In the author’s note to Life In The G: Minor League Basketball and the Relentless Pursuit of the NBA (University of Nebraska Press), Alex Squadron says that writing a book about the Birmingham Squadron – a club that shares the New Yorker’s name – “felt like destiny.”
“I had an idea to write a book about the NBA G League,” he writes. “And there happened to be a team (a brand new one too!) called the Squadron. I mean, come on! It would have been far more ridiculous to ignore something like that, right?”
Whether destiny or just a happy accident, the result is one of the best basketball books I’ve ever read.
Life In The G chronicles the ups and downs of players trying to parlay their time in the NBA’s developmental league into a shot (and sometimes second or third shot) at the big-time, showing both the importance of the feeder league (Birmingham is the New Orleans Pelicans’ affiliate) and the hard work its athletes put into it.
I met Alex during the infancy of the team, when it held workouts for the 2021-22 season at Bill Burch Gymnasium on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College. While I was there to do some quick-hit interviews, he was imbedded with the club and putting in the real work.
And man, it shows in this book.
The players he highlights most are former Auburn standout Jared Harper, Zylan Cheatham, Joe Young and Malcolm Hill, all who were integral to the G League Squadron’s first year in the Magic City.
Their paths to the feeder circuit were wildly different, but their stories all compelling. Alex makes you feel like you were tagging along for the entire journey – from training camp and games to ultimately saying goodbye to Birmingham at season’s end.
There is also plenty of ink devoted to Ryan Pannone, Birmingham’s coach for the 2021-22 campaign and now an assistant for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Pannone is not only a nice guy (he’s favorably compared to Ted Lasso in Life In The G) but he is also one of the most knowledgeable basketball people to ever pick up a whistle. I was fascinated with how Alex explained how he put together the team, coached it, and did everything in his power to give them the best opportunity to succeed.
Early in the book, Pannone describes the G League this way:
“Be prepared for the unpreparable. The reality is that for most of these guys, everything is worse. If you’re coming from a Division 1 school, how we travel is worse; what we eat is worse; our facilities are worse; our gear is worse. But being in the G League is about guys who love to hoop. You have to be easygoing. You have to be able to go with the flow.”
Certainly, for someone like me who is interested in Birmingham’s professional sports past, present and future, this is a must-read – a book I wish I’d written. But you don’t have to be from Birmingham to appreciate it.
Shoot, even if you just have a casual interest in basketball, you’ll find plenty to like, because it’s as much about pride and perseverance as it is the sport.
But if you love the G League – and I do – this quick and fun read gives you an even greater appreciation of it.
And once Birmingham reaches the end of its first season – a playoff loss to the Texas Legends – you realize how important that inaugural season was to all the men who made it happen.
Cheatham summed it up this way:
“Just that quick, it’s over,” Cheatham described. “It’s very abrupt. There are guys you get close with, you connect with, you bond with. To know that – damn, you’re about to go on with your life, I’m about to go on with mine, and we probably will never play on the same team again. It’s just over that quickly.”
With a forward by longtime G League player Andre Ingram, Life In the G is a heartfelt tribute to a circuit that continues to get better and better.
It’s a great book by a great young author, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Here’s a link to purchase the book: https://www.amazon.com/Life-League-Basketball-Relentless-Pursuit/dp/1496235851