John Amaechi’s autobiography Man in the Middle is another inspiring story by someone who overcame obstacles to get where he wanted to be. However the book fails to go in depth about his personal life, and it highlights his triumphs by giving long descriptions of games shown on ESPN and his mentor work. The only thing the book offers that cannot be seen on television is introspection into his personal feelings.

Amaechi, who was born in Boston but raised in England, started his professional basketball career in 1996 and retired in 2001. For those not familiar with Amaechi’s career, after playing 10 games for an injured player in France, he went on to play half of the 1996 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers as an free agent, although after 28 games the Cavaliers decided not to sign him. He then played in Europe for three years before getting another chance at his dream of playing in the NBA when he was signed to the Orlando Magic in 1999.

Man in the Middle starts with Amaechi’s awkward childhood. Raised by a single mother, he was a shy overweight adolescent who hated participating in sports until he was introduced to basketball. Throughout the book he credits his “mum” for his accomplishments. Once he was introduced to the game, he diligently practiced until he excelled and his confidence began to rise. At the same time, he starts to realize he was gay and became torn between giving up something he had worked most his life for, to play professional basketball, or being honest about who he was.

The book chronicles his determination to be in the NBA, as well as what he did to get there. While still in high school, he had to relearn to play the game after his right wrist was severed when a piece of glass fell on it. It is amazing that against all odds, he still stayed focused and motivated enough to keep striving for his dreams--it didn’t take 290 pages to get that message across.

It is touching to read about how passionately Amaechi feels about being a role, model; he even dedicated the entire epilogue to this topic. The best part of the book is when he writes about why he wanted to start a basketball center in England. Not because of publicity, but because “it’s a chance to change the culture”.

All this is great but Amaechi is known for being the first openly gay NBA player. Man in the Middle does go in depth about his struggle to keep his personal life private, and the loneliness he felt knowing that, if made public, his sexual orientation could damage his basketball career. However it doesn’t tell you about Amaechi’s life after he came out of the closet. It builds up to the moment his sexuality is made public but when it is revealed, Amaechi quickly changes the subject again, leaving the reader wanting to know more.

He does write a brief section about other athletes’ exploits, both heterosexual and homosexual. However, every time he writes about his own sex life, it’s brief and less descriptive than other parts of the book, and he immediately follows it up by a basketball game story. Instead of a book about a gay man in the NBA, Amaechi’s autobiography is more like a basketball book with tidbits about him.

Towards the end, Amaechi finally stops denying who he is and stops caring about what could happen to his career. However, he doesn’t explain why he now chooses to be open about his homosexuality.

For fans of basketball history, the book offers some interesting facts. This book is filled with trivia and information about his career. For instance, his uniform and shoes are in the Basketball Hall of Fame because he made the first shot of the new millennium,
not because of his career.

My advice: don‘t buy this book unless you can’t get enough of basketball.