Longshot

April 27, 2009
Allred played basketball with the University of Utah, then Weber State, before eventually joining the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2008, and recounts in folksy, unpretentious prose his long, arduous dream fulfilled to make the NBA. Rendered mostly deaf as an infant, possibly from complications due to his Rh blood incompatibility with his mother, Allred grew up in a fundamentalist polygamist commune in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, founded by his own grandfather who was escaping government persecution for his pluralist beliefs. Infighting among the incestuous group members eventually drove the author's family out, and they settled in Salt Lake City. There the author, who grew to be 6'11", suffering from asthma, and obsessive-compulsive disorder and equipped with hearing aids, began to excel in high school basketball. Recruited on scholarship to Utah, he played three years under the brutally exacting coach, Rick Majerus, only to feel his sense of self slowly extinguished by the coach's abusive practices. Allred's voice is humorously self-deprecating and youthfully winning. Frank about his shortcomings (he had to scrounge for professional gigs in Turkey and elsewhere before hitting a spot in the NBA), he delivers an accessible, competent narrative, with highly unusual details about his Mormon roots.

March 1, 2009
One of the NBA's unlikeliest players recounts his long, strange path to the pros.

Allred isn't the first fundamentalist Mormon to play on professional basketball's biggest stage, but he was the first legally deaf player in the league, and he might have the most inimitable back story. The grandson of revered"prophet" Rulon Allred, founder of a polygamist commune in Pinesdale, Mont., the author grew up in a household with only one mother while his friends had several. After tensions within the community forced his family to flee, they settled with relatives in Utah, where Allred dealt with the double stigma of coming from a polygamist community and being almost entirely deaf. Basketball, however, proved an ideal outlet for the 6'11" teen; it didn't require perfect hearing and productively channeled his rapidly growing obsessive-compulsive disorder. His hard work was rewarded with a scholarship to play for the University of Utah, his favorite college team. That experience ended abruptly during his sophomore year, when verbally abusive coach Rick Majerus allegedly made disparaging remarks about Allred's handicap. After transferring to Weber State and battling his OCD, Allred completed his collegiate eligibility and became a basketball vagabond, accepting offers to play with professional teams in Turkey, France and Spain. Injuries, shady contracts and inconsistent playing dogged him at every stop, and he nearly threw in the towel before signing a $12,000 contract with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA's developmental league. All ended well when Allred impressed scouts and earned a contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, becoming a rookie in the NBA at age 27. His narrative suffers from an identity crisis: Is it a polygamy expos, inspirational story of triumph over adversity, Paul Shirley–esque tale of a basketball outsider, personal journal or basketball chronicle? All of the above, it turns out, and that makes it a welcome departure from cookie-cutter sports autobiographies.

Unfocused but unique.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2009
Yes, Allred made it to the NBA, for three games in the 200708 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. By comparison, Paul Shirley, the original literary basketball gypsy (Can I Keep My Jersey? 2007) played in 18 NBA games over three seasons. Hardly distinguised careers, but there must be something about being tall, introspective, and not quite good enough for the NBA that lends itself to fine writing. Allred, in an ingratiating, self-deprecating style, writes of his Mormon youth in a polygamous community. Remarkably, it was fairly normal by conventional standards. His father had two wives, but one was essentially out of the picture as Allred grew up. He is deaf, though hearing aids help. (One particularly sensitive teacher ascribed his disability to his support for Satan in pre-existence, contending thatdeafness was a lesser punishment from a merciful God.) Allred was a high-school star, then played at Utah and laterin Europeand the NBAs developmental league before finally enjoying his proverbial cup of coffee with the Cavs. His is a genuinely unlikely story, but he relates it with humor, insight, and compassion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)