Summer Ball

Danny’s father, Richie Walker, played professional basketball and elite college basketball despite being under six feet tall. He understands what Danny goes through, being shorter, but reminds his son, “‘despite being the size that I am, I still managed to be All-State at Middletown High, get a scholarship out of here to Syracuse, get to be All-America there and become a lottery pick in the NBA’” (1-2). Richie’s mind operates along this type of logic: if you work hard and you want it badly enough, then you can get it. This often adds pressure to Danny’s anxiety about competing against taller, bigger players. This attitude additionally comes across as stubborn, such as when Richie stops talking to Danny, after Danny confesses he faked his injury. His father says, “‘You never fake an injury in sports. Never. You quit before you do that’” (158). He deserts his son again, ending their phone call and Danny remembers his father “[d]idn’t say he loved him. Didn’t wait for Danny to say that to him” (159).

Richie does love Danny, however; he puts pressure on his son because he believes in Danny. Richie also shares Danny’s strong moral compass: he refused to play for Coach Powers, when selecting a college team, and he patterns his life after players with great integrity, just like Danny does. Both Walkers share an animosity towards Coach Powers’ style, with Richie telling Danny, “‘[Powers] hates anybody who thinks basketball is a sport and not chess pieces’” (59). Danny’s father emphasizes hard work, ingenuity, and integrity. In part, this explains his reaction to Danny’s fake injury: to Richie, faking an injury is the lowest form of sportsmanship. Richie suffers an injury to his legs from a career-ending car accident and continues to struggle with pain; therefore, he knows how life-changing a real injury can be. He is angry that his son would disrespect such a serious matter. By holding Danny accountable, Richie believes he will raise a great player and a great human being. Richie returns to his son’s side for the championship game; when it matters, Richie, like Danny, steps up and does the right thing.

Danny’s mother, Ali Walker, works as an English teacher. She corrects Danny’s grammar and even corrects Coach Powers’ grammar when she finds the latter yelling at her son. Danny’s mother also volunteers for a charity. Though friendly and compassionate, Ali Walker has the same fierce spirit as her husband and son. In fact, Danny might just as easily get his strong disposition partly from Ali, and not just from his father. When she confronts Coach Powers, Danny notices that “[s]he was smiling pleasantly, but Danny knew the look, it was the same as if she was hitting [Powers] right in the teeth” (231). Ali always tempers her ferocity with civility, providing another great example for Danny to follow.

Ali serves in a more traditional role of parent to Danny than his father: she makes sure he brushes his teeth, gets his haircuts and packs properly. She also understands her son better off the court. When Lamar provokes Danny to fight, “[Danny] just kept moving, thinking as he did about an expression his mom liked to use in class when one kid would say he’d only gotten into a beef because another kid was bothering him or her. Next time, she’d say, do not engage” (195).

Ali’s cool head offers Danny a valuable way to be the bigger man. Ali also shows strength of character when she raises her son by herself, before Richie reenters their lives. She infuses Danny with bravery, confidence, and integrity, while working hard to support him. While his father tells him to work hard to win, Ali concerns herself less with basketball and more with Danny’s emotional well-being.

Will is Danny’s best friend and teammate. He is a movie-obsessed prankster that often alleviates Danny’s anxiety. For example, when Danny suggests the boys sneak off to visit Tess, “Will Stoddard smiled then, looking at Danny, then Ty, then back at Danny, his eyes, as always, full of fun and trouble at the same time” (124).

Will takes basketball a little less seriously than the other characters; when Coach Powers snaps at Will, asking him if he thinks something is funny, Will replies, “‘No sir,’ […] ‘Just fun’” (212). While at Tess’s, Will ends a serious conversation between Tess and Danny, rubbing his face on the window while they talk. Will makes obnoxious faces, doing, “[a]nything, Danny knew, to get a laugh. Anything and everything” (138). This levity helps Danny get out of his own head.  

According to Danny, Ty Ross, his other best friend, is the best basketball player in town. Ty, ever humble, thinks Danny is the best player in town. As the two have great respect for each other, they work like a dynamic duo on the court and beyond. When the two row across the lake, to visit Tess, “Danny and Ty were […] in perfect sync with their paddling as if they were on some kind of two-man rowing team in the Olympics” (129). Though quieter, Ty supports Danny just like Will, responding to Danny’s anxiety: “‘On the worst day of your life,’ Ty said quietly, meaning it, ‘you’re an A-minus’” (20). 

Ty also understands basketball as well as Danny and plays at the same level as Rasheed; the day Ty loses in the semi-finals, Rasheed acknowledges Ty’s skill, saying the next time the two face off, Ty might be just as likely to win. Ty also helps Danny see his shortness as a strength when he tells Danny “‘Bring the ball down, and you turn a big guy into a little guy’” (199). Danny uses Ty’s wisdom to turn the tables on Lamar and win the championship game.

Tall, blond Tess Hewitt is as kind and intelligent as she is beautiful, which is why Danny likes her. Danny and Tess have many bonds, the first of which being they both play sports. Tess is an excellent tennis player and understands what it means not only to play a sport, but play at an elite level.

Tess reminds the reader of Danny’s mother: kind, but strong. Danny notes, when he hurts Tess’s feelings, “he had never seen Tess cry” (25). When Danny warns Tess about Lamar, she replies, “‘Don’t worry, big fella, I can take care of myself’” (183). She also exhibits a no-nonsense attitude that helps Danny gain a better perspective. At one point, Tess simply tells Danny Coach Powers is wrong: “Just like that. Like she was saying, Case closed, done deal, next question” (137). According to Tess, Coach Powers does not know Danny; therefore, he cannot make such an important judgment; this lesson reminds Danny to regain his self-confidence. Will refers to Tess as Danny’s “conscience’” (141), and Tess does assume that role in the novel, helping Danny find positive things to build on.

Will, Ty, and Danny meet Tarik Meminger while traveling to Right Way. Although physically imposing, “Tarik Meminger, from the Bronx, seemed to be permanently smiling” (29).Tarik shares many characteristics with Will: friendly, inventive, funny. Tarik uses a number of slang words, teaching the Middletown boys some new terms. Danny states, “He seemed to have his own language, the way Will did. But already you could tell Will liked Tarik’s better” (43). Will even starts to adopt some of Tarik’s phrases. Tarik is both upbeat and wise. He proves himself loyal to Danny, agreeing to run Danny’s play, instead of Coach Powers. This allows Will to take the game-winning shot. Tarik also offers some telling insight on people. For example, he notes Coach Powers “‘just plain forgot what he loved about the game in the first place’” (207). 

Danny finds out about Lamar Parish, a basketball prodigy, from the other boys at camp. Recruited from middle school, Danny expresses his disbelief: “‘You’re saying that this coach recruited a seventh grader?’” (94). So great is Lamar’s talent, scouts are already looking at the boy; his skill earns a place for him at an elite boarding school. Though not a nice person, Danny admits that “[a]s much as [he] knew Lamar was a bad guy, it was like watching a pro take over a game” (161) when Lamar gets on the court.

In some ways, Lamar suffers from the same stereotypes as Rasheed. When Lamar calls Zach and Danny hobbits, “Tarik would say later he was surprised Lamar had even seen a Lord of the Rings movie” (165). In most ways, Lamar acts and reacts poorly. Danny states, “Lamar was a basketball bully, one who knew he could get away with acting however he wanted, acting as mean as he wanted or as obnoxious as he wanted toward the other team or his own team, just because he was better than everybody else” (95). Danny’s observation proves true: when Lamar hits Zach and destroys his Zach’s basketball, Zach, Rasheed, and Danny receive punishment, while Lamar walks free. He even uses his excellent playing to escape punishment for breaking Tess’s camera, something he freely admits to having done, once out of the administrator’s office. According to Danny, Lamar also plays selfishly: “He didn’t care about defense the way he didn’t care about anything except shooting. And himself” (229). In the end, Danny uses Lamar’s cockiness and immaturity against him on the court.

Zach Fox, from Connecticut, is an 11-year-old basketball phenomenon. Miserably unhappy at camp, Zach worries that he will not be able to play as well as everyone expects him to play. Nick Pinto describes Zach as“really small, but I watched him play a bit yesterday, and the little sucker’s fast. And good” (39). Although Danny agrees with Nick, he also thinks Zach lacks confidence. When Danny talks with Zach about camp, the younger boy almost starts crying, but “instead of crying, he grabbed the basketball at the end of his bed and practically sprinted out the backdoor” (47). When Zach becomes upset, playing basketball is one of the few things that calms him down. Zach also carries a basketball with him, until Lamar destroys it. Similar to Danny, “Even though [Zach] kept saying he didn’t want to be at basketball camp, it was as if having a basketball with him was some kind of security blanket” (82). Danny makes a similar comment about himself later in the novel, when visiting Tess.

Danny’s friendship helps Zach adjust to camp life. When he does, Zach easily wins the championship game for his age group. Zach also grows braver, helping the boys escape punishment after the row across the lake. He even joins Danny on regular workouts: “He was more interested in playing than he was in eating or sleeping or hanging out with kids his own age” (164).

Danny sees Rasheed: “on the court now at Right Way, Rasheed out-jumped everybody for a rebound, put the ball behind his back on the dribble to get himself out of traffic, [and] immediately pulled away from the pack of players around him, both on offense and defense, like he had a gear the rest of them didn’t have” (40). Rasheed’s skills on the court seem otherworldly. For example, in his cool, calm way, “[Rasheed] smiled and put the ball on the floor and did two lightening crossover dribbles—the double that made Danny’s own double crossover look like something that belonged on training wheels” (153). Few players have as much talent as Rasheed, and fewer players have the same amount of drive.

Rasheed’s demeanor impresses adults and campers alike. To Danny, it seems like Coach Powers defers to Rasheed. When Powers advises plays, “Rasheed nodded, as if Coach Powers was really only running the play past him” (152). He also uses his influence to make Coach Powers play Danny. When Lamar taunts him, Rasheed calmly stares Lamar down. After an intimidated Lamar leaves, Danny calls it the best trash talk ever. Rasheed replies, “‘I didn’t say anything,’” which Danny argues is the point: only a person with confidence can put so little effort and come out the victor.

At first, Danny and Rasheed do not get along. Rasheed believes Danny played unfairly the last time the two faced each other, in the travel team championship. However, once the two talk, Danny finds out some surprising things. First, “Rasheed said that most people never got past the way he looked, the hair and the tats. That’s what they called him. Tats” (173). Rasheed confesses his mother makes him get all As in school before he gets any tattoos. One tattoo, Danny learns, memorializes Rasheed’s fallen father, who dies when someone else shoots up a store. Rasheed explains how dangerous his neighborhood is,“telling Danny that basketball was going to be his way out of the neighborhood for him and his mom” (174). Ultimately, Danny finds out how much he and Rasheed have in common: single mothers and big dreams when it comes to basketball. The biggest unifying force for the two boys is how much being a good player and a good person means to each one. Danny tells Tess, “[Rasheed] told me people couldn’t get past his looks, and maybe I couldn’t either, at least at the start. But it turns out he’s more old school than I am” (193). Together, Rasheed and Danny use their skill to win the championship.

A retried college basketball coach, Coach Ed Powers demonstrates a rigid and unpleasant outlook on sport in Summer Ball. He’s quite elderly, so much so that “Danny was almost positive he could hear him creak as he moved” (56). Tarik likens helping Coach Powers to “‘The way you’d help some real old person cross the street. Along the lines of that’” (180), to which the other boys agree. Coach Powers’ domineering attitudes earns him the nickname “Coach My Way.”

Powers holds a grudge against Danny’s father, Richie, who refused to play for Powers’ college team a long time ago. As such, Powers begins to pick on Danny, undermining his confidence and telling Danny to quit basketball. At one point, Coach Powers plays on Danny’s insecurities on a day when he knows Danny is at an emotional low. Powers says, “‘I didn’t see that big travel final the two of you played down in North Carolina, but I heard it was some game until the refs decided it’” (67). Coach Power tries to rob Danny of his successes in order to make Danny feel smaller. Powers also preys on Danny’s insecurity about his height, telling Danny, “‘I just can’t teach you to be as big as you need to be’” (103). Instead of knowing how to get the best from players, like any good coach, Coach Powers betrays his own shortcomings with such a statement. Basketball is not just about height; if Coach Powers can only do well with a big team, then he is not such a great coach.

Coach Powers is also a hypocrite; he tells his team that they will run a ball-sharing offense, but “Coach Powers had Rasheed at the point, anyway, and didn’t seem to mind that even in the big ball-sharing offense, Rasheed still had the ball more than anyone else out there” (66). He glorifies Rasheed, even when Rasheed goes against him and his plans for the good of the team. Coach Powers also demonstrates hypocrisy when he tells Danny to “‘[h]ush now and do something you should do a little more of if you want to improve or learn anything while you’re hear—which means listen’”(101). Coach Powers never listens to anyone but Rasheed. Here, Coach Powers means that players like Danny should listen, but experts like Rasheed and himself can talk over everyone else. Even though Powers spends most of his energy criticizing Danny, when Josh Cameron praises Danny, “Coach Powers pointed at Josh and nodded, like the two of them were in perfect agreement” (206). As soon as Cameron leaves, Powers starts digging into Danny again.

The boys encounter Nick Pinto, a college basketball player from Stonehill College, on the bus to Right Way. Nick remarks that Stonehill is a Division II school, adding, “‘I could have gone to a couple Division-I schools, but I didn’t want to spend four years of college sitting next to the team manager’” (30). Nick, also a shorter player, shows Danny that Division-I schools recruit shorter guys, too. Nick remembers Danny from his championship travel title and forms a quick bond with him. After Danny falls, Nick points out that a shorter player has to get right back out on the court: “‘You know how it is with us little guys, worrying somebody might take out spot. I get knocked down, I bounce right back up’” (116).

When Danny fakes an injury, Nick Pinto is one of the first people to see right through the ploy. He even threatens to tell Zach, who looks up to Danny, in an effort to change Danny’s mind. Nick does not want Danny to give smaller players a bad name. Nick’s integrity also shines when he referees games. For example, though most people give into Lamar’s complaints, Nick says, “‘You play, Lamar. I’ll ref. Let’s see if we can make that work for both of us’” (237). This seems to quiet Lamar down. 

Jeff LeBow, the camp director at Right Way, tries to please people, but works too hard to please Lamar. Even though Lamar is a troublemaker, LeBow uses Lamar’s superstar status as an excuse to let the boy behave in an unsportsmanlike manner. When Lamar complains about being accused of breaking Tess’s camera (which he did break), LeBow tells Danny, “‘Fortunately, I got him calmed down’” (197). When Danny expresses his disappointment, LeBow reminds Danny how important having a player like Lamar is for Right Way’s reputation.

LeBow also tends to blame outside factors ahead of himself. When Danny’s room assignment gets lost, LeBow responds, “Somehow the computer must have gotten confused, the way computers do sometimes, and bumped you right out of there” (35). He also demonstrates this mentality when Danny accuses him of favoritism towards Lamar, responding that he (LeBow) just runs Josh Cameron’s camp, implying the whole thing lies outside his jurisdiction. Finally, when Danny confronts him about the mistake with Danny’s lodgings, Jeff LeBow writes Danny off. Danny thinks, “Jeff smiled, but it was the kind of smile you got from adults when they didn’t want to be having a particular conversation anymore” (36). He then puts Danny off on Nick Pinto, one of the camp’s counselors.