Brandon’s Note: Before there was a Club, Yahdon used to ask writers and public figures alike the same question, “who are your favorite three writers and designers?” This was his unique way into a conversation with anyone about two of his favorite things, books and fashion. I want to bring that back, but a little bit differently.
This series is for the writers of past and present (and maybe even future) Book Club picks. I ask the question and we talk about their work and other topics. Sometimes, like this conversation with award winning sports writer Kent Babb, I pull in a member who had great questions or added to the meeting’s experience. This time I pulled in Jake whose first meeting was Not A Game, to ask a couple questions. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

Who are your 3 favorite writers and 3 favorite designers?

Kent Babb:

Eli Saslow (Washington Post Sports Writer)’s one for sure. He does the same magic trick that I do, but he does it a thousand times better and I can't figure out why. And it drives me crazy. There's always somebody a little bit better than you, and he is that for me.

Jerry Brewer is just a thoughtful dude. I think that great writing is great thinking. He's our (sports) columnist (at the Washington Post) and I call him for basically everything. He monitors my blind spots and that's not what you're asking. He's not just a writer, but he's a thinker. And so, writers I value, Jerry would be one of them.

And Gary Smith who is in my top three forever, because I want to be him no matter what. He is this legendary sports writer for Sports Illustrated who took a literary style to how he wrote.

So, for the first designer, I have to give props to a local guy here in Alexandria (Virginia) named Victor Dash. He's a weird dude, but he did my first ever custom suit and it basically changed how I thought about what clothes should look like or feel like. And so that's very personal, but it opened my eyes. I think if you can make an impact like that, that's worth mentioning. For my second and third designers, I'm a Tom Ford and Peter Millar guy.

How would you describe your approach to writing your stories?

Kent Babb:

I think of myself as a writer but more like a cinematographer. I'm not there to talk over what you're seeing. If I'm doing my job the right way, you're seeing this world through my eyes. And yes, I'm showing you parts of it in a certain order in sequence so as to form a story, but I worked really, really hard to not talk over that story. And my feeling is if a story is good enough, if it's powerful enough, I don't have to say a damn thing. I can take my "camera" into this place and let you see it for yourself.

And I trust you to be thoughtful enough, smart enough, caring enough to make your mind up for yourself. My work is for a very particular audience. That's somebody who cares about people, it's somebody who cares about humanity, and it's somebody who wants to learn about something that they haven't thought of in this way.

Allen Iverson and Not a Game

(Book Club member Jake) Regarding Iverson, was there a personal relationship developed through the process of the book? And as an author, given the clear lens into the challenges Iverson was still struggling with, afterward was there a relationship for sharing insight and perspective with him?

Kent Babb:

I only met Allen once, at Georgetown for the groundbreaking of the new basketball facilities. It was in the final weeks of the writing process.

So I walked up to him, I had my name and phone number written down on a little piece of paper. I shook his hand and said, "Hello, Allen, I'm the one writing the book about you. I'd love to hear your side of this."

The hardest part for me in that book was trying to report out why people cared for him the way they do. The good Iverson material was harder than anything. The bad Iverson material was easy. People are always willing to talk shit; they're not always willing to tell you why they care so much.

So, that was the biggest challenge. And if anything, my regret on that book is that I couldn't feel what other people felt, what Larry Brown felt, what Aaron McKie felt, what Tawanna feels. I wanted to feel something like that, why Iverson can wrong you, but you can't quit him. And I never got that chance and I wish I did. I will forever think it's the hole in the story that I didn't get time with him. Even if he had agreed to meet me and just didn't show up, then I could feel it. But that's one experience that I regret not being able to have.

How would you describe the conversations, interviews and exchanges for this story? Any that particularly stand out?

Kent Babb:

I mean, they were all complicated. This is why I try to write about humans. I try to write about people, not superstars. Kobe (Bryant), Shawn Kemp, AIlen Iverson, doesn't matter, (Across The River’s)Brice Brown. We are all somewhere on this good and bad spectrum. And nobody is one thing or the other, there's no black and white. Some of us are closer to the bad edge, some of us are closer to the good edge, and many of us are trying to work closer to the good all the time. One question I always end anything with either a story or a book or anything, I believe it can all come down to a single question. And the question with Not a Game was, is a person more good than bad or more bad than good?

With him (Iverson), I think there's an argument that can be made in either direction. And so, it's not that simple. And that's okay. That's why I do what I do is because it's complicated, because we're all flawed. I think one thing that people really responded to in that book is the human nature of Allen Iverson. He's this person that's a phenomenon that we saw on TV or at a basketball arena, and to know that he was going through some of the same things. I don't have the explosive relationship with my wife that Iverson has or had with Tawanna, but it's not that simple. Life is not simple. And I think it's okay to admit that and explore that.

I think everybody that I talked to for Iverson, over a hundred people, had complex thoughts about him. "I love him, but ..." Or, "Man, he really screwed me, but ..." And it was always what came after the "but" that I was paying attention to. You love him, but why? Why are you trying to go away from him? He screwed you, but why can't you give up on him forever? So whatever came after the but is what I want to know more of.

Brandon:

Like Not a Game, your latest nonfiction book
Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City, started with a piece you wrote on a person at an interesting point in their life. Brice Brown is an undeniably talented High School championship coach. His skills could very well be a great fit for a big D1 program, but he feels called to stay in his native New Orleans and be there for the young men he coaches. What was your approach for the writing and research needed for this story?

Kent Babb:

For this one, I embedded in 2019 with a high school football program on the West bank of New Orleans. So the team is all black, it's in Algiers. And I mean, I'm a 39-year-old white guy, and this community, it really opened my eyes to how some kids who grow up in a place like this, just how hard they have it. People who look like me and who live in the places that I live, it's too easy to be content and think that anybody can make it if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it's not that simple.

So, I was trying to get into the mind of what it's like to grow up in a place like this, where you're constantly surrounded by trauma, not just difficulty, but trauma. Granted, it's about sports, but it's really about the difficulty of life.

Brandon:

How do you juggle the gravity and darkness, especially in stories and situations like this?

So, I mean, in Across the River, it's different because the weight of it is so heavy. I mean, it is about murder. It is about poverty. It is about hopelessness in some ways. So, one of the things that I really worked hard on is Brice is a really, really funny person. He's hilarious. I mean, he's this 400 pound goofball who's clumsy, he's moody but in a funny way, he's ridiculous. He's an amazing mentor, but he does these things that he's not trying to be funny, but it winds up being hilarious.

And so I really tried. It's not 50:50 heavy versus light, but I wanted there to be an even 20% funny or lighthearted. One of the scenes that I started a chapter with is Brice, he doesn't eat. He's 400 pounds, but he doesn't eat. It's weird. But also, he gets so hangry that it becomes funny. He'll throw the whole team off the field because they're screwing up and it's because he hasn't eaten all day. And everybody knows that.

So to answer your question, I mean, the material a lot of times is really heavy, and I try to think of it like a reader. Sometimes you need a break from that stuff; you don't want to feel terrible about the world. I'm trying to give you a little bit of hope, a little bit of humor, a little bit of lightheartedness just to offset some of that. Every good story is like a great dish of food. It can't be all salt, it can't be all sugar, it can't be all anything. It's got to be a mix. And there's going to be some of some things and less of others, but in order to make it palatable, it's got to be a lot of different things.

Kent Babb’s
Across the River: Life, Death, and Football in an American City hits everywhere books are sold, August 10th 2021.

My Literaryswag 2.0: Not a Game's Kent Babb