Can't Knock the Hustle: Inside the Season of Protest, Pandemic, and Progress with the Brooklyn Nets' Superstars of Tomorrow

by Matt Sullivan

An award-winning sports journalist's courtside account of the Brooklyn Nets' year-long saga at the epicenter of culture and coronavirus—Moneyball meets Boom Town for an era of influence, chronicling the rise of basketball as a force for progress in society.

At the dawn of a new decade, a startup grew in Brooklyn: social influencers and political activists, media moguls and tech entrepreneurs, fashion designers and mental-wellness gurus, rappers . . . all of whom just so happened to play professional basketball. The 2019-20 Nets were the team of tomorrow—a player-first franchise, in a star-first city, at a nation-first moment—and anything was possible. As soon as the mega-stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving arrived, the Nets were destined to become a dynasty for the ages.

Then came the wildest year in modern NBA—and world—history.

Can't Knock the Hustle is the definitive chronicle of the season when basketball's status as a force for progress in society was put to the ultimate test, and Matt Sullivan had a courtside seat: Deal-making with Kyrie and Jay-Z. Rehabbing with KD at the Nets' world-class health facility. International intrigue between LeBron James and the Chinese government. The final days of Kobe Bryant, front-row at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The first days of Covid-19, when the Nets found themselves at the epicenter of a virus—and integral to a comeback of the very culture they had come to define.

Hundreds of interviews—with NBA Hall-of-Famers, All-Stars, coaches, owners and power-brokers from across the globe—provide a lasting portrait of an unforgettable time, as sports brought people back together again, like never before.

Genres: Sports, Basketball, Nonfiction, Audiobook

Audible Audio

Published June 22, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some interesting revelations but ultimately a meandering mess that was too long by at least 100 pages.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

About as proficient as Joe Harris’ 2021 playoff performance - erratic and forgettable. Aside from some good NBA gossip and a peak inside Kyrie’s mind, this book was lacking any consistent voice. Wavering between player empowerment, BLM, coronavirus, it read more like a collection of essays versus a season inside. It was disjointed and distracted.

[Dustin Griffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first few chapters were good, but a large portion of the book is dedicated to retelling the covid hiatus and bubble. As well as the Social Justice happenings of 2020. Important stories, but we’ve heard them all many times at this point. Not enough fly on the wall accounting of what it’s like to be a Brooklyn Net. 2.5 stars.

[Arjun Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to write off a book about NBA players during the pandemic as nothing more than the soap operatic saga of juvenile multi-millionaires oozing with machismo--but to do so with "Can't Knock the Hustle" would be a tragic and overly simplistic mistake. As Sullivan shows, the NBA sits at the nexus of pop culture, race relations, capitalism, geopolitics and American politics. Through the lens of the 2019-20 season of the Brooklyn Nets, Sullivan paints a rich portrait of the collision of the NBA's superstars like Lebron James, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving with the likes of Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, and even at one point Kim-Jong Un.

Consider just a smatter of the storylines in the book. Lebron James, chasing after the glory of surpassing Michael Jordan, slowly develops a social conciousness after being humbled by the sheer brutality of police violence in the U.S., yet, also finds himself sitting in a sinful silence during the Hong Kong democracy protests out of fear of disrupting his $90 million shoe deal with Nike. Later, all star players Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant bring their mutual distrust of concentrated authority and institutions with them to the Nets and exert their strength over the owners of the team via their ability to collectively rally, not just their teammates, but also legions of loyal online fans. And as the power dynamics begin shifting between all star players and owners, the NBA Players Association collectively begins a public campaign to assert that economic power should ultimately reside in the hands of the players, awakening a nascent communal sense of class solidarity as workers among many of the athletes.

Oh, and not to mention, this is all happening while the league is playing, by some accounts, the greatest basketball the sport has ever seen.

It's a thrilling vehicle to consider how the social fabric and culture of the United States has evolved in just the past few years. Sullivan clearly understands that the confluence of social unrest, media saturation and the pandemic clearly created a tectonic shift in societal values, and his ability to weave those into the personal sagas of the bizarre characters that populate the NBA is masterful.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this to learn about Kyrie Irving and also to understand how the Players Movement developed around George Floyd's murder. The basketball stuff is better covered in Ethan Sherwood Strauss' The Victory Machine.

[Georgette · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining look at a team I did not know much about before this book. Tied in with Kobe's death, the pandemic, bball during and after the pandemic, plus some history of the Nets before 2020. Good solid read.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Embeds with the Nets during the pandemic-shortened season. Some tick-tock on the shutdown of the regular season and the decision to go into Disney World bubble to finish it up, and LOTS of recap and interviews concerning Nets' (and NBA in general) players' thoughts about George Floyd murder and subsequent cases of police brutality.

Some interesting discussion of perceived effectiveness of different kinds of protests (is it meaningful for NBA to racial justice mottoes on players' jerseys, or to wear "I can't breathe" t-shirts to shootaround, or is it incumbent on players to do more direct action?), but the writing kind of bogged down for me as he'd raise an issue and then jump to what video game someone was playing in the hotel or whose contract might not be renewed next year.

I get that prospective interviewees always differ in how forthcoming/cooperative they are with this sort of reporting, and that's bound to skew your perspective in telling the tales, but wow, you care sure tell quite easily who gave him a lot of time -- Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, especially Garrett Temple really become the focus, Kevin Garnett less so and more from a distance concerning what others had to say about him, and the rest get very short shrift. Coach on the hot seat in particularly would have been interesting to hear from more.

[Brad Burnett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just listened to this. Quite amusing w the benefit of seeing the Nets two years later. Political stuff strikes me as folks that are portrayed as leftist while in truth right of center. While discussing people’s movements, Bernie Sanders is mentioned once in passing. But if you want to stop a labor movement in its tracks, call Obama. And that’s exactly what happened. Again, not presented that way. More than anything I found the last part depressing given what has hoped for a few years ago vs what has transpired. And I have been a picker at an Amazon warehouse during this time. So by now I do have a far less sympathetic view towards so many players collecting enormous full pay while rarely playing. I did enjoy learning some new positive things about Kyrie Irving. I didn’t like the way Kenny Atkinson was treated at the time, and like it even less now. I had begun to enjoy it until the last part detailing everything from 2020 and knowing now how ineffectual it was. And the Nets ended up a clown show if you are reading it in first half of 2022 as I did. So it ended up curious they warranted an entire book. As opposed to the two Jeff Pearlman Lakers books which involved multiple titles, this one was on a team that ultimately has lacked relevance and disappointed.

[Mike Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

No NBA book better captures the inherent tension that exists within the the NBA players since LeBron et co. completely took over from the previous generation. These are players that recognize that they cannot just shut up and dribble, and that “Republicans buy sneakers too” cannot be an excuse for silence. They recognize that they have power, access, and a wealth of resources to do something about the state of the world. They are also scarred by the stories of old of players getting blacklisted from the league for speaking out and from the generation of players from the 90s and 2000s who were the first to acquire absurd wealth and thus some blew it all away. The problem because is that the players as a whole and as individuals do not really know what to do to make a better world. They are clearly trying, but it is a lot of moving around in the dark. As far as the money is concerned, it has led to a trend where so many of them appear to be trying to become tech/media moguls and want to acquire as much wealth as humanly possible. This book explores these conflicts and this tension empathetically and lovingly but also critically. As such, it is the first essential book to cover this current era of the NBA.

[Mike]

I know more about the NBA than any rational human being who doesn't work inside the league should know -- and this was still full of details I hadn't been aware of. Moreover, it is an investigation of how to be an activist in a capitalist society... how far can one go when they have corporate responsibilities necessary to feed themselves and their families? Sullivan also implicitly raises the question of how to best make an impact. Which is more powerful, big sweeping gestures that are largely symbolic but inspire the masses to see, think, and act differently, or effective behind the scenes politicking that creates change through policy and other measures?

I don't think that's an easy answer.

Spencer Dinwiddie also has a perfect breakdown of LeBron and Kyrie in the last chapter that illustrates how they're different while simultaneously suggesting two separate ways to move through the world. I won't spoil it completely here but let's say one man uses a calculator and the other sprays from his soul.

[Victor Yu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little deceiving having Kevin Durant on the cover... I felt like his story/life wasn't really a core focus of the book at all. This book is mainly about political views from each of the Nets players in the 2020 NBA season. This was a pleasant surprise actually, it was fascinating to learn about each of their views. But again, I felt a little deceived with Durant being on the cover.
The writing was also subpar. There were a few spelling mistakes (not many, but enough to notice, which showed a lack of care put into the book). And lastly, even being a relatively large NBA fan myself, I found the constant changing in the timeline to not be helpful at all! This was probably done to seem clever or add a bit of style to the book but it was simply confusing and unnecessary. The change in timeline every chapter didn't even relate to one another by subject matter so I have no idea why this was done.

[Robert Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an ethnography of the Brooklyn Nets 2019-2020 season. There isn't much basketball in the book. Rather, it's a book about the political and economic empowerment of NBA players, especially the superstars. The Nets faced a series of crises, including a contretemps about democracy in China, civil rights issues, a coaching change, and COVID-19. The book focuses on the two injured stars, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but we are also introduced to such interesting players as Spencer Dinwiddie and Garrett Temple.

[Lucas Sipe · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty interesting look into the lives of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but all to often the book stumbles through the narrative without really tying it together. Basketball is virtually non existent, instead it's more of a book on how NBA athletes responded to Covid, racial strife of 2020, and Kobe Bryant's death.
The writing isn't great, the chapters feel disconnected and are written as newspaper articles stapled together. More than a few errors in editing, some spelling/ syntax errors, and that kind of thing. The idea was there but wasn't executed all that well

[Du · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know very little amount of basketball. The Nets are an even lesser known quantity in my mind. In fact I grabbed this book because of the title. I'm really glad that I did though it's a fascinating look at the past five years in basketball, in society, and it financial impacts of those two worlds. The writing is really good the research is really well done and the overall tone of the book is intriguing.

[Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10 -- There was a least one factual error in here and I wanted some more details on the China situation plus Spencer Dinwiddie's contract details, neither of which were explained that deeply. It made me wonder if Sullivan knew the information and didn't convey it, or simply didn't know enough about the situation. The book felt like it should have been contained to "post Covid" as that part was very well written. The first part though I found to be lacking.

[Sean Saigon · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an avid basketball fan, I really tried to get into this book. But the timeline of the book jumps all over the place and you never really get an “inside” look into the Nets. It’s kind of surface level with a lot of political, racial and pandemic stuff thrown in. Overall fairly disappointing but worth checking out if you are a hardcore basketball fan.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was as described. Some great behind the scenes reporting with stories that haven't really been told before about the Nets, but not to the level that I can recommend it to anyone else as a must read.

The timeline skipped around a lot, which I found a bit confusing. was a bit more relevant given that the Nets are always in the news and competing for championships.

Go Nets!

[Vince · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s as poorly written as it is incredibly reported. The nuggets of information and bombshell behind-the-scenes stuff is incredible, but it was simultaneously so hard to read because I couldn’t go more than a few pages without cringing. The author tried *so* hard to come across hip or in tune with basketball culture and it missed by a mile. It really takes away from the story being told.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellently reported account of one of the strangest seasons an NBA team has ever experienced. If there is any significant flaw, it's that the book seems to have a more rose colored vision of Obama's role in the wildcat strike than the one he actually had.

[Anu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book completely took me by surprise, in a good way. I had not expected to feel the many emotions I did while reading it - from laughing out loud to shedding a tear; from feeling inspired to being angry. Worth the read!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Rory Toohey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly well-written for one of these types of books - not as "breezy" as I anticipated it. However, the ending was a bit too much "A New Hope", when the entire book was "Empire Strikes Back".

[Kyle Haack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shifting time-line confuses interesting sociological perspective.

[Jim Blessing · Rating 1 out of 5]

I quickly lost interest in reading this book.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives great insight into the 2019-2020 season from the Nets POV.

[Michael Denniston · Rating 2 out of 5]

A deep dive isn’t really needed to reveal that Kyrie Irving is a jackass. And yet… here I am.

[Elias Eberman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Called Blake Griffin a failed stand up and I laughed

[Cathee]

Basketball slapping their own back and egos. NOT worth the read nor paper it's written on!

[Jim Beatty · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

[Ryan Griffiths · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good journalism but as a nets fan I didn’t like reading this