SHOWBOAT IN THE BACKCOURT

Gault supplements court action with conversations between narrator Paul Salvatore, a Boston Italian, and Jay King, black, as the teammates/roomies zoom together (except for a short split) from high school to college to pro basketball and all the way to the NBA championship. The one separation occurs when Jay, flashy both on and off court, unwisely signs his first pro contract with a shady, speculative team; when that fails it's steady Paul, the ""glue"" of his team, who rescues Jay from boozing despair and delivers him to Paul's own eager coach. The taming of Jay (such as it is, and such as he needs it) is about all the continuity we can extract except for the almost straight-up progress toward the title. Which doesn't make for much glue to hold the plays together.