The Assist: Hoops, Hope, and the Game of Their Lives

by Neil Swidey

Jack O'Brien, the impossibly demanding basketball coach at Charlestown High School in Boston, has led his team to five state championship titles in six years. Less talked about is O'Brien's other winning Nearly every one of the players who stuck with his program—poor kids growing up in high-crime neighborhoods and saddled with the lousy educational system available in urban America—managed to get to college. But O'Brien is no saint. Saints give without expecting anything in return. O'Brien needs his players and their problems as much as they need him. Revolving around fascinating, complex characters, The Assist is a captivating narrative of a basketball team in pursuit of a championship that also drills down into the legacy of desegregation and explores issues of education, family, and race. O'Brien is a middle-aged white guy coaching an all-black team playing in an all-white neighborhood that three decades ago was at the center of the busing wars dividing cities across the country—a time and place indelibly described in J. Anthony Lukas's powerful book Common Ground . It's the inspiring story of a man who makes a difference, and of boys surmounting nearly impossible odds; it is also the story of the ones who don't make it, and why.

Genres: Sports, Basketball, Nonfiction, High School

376 pages, Hardcover

First published February 29, 2000

About the author

Neil Swidey is author of Trapped Under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel, Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles Into the Darkness (Crown: February 2014). He is also author of The Assist, a Boston Globe bestseller that was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, and co-author of the New York Times bestselling Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. A staff writer for The Boston Globe Magazine, Swidey has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award and has twice won the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. His work has been featured in The Best American Science Writing, The Best American Crime Writing, and The Best American Political Writing. He lives with his family outside Boston.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love basketball, used to live in Boston, have painful memories of the 1970's racial tensions there surrounding school busing [the history of which is covered well in this book], and am a teacher who finds all heroic-teacher-bucking-the-system stories (Stand and Deliver re calculus teacher Jaime Escalante may be the prototype) compelling, so this book clicked for me on many levels.

However, I think even readers who are not excited about high school basketball would enjoy this one. Well-written, well-researched material on the legal system, teen pregnancy, school system politics, gentrification, recruiting in high school sports, and much more. Coach O'Brien gets [it seems to me deservedly] positive treatment here, but it is not one-sided; he comes off as very human for instance in the tale of his protracted indecisiveness about possibly leaving Charlestown HS for another coaching job.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who ever doubts the importance of a strong high school sports program, read this book. The Assist covers the 2004-2005 season of Charlestown High boy's basketball. What Coach Jack O'Brien is able to do with a group of inner-city boys is commendable. Over the course of seven years, he helped forty young men find their way to college against some pretty high odds. Neil Swidey's narrative is informative. Reading this non-fiction book is an education on the youth from the rough city.

This is one of those books you can't put down and you don't want to end. I would measure the width of the unread pages and wish for more. First time in a while.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book in three days. It is a bleak reminder of the dysfunctional BPS school system and how difficult it is to break the cycle of violence that so many off our inner city students are subjected to on a daily basis.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

i enjoyed the book very much. the characters fighting through controversy was intriguing. this book had more than just basketball. there was death and drugs and even jail experience for one of the players. its also very interesting because it is a true story and there is a lot of lessons you can learn from this book.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is based on a true story and the characters are real people so at the beginning of the story jack is at the cemetery where him and hood along with Ridley were praying for Richard Jones who was one of his former players who had been on his way to a division 1 basketball scholarship before he was killed. Jack O'Brian is one of the most successful coaches in Boston high school basketball history winning a total of 8 state championships in the past 9 years talk about a coach but then his star player hood gets arrested going into his freshmen year of college were he was going to play basketball at division 2 adelphi state but his other star ridley found success at Toledo and became the star at the college but jack then shocked Charleston by saying he would be leaving them to go coach at Lynn English high school but after along time of thinking he decided to stay at Charleston and coach but then he said that he will teach at Charleston but will coach at Lynn.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Even if you don't like basketball at all, the book is all about how sports is a great motivator for kids in the inner-city to get a hold of their usually complicated lives. And no, I didn't just like this book because one of the main characters walks down my street (full of yuppies he recalls) everyday on the way to school....although that was cool...to have the people in the book tread all over my town. I would totally go see Charlestown High play (if the games weren't all at 430 in the afternoon). Plus, I hear they aren't so good this year anyway.
The book kinda dissolves into this crazy court case for a long time, which didn't interest me as much, but whatever.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a good look a season in an inner city basketball program, run by a very successful coach.

You begin the book feeling good about the Coach of the basketball team, however by the end, just like life, it's hard to know if he is totally good, or too self-centered.

I do believe that he cared greatly about the high school kids on his basketball team, but whether he cares about anything else is highly debatable.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about much more than high school basketball, though that's heavily featured. It also delves into the storied history of race and Boston public schools - both past and present. It's gratifying to read the success stories, but equally heartbreaking to read about the kids who couldn't pull through or catch a break.

[Brice Sensabaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. There was literally nothing bad about my reading experience while reading this book. This is one of the best books I have read in my life, being an athlete that likes to play basketball. There are many parts of this book I can connect to, and there was really nothing I can think of to dislike about this book. The part of this book that resonated with me is the change that Coach O'Brien experiences through hardships in his lifetime during this book. He grew as a person and a coach, and didn't let the unfortunate times that he went though define who he truly was.

2. Individuals often develop values and beliefs over the course of a story. The character in particular in this story that changed the most throughout this story in Coach O'Brien. In the beginning of the story he was a very successful coach who moved to Boston to coach at a school named Charleston High School. His mind was solely focused on winning and bringing a state championship to the school. In the process he had a player named Richard Jones who was the star player. Later on in the book, unfortunately Richard passed away at a young age, and from then on Coach O'Brien's values upon life changed a whole lot. He now didn't value winning as much a he did the purity of life after the passing of his beloved player, and the messages given in this book show that.

3. This quote was a prayer from Coach O'Brien, and was one of the first times that Coach showed emotion to the people around him. He was usually so focused and locked in on winning, and the next game or the next practice, that no one really knew that he had feelings. The quote reads, "Dear Lord, Please watch over Richard and his family, especially his mother. And let us meet again someday in Paradise." This was a very important quote in the book marking the change in Coach O'Brien after Richard passed away.

4. I would recommend this book to someone who plays basketball, or just someone who has been through a hard time or a loss of a loved one in the passed. This book will easily connect to someone of that nature, and be a great story for them.

[Dagem · Rating 5 out of 5]

As of this writing I am on page 76


There has been a war in Manhattan for white people over blacks. O-brien is a white adult who does not look at people over their skin tones but rather looks at them for who they are and what they love to do. The first 76 pages of this book not only would introduce the story but give you a good background on what the city of Manhattan looks like. This book is a book for people who like sports and are interested in what the journey is like to the higher levels. This book is more then just a game of Basketball. It proves that not every white adult back then was racist. The main characters in this book that are talked about often are Ridley who is one of the best players on the team and a guy who can take Basketball to the next level.Jack O-brien is the white coach in the city and the coach that leads his team to 5 championships in 6 years. Shawn Brown is a junior who got cut from the team in O-brien first year coaching Charlestown high school. And “Hood” is a guy who has gone through a lot in his childhood who is dealing with a injury at the current moment in the book. These are the characters that have been talked about often in the book. I feel like this book is really different from others because every single one of these characters have gone through something rough. The game of Basketball is not only 5 players on the court trying to score a basket, but 5 players who love each other and playing the game of Basketball with a purpose. And that is what this book proves. O-brien is a coach that cares about every single one of his kids and try to get these guys to go to college to do something really special in life.

[Samarth Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as Remember the Titans, enjoy re-reading it

[Michael Cartner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Assist is an amazing book that portrays the life of Jim O'Brien and the players on his Charlestown High School state championship winning basketball team. Jim O'Brien assumes the role of the mentor for the players that he has coached over the years. He had kept them busy year round with college visits, summer tournaments, and of course, basketball practice during the winter. He does this because this takes place in Boston, where the street life ruins and takes lives against it's will.
This book is focused mostly of the Charlestowh High School basketball team of 2004-05. There are 5 seniors on that team that Jim is mostly concerned with because they would be going off to a school where O'Brien led them to, and he wouldn't know what would happen to these players if he didn't visit them.
The star of the team was a forward named Ridley Johnson. In the pre-season, he had committed to playing college basketball for the University of Toledo. The other main player, Jason White, wasn't sure. As the year went on, they were good, but embarrassed by Lynn English, their rival school whom they lost to in the City Championships. This team ended up getting a pass from the first round of the state tournament, and took advantage of that, to end up winning their 5th state championship in 6 years under O'Brien.
The next season, things got different, the seniors were gone, some of his hopefuls transferred due to safety reasons, the headmaster had a stroke, and things were worse for this Charlestown team that exited the State tournament in the 4th round of 6.
The biggest controversy in this book was when O'Brien signs with Lynn English, but has trouble leaving Charlestown High. At the end of the book, he retires. Overall, this was a great book, but there is some terrible language, and a lot of violence, but a few very happy moments. I recommend it to the basketball fan you know.

[Nate L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neil Swidey's The Assist: Hoops, Hope, and the Game of Their Lives is a year in the life of a high school basketball team in Boston, Massachusetts at Charlestown High School. Not just any high school in Boston, but an inner city school that has many different personalities. There are many important players like Hood and Ridley, but a very important character is the coach Jack O’Brien.
O’Brien is the coach at Charlestown. He brings the boys together to play basketball. I like O’Brien’s character as he finds a way to make a seemingly bad situation into something good. While winning is very important to him (8 state championships in 9 years), he really cares about bringing the boys together and making a great team/family atmosphere. This book shows the importance of a family atmosphere. There is a chant that the team does all the time where they yell, “FAMILY!” Another great lesson from the book is to not take a single day for granted as there are many horrible things that could happen any day. These lessons that the author shows us makes me like this book. There are so many lessons I take from this book because I am a high school athlete. I can see these relationships in my own life and I see how things can work and the power of teamwork. Another great part about this book is that there was so much information in it about things that I wouldn’t understand. The author did so much research and it showed. I was able to learn a lot from this book.
One thing that threw me off a little bit was that I am not a basketball player, but I am a fan and understand a lot about basketball so I was able to understand what was happening, but I was not getting the best mental imagery in the games. There was also so many nicknames used that it was hard to keep track sometimes, but it eventually clicks. I thought this book overall was written well.

[Nshslibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Neil Swidey’s The Assist: Hoops, Hope, and the Game of Their Lives skillfully documents a few years in the chaotic life of Coach Jack O’Brien and the players that may as well be his children.

The book is somewhat hard to understand for people that do not follow or have a passion for basketball because the plot and facts that Swidey presents are frequently tied to the outcomes of basketball games or anecdotes. If the reader does not take an interest in basketball at all, there can be a whole dimension that is not as interesting or informative as it could be.

While Swidey’s writing can appear murky at times, his overall message is clear: family rules all. A common cheer that the Charlestown team has is shouting, “FAMILY!” at the top of their lungs. That one common identity brings people together, and Swidey makes sure that message is universal.
He recounts the players’ transformations on and off the court, and balances the background and storytelling components of his writing. Rather than discuss Charlestown’s state championship run and the state tournament losses all the time, he pays just as much attention to the scholarships that Jason, Ridley, and George land to college, the prep school Spot is accepted to, and Robby’s acceptance to many different universities.

For an individual who does or does not have passion for basketball, The Assist: Hoops, Hope, and the Game of Their Lives is an interesting read that gives the reader a look into the street life of Boston. The only drawback is whether the basketball part dimension appeals to the reader at all. Overall, the messages Swidey offers make the book worth reading for anyone."~Student:John M.

[Walter Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basketball is the religion in our home. Our boys (now 18 and 16) have forever been taught values, personal relationships, character, in all their variations through many lenses....but one has always been basketball. Much like life itself, basketball is a "life" in constant transitions, it is a "life" that occurs in a contained space, there are rules, judges, penalties, constant motion, you share, you rely on others. On and on....

So, The Assist has special meaning. Basketball is all about assisting. Doing your share, doing the right thing, filling your role so others can fill there's. And here's O'Brien, the Coach, teaching the game of basketball and the game of life against all odds in an environment where the stakes truly are life and death. This is ordinary man as Hero with all the ordinary day to day choices that take him from guardian to Guardian Angel. A good man who does life right.

Our boys have lived privileged lives. As a father who takes enormous pride in each of his sons substantial basketball accomplishments, ranging from four year Varsity players to selections as All City players, who has admired their coaches for their commitment to drilling, their passion for toughness, their pledges to sportsmanship and their special knowledge of the technical game, I'll just note that O'Brien deserves a pedestal of honor in the life of basketball. This guy has devoted so much that, as we hope is due us all, we should take note of his humaness, his frailties, his deficiencies and let him get on achieving or passing the effort on to a new generation. His choice.

[Michael L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the book called The Assist because this is a book that basketball players would get it shows you the hard time with the team to the good times. This book is about a high school basketball coach name coach Jack O Brien and his team called the Titans trying to make a big name for their selves and go big to like a state championship. His star player Von was a big leader and role model to the team.He is a very static character throughout the story. In the begginnig of the story he pushes his team to their fullest potential till the end of the story. In addition this book is very similar to the movie coach Carter. It gives a good feel about basketball and how the game is played. I would recommend this book to basketball players and people who love the sport.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't think this is just another entry in inspirational coach genre (Coach Carter, etc . . . ) With all due respect to other coaching stories, The Assist is much more.
As someone who was interested in Mass high school basketball in the early 2000s, I knew about the legendary Charlestown teams, but I had no idea there was such a deep story with such important connections to Boston's history. Part biography of an obsessive (Charlestown High basketball Coach Jack O'Brien), part story of a high school sports season, part history of the busing and post-busing eras of Boston, the book is a powerful work about real and fascinating characters. I highly suggest it.

[Jared Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been one of my favorite books. When i first picked it up I was unsure if i would like it because I've never seen this author before so i was worried on how it would turn out. This book is about a basketball coach who everybody like at first but once it came towards the end of the year everyone was questioning their opinions on him. He was very nice to kids and cared about them deeply but other than that he didn't care about winning or losing he just wanted to make an impact on the kids from what I think. I'm not completely finsihed with the book but im pretty close to being done and so far i give it 5 stars for sure.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was extremely similar to "A Miracle At St. Anthony's", a book I read just a few months ago, but somehow it was just as interesting. Both stories chronicle maniacally devoted high school basketball coaches in the inner-city. Part of what made The Assist so interesting was the fact that coach O'Brien has devoted himself entirely to his job, no wife, kids, girlfriend. To him, his players are his kids, which makes it incredibly sad when despite his super-human efforts to keep them on the straight path, some inevitably fall off of it.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been well-reviewed and highly rated by enough Goodreads readers that I won't (be able to) add much that's new or original enough to note here.

In case no one else sited the website that adds some additional info about The Assist, etc., I'm attaching a hotlink to it herewith:
http://theassist.net/site.html

I just think that fans of Swidey's book might find some more to delight, amuse, & instruct them there, too.

[JBP · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book about a high school basketball coach in Boston who takes inner city kids and molds them into not only a state title winning team but into people who go to college or change their lives for the better. There's also a bunch of history on the city of Boston--particularly their sketchy moments regarding race and racism. Lots of interesting people get profiled and it's very easy to get swept up in rooting for the team and its players.

[Pei Pei · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's strange to read a book about people you know.

Overall, I thought this was much better written than "A Hope in the Unseen," with Swidey doing a fairly good job presenting a neutral narrative and letting readers draw their own conclusions, but I wish at times that his commentary was a little more pointed and critical when dealing with Coach being wrong. Just my opinion, of course.

[Paysha Rhone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book on the championship-winning CHS basketball coach and team. I think it really captured the challenges many of our kids in Boston face -- and how opportunities can slip away after a few poor choices. It was especially cool to see two of my own students in the team pictures!

[Agatha Donkar Lund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tell-it-like-it-is story about one year in the lives of inner city Boston high school basketball players, intercut with a lot of history of racial conflict and gang violence in the city. Pulls no punches, sugar coats nothing, and still manages to tell the whole thing with empathy and a lot of heart.

[Brandon Blitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book similar to A Miracle at St. Anthony. This book follows the coach of Charlestown High in inner-city Boston and his teams success. A White coach in a nearly all black school, it shows the terrible conditions that the Boston school system is in and shows all the struggles of both the players and the coach.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never quite found coach Jack O'Brien and his players quite compelling enough to make the book really absorbing. O'Brien's dedication to his players was quite impressive and admirable, but that wasn't quite enough for me. In fact the portions of the book I found more interesting were the sections on the integration of Boston schools, and the ongoing problems the city schools are experiencing.

[Carine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells a great story - inspiring in parts, frustrating towards the end, but all in all, an enjoyable, informative read. And I'm not even a basketball fan. Should definitely be read in more English classes.

[Kiwimonster · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read about inner city Boston and a special high school boys basketball coach. Not quite as compelling or well-written as Miracle at St. Anthony's (similar theme but Newark), but a worthwhile read.