The Boys of Dunbar

June 20, 2016
The 1981–1982 Poets, the basketball team of Baltimore’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, reside in sports folklore, as Danois explains in this tedious history. Three future NBA players—Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues, David Wingate, and Reggie Williams—started with the Poets that season, and one future NBA All-Star (the late Reggie Lewis, who was a captain on the Boston Celtics) came off the bench. Coach Bob Wade, who happened to be an ex-NFL player, refused to have his players coast on their talent. Instead, the Baltimore native conducted practices where players carried bricks and sandbags to teach their bodies to combat fatigue. Danois, editor-in-chief of the Shadow League, recounts the memorable season and its resonance in a city whose salad days had shriveled into unemployment, drugs, and violence. The anecdotes, including the 5’3” Bogues astonishing crowds with his formidable abilities and Wingate’s struggle to balance basketball with caring for his disabled mother, only go so far. Danois rarely talks to anyone outside of Dunbar’s squad, and the season-long narrative lacks a hook beyond the team’s dominance. Danois’s attempts to branch out—profiling Baltimore’s youth basketball organizers and fallen legends—do little to reduce the insular flimsiness.

September 1, 2016

In this chronicle of the Dunbar Poets' 1981-82 boys high school basketball season, Danois, editor of the sports website the Shadow League, debuts with mixed results. Four remarkable players from the Poet's team that season would go on to play in the NBA, an impressive feat. Readers get to know the athletes, including fan-favorite petite (5'3") Muggsy Bogues before his rise to stardom. Head coach Bob Wade is presented as tough as nails, one who believes students' education is as important as their jump shot. Danois spends a lot of time on game descriptions. Despite a few bumps in the road, the season is not surprisingly a success. It is evident that the author weighed heavily on player and coach interviews. Readers interested in high school basketball might find this all-star team entertaining, while those in the Baltimore area will have the chance to relive some glory days. VERDICT What makes a special sports book is that it can get beyond the event to tell a more human story. There isn't much more to this account than the play-by-play of a fantastic team having a great season.--Keith Klang, Port Washington P.L., NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016
The numbers say everything about the magical run by the boys' basketball team of Baltimore's Dunbar High School in the 198182 and 198283 seasons: a 60-0 record, 10 players going to major college programs, 4 reaching the NBA, and 3 of those being first-round picks. None had a greater impact on the program than their leader, the diminutive Tyrone Muggsy Bogues, who at 5'3 became the shortest player ever in the NBA, while carving out a stellar 14-year career there. Inspirational stories can be found everywhere in high-school sports, but Dunbar and its legendary coach, Bob Wade, stand out for the sheer talent to converge at Dunbar those two seasons, for Wade's success at maintaining the players' focus on academics and basketball amid the poverty and violent crime that permeated their tough East Baltimore neighborhood, and for Muggsy. As author Danois, who delivers a solid story that pretty much tells itself, writes, We'll see more Michael Jordans before we see another Muggsy Bogues. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)