Summary

“How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium,” written by Matt De La Pena, is a story narrated in the second-person by an unnamed narrator. It focuses on “you” a young Mexican-American boy who is beginning the summer before his freshman year of high school. Though you get good grades, you excel at basketball, which you view as your own “way out” (2) of your present circumstances.

One day, you hear several basketball players at your neighborhood court talking about a gym called Muni Gym. They say it is where one should play if they truly want to improve their skills. After investigating, you find the gym is not far from where your dad works at...