When I found out Hanif Abdurraqib’s next book was about basketball, LeBron James, and Ohio, I took joyful note. Concerns about any obligatory table-setting exposition to placate casual sports fandom are unwarranted here. There’s Always This Year is not your typical sports book. On the first page, Abdurraqib asks us to hold his hand: “You are putting your hand into my open palm, and I am resting my one free hand atop yours, and I would like to commiserate here and now, about our enemies.” Hard to imagine a beat writer like Brian Windhorst leading off in such a heady, metafictional manner. Plus, James goes unmentioned until page 30.
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