From Los Angeles to his own Columbus hometown, Hanif Abdurraqib explores the low-stakes, high-competition world of summer basketball leagues — the pro-am tournaments where legends like LeBron James go up against blue-chip recruits and hometown legends, and where the atmosphere distills an arena’s frenzy into a tiny, packed local gymnasium.
This moment, specifically, animates what can be special about the Pro-Am in this form. A gym that buzzes for minutes at a time, riding the wave of a tense artery of excitement, pushed to its limits until something ignites it, and then it opens. And there is a moment before that opening and a moment beyond it. In the moment beyond, nothing is the same, even if there are still minutes on the clock, even if the explosion of excitement happens in the first quarter.
