BASKETBALL TRAFFICKING is the new book by Dr. Javier Wallace who I interviewed on Eps 303, 304 and 305. It’s about Tito, a Black Panamanian teenager whose hoop dreams include playing in the NBA, but when a private high school in Texas recruits him on a scholarship, he becomes entangled in a system that exploits young Black athletes. The book exposes the underbelly of the basketball pipeline that stretches across borders and operates within a broader framework of anti-Blackness, labor exploitation, and the unchecked power of the NCAA and the US immigration system. It is an urgent account of the policing and manipulation of Black male athletic labor for institutional profit and demands that readers see young Black athletes like Tito as human beings whose dreams, struggles, and lives matter. Pre-Order the book here.
