This account of Boston boys' basketball powerhouse Charlestown High School inevitably recalls the seminal book and movie Hoop Dreams, since all three follow the challenges of at-risk, inner-city black players to succeed in high-school basketball and beyond. But if Boston Globe reporter Swidey references the general theme of Hoop Dreams, his focus is less on players and more on the school's longtime coach, Jack O'Brien, whose teams have been perennial state champs and whose players, many from highly dysfunctional homes, customarily move on to college. Swidey follows O'Brien's 2004 05 Charlestown season in detail, seamlessly working in key players, parents, school officials, even opposing coaches and their teams. Interestingly, he doesn't end with the team's season-ending championship but rather records the prosaic aftermath. As heroic as O'Brien is in transforming his young men into champions, Swidey shows him to be all too human in his failings. Like Hoop Dreams, this captivating account transcends its time and place.

Friday Night Lights meets Boyz n the Hood on the mean streets of Boston. Obsessive basketball coach Jack O'Brien was a beloved mainstay at Charlestown High School, leading its team to multiple championships. What made his accomplishments so impressive was the fact that his team was comprised of young men from the projects who were bussed into school. During the 2004-05 season documented here, Charlestown was led by Jason "Hood" White, a cornrowed guard who, when he was three, was run over and almost killed by a crackhead on her way to get a fix. As important as it was for O'Brien to take another title, it was just as vital that his players get into college or, at the very least, survive the streets. If that meant helping Hood navigate his way through the Massachusetts court system, so be it. Award-winning Boston Globe Magazine staff writer Swidey comes from a hard-news background, which proves a double-edged sword in executing this hoops-in-the-hood book. His straight journalistic chops infuse the legal proceedings and the player profiles with a higher-than-expected level of gravitas, but his depictions of the games are less than gripping. Since basketball was the primary raison d'etre for O'Brien and his brood, the lack of fire in the sports reporting diminishes its significance. (Swidey could take some lessons in suspense from Jack McCallum's Seven Seconds or Less , 2006.) Perhaps the author seeks to emphasize that basketball should enhance people's lives, not overwhelm them—a fair sentiment, but it doesn't make for the kind of book that will resonate beyond a niche audience. A noble debut with its heart in the right place, but lacking the substance of its spiritual cousin, Hoop Dreams .