Chapter 9-12 Summary

The scruffy environment of the gym is described in great detail, as a place "full of its own funky politics and stratifications" - a place where "there are a hundred different ways of talking and a thousand uses of the word motherfucker. Long lists are offered of why all the dudes hang out at Lincoln Rec: to play the game, to watch the game, to talk trash, to "throw their bodies around down low." Despite its seedy appearance, the rec center is loved by its regulars because it is the only place in their lives where they have any control over anything: "Some feel like they're part of something. Like a book club or church." But "no matter who they are, or why they come, every one of them squints their eyes when they step foot out of the dark gym...