#kent babb

Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City by Kent Babb https://amzn.to/3jOKbek 

Showing Off

Blue Orlando

Transgender wrestler Mack Beggs identifies as a male. He just won the Texas state girls title.

CYPRESS, Tex. — Booed and bloody, Mack Beggs dropped to his knees to celebrate. He was, after four wins and two days and all the rest, a state champion.

In a 12-2 victory against Chelsea Sanchez in the 110-pound classification, Beggs ended a highly controversial and dramatic weekend by becoming the first transgender participant to win a Class 6A girls’ state championship in Texas high school wrestling.

“I just witnessed my sport change,” a longtime Texas wrestling coach said moments after Beggs, a 17-year-old junior at Trinity High in Euless whose transition from girl to boy began two years ago and now includes testosterone injections, won a championship.

(Atria Books)

By RJ Casey

I had an Allen Iverson poster up in my childhood room. In it, Number Three was going for an unorthodox layup, hanging almost horizontally in midair to get the ball through the labyrinth of limbs protecting the rim. I rooted for him because he was the epitome of cool when I was in junior high—he had cornrows, he scored a million points a game, he crossed over Jordan! But the coolest of all was his nickname: The Answer. In Kent Babb’s Not a Game, you find out that this nickname is superbly, depressingly ironic. An answer is the last thing Iverson has right now. 

It’s strange to read a biography of someone who’s only forty years old, but when a subject like Iverson has lived so hard, so triumphantly, and then so appallingly, Babb has no problem filling the 300 pages. The chapters alternate between success and failure as the past hurtles closer to the present. This format makes for an agonizing experience, allowing the reader to dissect trends and dangerous motifs that have been reoccurring throughout Iverson’s life. Not a Game is set up for you to see the downfall coming (like Iverson should have), but credit is due to Babb’s research and thoroughness, because you never quite realize how bad it’s actually going to get. 

I give praise to Babb for telling both sides of Iverson’s story in equal depth. A man who kept in touch with supportive tutors and coaches that were there for him in the past, he also showed up to court dates drunk. He took care of his best friend’s three kids after their father died tragically, yet he never attended any of his own children’s school or sporting events. Iverson was a philanthropic charity organizer and a heartless spousal abuser. I know that there are two sides to each coin, but that coin was worth 150 million dollars and Iverson wasted it all on cars and Coronas at P.F. Chang’s. Never have heroes. 

Babb writes, “Relationships within pro sports are dependent on everyone offering everyone else a blank slate, the sins of the past behind them.” Not a Game explains what happens when that slate won’t wipe clean anymore. Too much ill will and bad karma have grimed up the works. 

Not a Game reads like both a tragic obituary (I truly hope it’s not) and a Greek myth. On the court Iverson eluded defenders like Hermes, carried mediocre teams on his back like Atlas, but is most akin to Sisyphus. At one time, through sheer will and intensity, Allen Iverson got the boulder to the top of ledge. Unfortunately for him, his family, and all of us, he lost his grip and let it roll back down again, squashing him flat.

Allen Iverson Was NOT Drunk During His 2002 “Practice” Rant

“Drunk” is a dangerous word. The term is defined as being affected by alcohol to the extent of losing control of one’s faculties or behavior. It is a dangerous word, because it is not quantifiable. What qualifies as “drunk”? 1 drink, 2 drinks, 1 shot, 2 shots? Without being quantifiable, labeling someone as drunk is really just a matter of opinion. Sometimes that opinion is obvious and correct…

“Practice” was a “flat out lie”

“Not a game”