Shea Serrano’s latest book, “Expensive Basketball,” is a New York Times Bestseller. This is nothing new for the San Antonio native — his last three books were also bestsellers — and he’s carved out a career he said he couldn’t have imagined.
“When I first started, that wasn’t the intention, right?” he said. “The intention when I first started freelancing was, [I wanted] to make a couple 100 bucks extra a month to pay some bills, and that was, like, the whole goal. So I didn’t have, like, these grand designs of doing books or TV shows or movies or starting my own little publishing imprint or anything like that. That just sort of happened by following my feet.”
The author has also made two television shows, “Primo” and “Neon,” and wrote a movie with Jason Concepcion, called “Miguel Wants to Fight,” while also being a popular social media personality on X with more than 400,000 followers.
“Expensive Basketball” stands out as a celebration of the not quite quantifiable greatness of NBA legends past and present, inspired by the late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Memories of watching them play go beyond statistics, he said.
Author Shea Serrano said his latest book was inspired by the final game of Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant (24) against the Utah Jazz on April 13, 2016, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Sean M. Haffey Getty Images
“I kept coming back to the idea,” Serrano said, “that all of my favorite parts of basketball, any of like my favorite basketball memories, I would argue, anybody in the world’s favorite basketball movies ... there’s never a number that you think of first, you know what I mean?
“A number might eventually come later, but it’s never the number first. A very easy example is Kobe Bryant’s final game, right? There are a bunch of insane numbers attached to the game. He scored 60 points in his final game. He shot the ball 50 times. There are a bunch of numbers that are attached to it that make it fun, but when you were watching it happen, nobody was thinking of a number.
“Nobody [cared] that the Golden State Warriors are about to break a record that everybody said was going to remain unbroken forever in basketball history, the 72-win season that the Bulls had, like that game was happening the same time as the Kobe game, right? But nobody cared, because Kobe got hot, and there are few things more exciting in basketball than Kobe Bryant got hot.”
Shea Serrano worked for Bill Simmons’ websites Grantland and The Ringer and has also created TV shows and a movie. Manny Carabel Getty Images for Amazon
Serrano’s book stands out in the modern sports landscape, which has an increased focused on gambling and an obsession with championships, for its unabashed joy in loving the game of basketball, propelled by his unique voice, with references ranging from poet William Carlos Williams to explaining exactly why the titular “Cool Hand Luke” went to prison.
A San Antonio Spurs superfan, Serrano said Victor Wembanyama is already one of the three most “expensive” players in basketball and said he would welcome a renewed rivalry between the Spurs and Dallas Mavericks with Cooper Flagg and Wembanyama as the cornerstones.
Author Shea Serrano says a rivalry between Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) and Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg (32) will end up lopsided in San Antonio’s favor just like Tim Duncan vs. Dirk Nowitzki. Stacy Revere Getty Images
“I would love for that to happen, because what that would mean is the Spurs get five more championships, the Mavs get one more championship. Like, Wemby and Flagg don’t even seem like the same species of thing,” Serrano said. “Cooper Flagg is a No. 1 draft pick. ... He’s not anywhere near Wemby, like the level of excitement, the level of talent, the level of anything, the level of potential. And so, yes, if that’s what we’re headed toward, a rivalry between us and them, yeah, that would be great. It would be Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki all over again.”
Serrano said he realized the success he could have as a writer when he worked for the ESPN imprint Grantland, started by Bill Simmons, then later on Simmons’ website The Ringer.
“2014 was the year that I signed a part-time writing contract with this website called Grantland,” Serrano said. “... I got hired to work there, and they were paying me more than I was making as a teacher ... and I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, wait a second. Like, this could be like this. There’s a chance that I could do this with my life.’”
With his most recent bestseller Serrano has continued to achieve the success that he said at one point he couldn’t imagine, and he said he hopes fans reading “Expensive Basketball” walk away feeling the intent and care that went into its creation.