Streetball Is Life

From award-winning YA author Paul Volponi comes the true story of his unforgettable summer spent proving himself as a New York City streetballer, only to discover that he had gained skills that would enrich his life off the court, as well. During the sweltering summer of seventeen-year-old Paul Volponi's life, he had only one goal-he wanted, no, needed to become a legitimate and respected New York City street basketball player. It was a passion that consumed him night and day. So he entered through the gates of the Proving Ground, the roughest streetball yard in the city. It was a place where the fouls resembled felonies, and the atmosphere mirrored that of the Roman Coliseum more than Madison Square Garden. It was where teens and adults contested pickup games with a ferocity seemingly greater than that of the NBA Finals. The Proving Ground was a difficult place to cultivate friendships and an easy environment to make enemies. Streetball Is Life is the story of Paul's summer-long initiation at the Proving Ground. It is a testament of a teenager who wanted more than anything else to earn his stripes in streetball society. Only what he didn't understand at the time was that this experience would deliver to him, as it does today for so many teenagers, a set of skills that would enhance his life far beyond the boundaries of a basketball court.