski
As Alex Squadron himself points out, the NBA G League is “a place nobody wants to be,” yet every season basketball players crowd to get there. Everything seems to be in transition. The sense of temporariness is something that need not be accepted, but embraced. Players are not there for the money, but the proximity of the NBA. Every game is a chance for a call up. And it is this hopefulness that keeps athletes invested in the league. The fans, though, not so much, as the results seem of little importance.
Squadron presents the conditions in the G League through the Birmingham Squadron, his namesake team. Birmingham joined the league in 2021 as part of expansion, bringing the total number of teams to 30, 28 of which are NBA affiliates.
The G League season begins with the construction of the roster, which is no easy task. Many G League teams are NBA affiliates; they not only must follow directives from the more-established franchises, but also decide between talent and fit. Any player over 18 can attend a tryout, but he needs to cover the participation fee, which ranges from $150 to $250. Chances of landing a special player are rare, but some managed to become G League lifers, like Ron Howard, whose jersey was retired by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, or Andre Ingram, who stayed in the league for 14 years, dating back to when it was called the D League. D stood for development; G stands for Gatorade, the main sponsor. Along with the corporate endorsement came a sense of seriousness, in regard to roster construction and media coverage.
While the games are played in front of 200 fans, they still are professional contests––something which even the hardest workout cannot imitate. NBA-level decisions negatively impact the efforts of coaches and executives, who preach the importance of team effort and team success, but have to change their strategies and rotations on the fly, often finding out on game day that they have to give minutes to promising NBA players.
Squadron’s book is filled with colorful, interesting characters, the most captivating being head coach Ryan Pannone. A basketball mastermind with unparalleled knowledge of the game who cares so much, the reader has no other option but to feel for him. The author characterizes him as a Ted Lasso-like character, just more knowledgeable. His motto when it comes to the G League can be summed up as “embracing the suckiness,” accepting that things happen, money is lacking and things rarely go according to plan. As adversities pile up, so do the possibilities to develop characteristics necessary to survive in the world of professional sports. Because make no mistake about it, despite the underlying and ever-present humor in the book, it depicts G League players as professionals.
And they deserve the respect reserved for professional players… nah, NBA players.
Łukasz Muniowski recieved his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Warsaw. He is the author of Three-Pointer! A 40-Year NBA History (McFarland, 2020), Narrating the NBA: Representations of Leading Players after the Michael Jordan Era (Lexington, 2021),and The Sixth Man: A History of the NBA Off the Bench (McFarland, 2021).
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