Question: You’ve been an avid basketball player. What position did you play?
Walter Dean Myers: I enjoyed my basketball life as a shooting guard, especially playing in the tough summer games at Rucker [Park] and City College against guys who would later become professionals.
Q: What was challenging about playing ball?
WDM: I quickly realized that there were guys who could do what I did on the court and a lot more. The available talent seemed endless as guys from as far away as Philadelphia would come up to Harlem to play.
Q: How has playing basketball changed over the years?
WDM: The NBA had fewer players then, and ballers, like my 6′9″ grandson who plays for the Harlem Globetrotters and on a Czech team, would be out of options if they didn’t make one of the few pro teams.
Q: How has playing high school basketball changed?
WDM: High school ball is played at a higher level today than when I played. The shooting is crisper, and the passing is simply phenomenal.
Q: Who’s your all-time favorite player?
WDM: Earl Monroe (especially when he played for my beloved Knicks) was my favorite because we had similar physical attributes.
Q: Do you have a favorite basketball memory?
WDM: Bonus: I have two great basketball moments! I was playing for a team called the Jolly Brown Giants in an interborough game and, for some reason, just couldn’t miss a shot. A player from the other team said I was “unreal.” Sweet. The second great ball moment was when I had stopped playing organized ball and had just started my writing career. I had published a short story in The Liberator Magazine about a high school ballplayer who didn’t have the grades to move on to college. We were sitting on a bench between games and one of the players told us that we wouldn’t believe what he had just read—“A story about playing basketball in this park!” It was, of course, my story, and the reader and I became friends for life.
Q: In Hoops, Cal knows that Lonnie truly has what it takes to become a pro ballplayer, but he’s worried that the pressure to perform will get to Lonnie. What advice do you have for young people who have improbable aspirations, like playing in the NBA?
WDM: I still occasionally work with NBA players in their reading program, and I’m amazed at the amount of work it takes to be a pro baller. The rewards are truly great, but the chances of making it in the professional leagues are soooo slim. Today’s players have to be superb businessmen and businesswomen, too. A good academic background is a must.
Q: You served as the 2012–2013 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Your platform was “Reading is not optional.” What did you learn from your travels as ambassador?
WDM: The skills you need to survive are changing. Today’s young people need excellent reading skills to move ahead with their lives. Just getting by doesn’t get you by anymore. Oddly, the emphasis on education that I experienced is not as widespread. There are still great schools and great students, but too many young people seem to be alienated from both school and society. We need to turn this around.