Expensive Basketball

by Serrano, Shea

• ISBN13: 9781538755228
• ISBN10: 153875522X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-10-28
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Rap Year Book and Basketball (and Other Things), a witty & fun reexamination of some of the most iconic—read: “expensive”—players, moments, and games from the NBA. 

Everything in basketball is measured. Everything in basketball is counted, quantified, and computed. And yet, no matter how expansive the list of various pinpoint-specific statistical categories gets, some basketball things remain uncountable or unquantifiable.

Some moments are more poetry than calculation, rising to art than numerical value. More feeling than data processing. And thus: Expensive Basketball.

From Kobe’s 81-point game to Sue Bird’s crossover, from the majesty of Ray Allen’s legendary 3-pointer to the beautiful mystery of Allen Iverson, Expensive Basketball is an affirmation of feelings.

It’s an affirmation of basketball as virtuosity. It’s an affirmation of how sometimes you watch a person perform on the basketball court and it feels the same way it does when you lie in the grass at night and stare up at the moon for long enough that you start to think about how incredible it is that you really, truly, honestly, actually exist.

Author Biography

Shea Serrano's most recent book, Movies (And Other Things), was, among other things, a #1 New York Times bestseller. His previous book, Basketball (And Other Things) was also a #1 New York Times bestseller and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite reads of the year. His book before that, The Rap Year Book, was also a New York Times bestseller, and was turned into a documentary that aired on AMC. Currently, he is a staff writer for The Ringer where he co-hosts the popular rap podcast No Skips.