Michael Hatchett
A&E Editor
In the 1995 NBA Draft, Kevin Garnett was selected with the fifth overall pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves and became the first NBA player drafted directly out of high school in 20 years. He would inspire a trend of high schoolers who skipped college to join the pros that would continue until the NBA instituted an age minimum in 2005, effectively requiring all players to attend college or another developmental program for at least one year.
In Jonathan Abrams’ book Boys Among Men: How The Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution, published in March, the author provides an inside look at this fascinating 10-year span of basketball history.
Abrams, who has written for The New York Times, Grantland and The Los Angeles Times, brilliantly captures the players, coaches and executives who all played a role in this time period. He provides an impressive amount of insight into the more ludicrous aspects of being a young star, detailing the absurd shoe deals and ridiculous sponsorships.
He begins the book by briefly focusing on Moses Malone, who was the first high schooler to skip college and play for the American Basketball Association in 1974, then shifting to Kevin Garnett, followed by Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Dwight Howard and LeBron James. He traces the players back to their elementary school days and gives the reader an inside look at the lives they lived before the NBA. He discusses the nature of a “prodigy” and all the blessings and curses that come with being naturally gifted in athletic competition.
Abrams would have a lot of material to work with even if he only discussed one of these aforementioned All-Stars but he isn’t just focused on those who made the transition successfully — he dedicates dozens of pages to players that couldn’t handle the transition. This is one of the most enthralling and empathetic aspects of the book, as you read heart-breaking excerpts from interviews with people like Bill Willoughby and Taj McDavid, players who either made it to the NBA and burned out or never made it at all.
Furthermore, Abrams effectively goes beyond the game to tell a story of teenagers struggling (and only sometimes succeeding) to fit in with men. In one compelling passage, Abrams highlights the confusion and loneliness of being a teenager in the NBA, competing with adults for their positions: “[The teenagers] needed more ears for all the people who tried lending advice or gaining their favor, only they never had the opportunity find out who they actually were and what they stood for. The 32-year-old man with the locker next to them did not want to be a friend or a mentor. That man wanted the scant minutes of playing time the kids did receive, so he could furnish his family with the same lifestyle for a couple more years.”
Abrams does an excellent job of putting his reader in the shoes of those players, and while it’s weird to think that phenoms like Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant could ever feel like outcasts, Abrams illustrates that before they were legends, they were just kids.
They were naturally gifted and wickedly talented but they were still scared, nervous 18-year-old kids. Abrams’ portraits of Garnett shaking with nerves before an NBA workout and Bryant sobbing after losing a summer camp competition help sports fans take a step back and realize that we’re all human.