With the NBA Finals tipping off this very evening, LeBron James will once again try to win the highly-coveted prize which has found a way to escape his annual grasp. This past Sunday, author Tony Meale released his chronicles of the 2002 basketball team from Cincinnati’s Roger Bacon, the state championship team which topped Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary — led by one LeBron James.

The Chosen Ones relives the path of the team touted as the only Ohio prep team to topple the King James. Far surpassing any game-to-game analysis or a retrospective glimpse at box scores of old, Meale engages in countless interviews, reviews innumerable recaps, and constructs a beautiful and passionate story about a group of teenage kids, led by an amazing man, who have since been shotgunned throughout the world, many of whom no longer lace-up their basketball shoes on the regular, all of whom miss their recently deceased head coach ever so dearly.

Meale, a 2003 graduate of St. Xavier high school, recalls the process through which he decided to chase this story, the one that not only took place right in his back yard, but one which he felt included a slew of unknown information that needed to be shared. [Read more...]