The integrated team was dreamed up by two dads, one white, one black. The rich white kids would learn about those less fortunate. The poor black kids could perhaps leverage their exposure to
a world of privilege into coveted spots as scholarship students at Lakeside. Their ragtag team, seemingly direct from central casting, won a state championship, and the boys, for a time,
became fast friends. A few of the black kids caught on at Lakeside, and the "experiment" was deemed a success.
But what became of them later on? Did their exposure to the "other side" have a positive effect, any affect at all? Tyrell Johnson was murdered in 1991. No one has ever been charged in his
killing. Dino, the son of immigrants, leveraged his Lakeside connections into dotcom millions and now runs a hedge fund. Myran, the team's joker, faces ten years in prison for his role as a
go-between in a ＄40 drug deal. Sean, another goofball, is now a tough-on-crime Republican prosecutor. Doug, one of the benchwarmers on the team, has tracked all of his teammates down. Their
stories movingly capture how race, class, and fate play out in our lives better than any sociology or state-of-the-nation journalism could hope to.
In a searching narrative encounter with class and identity from the Reagan era to today, Merlino masterfully backgrounds his teammates against broad cultural and economic change. A tale both
personal and public, The Hustle is a brilliant exploration of how we find a place in America.
