I’ve been very busy reading books this past year and it has been a true blessing through all the troubles and trials- both here and abroad. My restless memory recalls no single other full calendar of inordinate chaos like 2023! Reading made me feel satisfied to keep my peace at home. In addition, all the violence and destruction has betrayed  a sign of the times. So getting deep in study of my Bible- along with everything else I read- kept my compass focused and steady. (Reflective activity has always been helpful for me to re-strengthen and stay strong.)

Three books stand out among the rest- all produced by basketball pros- which really made me ponder the way this world treats its people in all aspects of life. These books were real page turners, each for very different reasons.

I read LeBron first as it had just been published. Then, months later, I picked up Carmelo Anthony’s “Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised” which was published back in 2021. Most recently I finished “Love & Justice” written by Maya (Moore) and Jonathan Irons. The latter has left a very deep impression on me with its triumph over evil and corruption in our judicial system and also the redemptive power on every page even over the most extraordinary circumstances. In addition, the outcome of their collective struggle has restored my faith like no other book has- except for the Bible- and helped me put every one of the above-mentioned chronicles into proper perspective.

All were written with professional help and guidance- Le Bron’s entirely by a pro-writer- but Love & Justice stood alone because it was co-written by Maya and Jonathan, by turns. Two people separated for years by prison bars but somehow becoming one voice through love alone and eventually brought together by God alone! It’s a miraculous collaboration.

Le Bron’s story is inspirational for people who are reassured by talent and affluence. His beginnings were as humble as Maya Moore’s and Carmelo’s and all but Carmelo were born to a single parent- their Moms. (Carmelo’s father did not help raise him because he died young.) However, Le Bron was eventually raised in a sports-oriented family and each measure of success propelled him all the way to the top of his game-literally. By the time he entered into NBA arenas he had hand-selected a prodigious team of supporters who were also loyal friends who became employees. They have helped keep him at the top clear up to the present day. If you are a fan of Le Bron this book will not disappoint you.

Carmelo voiced the fact that he became fast friends with Le Bron at the U.S.A. Basketball Men’s Youth Development Festival while they were still collegiate prodigies. Both shot 66% from the field and during this festival Le Bron won the gold while Melo took home a silver medal. Being roommates, they hit it off from that time and even though both revered their respective mothers, their surrounding experiences and outcomes, through the years, have been vastly different on a personal level rather than the professional.

I found Melo’s story much more poignant in loss and heartache and he never once compared his life with Le Bron’s but that would’ve hardly been necessary. He was thirty-seven when he wrote his book with the help of a professional writer by the name of D. Watkins. Melo is now retired from the NBA and his book focuses on his early life and before his career with the Nuggets.

While he was touting up successes to become a 10-time NBA All-Star, winning Olympic gold medals and reaching the statistics in becoming among the top-scorers in the NBA during his career, he lost friends and relatives to the streets of NYC and Baltimore and his family scattered. By the time you’re at the conclusion of his book you realize that it’s a miracle he survived his early environment and even he looks back incredulously and writes, “I’m a Black kid from the bottom.” “I had to fight through some of the roughest housing projects in America. How did I, a kid who’d had so many hopes, dreams and expectations beat out of him make it at all?”

His relatively long and successful run with the Nuggets from 2003 to 2011 showed me and the rest of the country, that he more than made it and his most productive seasons started right here in Denver twenty years ago. He made Denver proud of the Nuggets and that says a lot. Even though he never formed a posse around himself both he and Le Bron were first round draft picks and both faced down the same opposition in the Eastern European games. Interestingly, one N.Y. Knicks player, Stephon Marbury, was a rival to both. In addition, they played concurrently in 2008 on Team U.S.A. and remain friends to this day as a result of the association.

Although Maya Moore is every bit as accomplished in her pro basketball career in the WNBA, her humble beginnings (along with her mother) are a testament to her prodigious personal credit. Her early focus on God is self-evident in her narrative throughout the book Love & Justice alongside and concurrently with Jonathan Irons. I felt a personal connection to her immediately early in the book (p. 24) when she wrote about the “deep, deep bond between” her mother and herself.

Love & Justice presents both authors stories by turns throughout the book instead of one writer presenting their stories, standing outside of it. In this case, it’s highly effective because it marks the chasm separating their lives with imperative contrast, until they finally connect to secure Jonathan’s release from a wrongfully prosecuted prison sentence.

While Maya was building a flourishing career in basketball- a span of nine years with the NCAA, MVP All-Star awards and championship titles to her credit, Jonathan was struggling to overturn a 65-year prison sentence of wrongful conviction handed down to him at the age of sixteen. He was tried as an adult under regulations passed in the late 1990s, which drastically lowered the minimum age for prosecuting children as adults. The excessively long prison sentence, alone, was abominable but the facts of his case were ignored in 1997 and he was charged and convicted of first-degree assault, armed criminal action and first degree burglary on the basis of what was later revealed to be fraudulently altered documents when his conviction was finally overturned in March of 2020.

This book shows how determination to commit to justice and caring enough to make a stand for it can change lives if we return to a higher purpose, a higher standard of character and acknowledge a Most High God. I highly recommend Love & Justice for the sake of its purpose. We should care how people are treated in every walk of life- no matter where it may be. I stand back and observe ultimate messages sent from the pages of these three books and can see a marked difference in how Maya and Jonathan’s story changed both of their lives forever because love makes that kind of difference. When I closed the book my first thought was, “Look what God can put together for good to those who love Him!”

But wait- there’s more! Don’t skip the photographs at the end of the book. This also turned out to be a true love story of the romance kind! In this one God’s woman gallantly put aside one conquest and used that courage to support and rescue her hero. Additionally and best of all, the book is an indictment about our judicial system. Billions of taxpayer dollars go to the funding of building more prisons, more unschooled policing and unchecked prosecutors. That money would be better spent in our public educational system. Currently, we’re in danger of losing our greatest resource of advancement to society, in general, if we don’t divert those funds where we need them most. Our greatest resource, the children of the current day, need those resources at school, at the dinner table and public libraries.

Best of all, Love & Justice holds God up as the victor of its prodigious narrative showing us  that we have more than hope. For those who will take up the banner, it shows that God will win and we only need to stand with Him!

The Castle Lady, 2024