Adam Beard
Mrs. Zurkowski
English 9/Yellows
9 January 2011
A Hero Through Friendship
Many people like to read about the good deeds a character performs, which seem to make that person a very moral and caring character. This character also wants to make sure the person he helped is feeling better and will get his life back on track. When you could care less about someone, but you want to make sure they are okay, that is what makes up a true friend. True friends are the best kinds of friends you can have in life. In the book Night Hoops, by Carl Deuker, Nick Abbott has all of the skills to become an excellent basketball player and he has many friends who care about him as a person. But what he does to another boy is the true meaning of being a friend.
Nick Abbott is in the 10th grade at Bothell High School and he is a point guard for the school’s varsity basketball team. He has a brother named Scott and a mother and a father. He wasn’t exactly the smartest when it came to school, but he made up for it with his impressive basketball skills. Nick’s dad said “You could be good, Nick. You could be very, very good” (Deuker 15). Nick’s best skill on the court would be driving in to the hoop and either getting a basket or drawing a foul. He was only one of two sophomores on the varsity basketball team. Nick made himself practice very hard to be the starting point guard because he was currently behind two sophomores for the starting role. He could especially get better since he has a new basketball court and hoop installed in his backyard by his dad. Trent, another kid on the basketball team said to Nick, “You did more than okay. You ate their lunch” (149). Nick had all of the skills to become a franchise basketball player at Bothell High School for the future.
The first event that Nick is faced with is when his dad installed a brand new basketball court with a hoop into their backyard. Nick’s dad took out the grass of almost the whole backyard and had people over to work on installing a brand new court and putting in a new hoop with the court. In the process, Nick’s dad also took out his mom’s rose garden that she had been really working hard on to grow roses, which made Nick’s mom very upset. Nick’s dad said the hoop would help nick practice basketball whenever he wanted to. Nick’s dad commented on the court by saying “In a few days, you are going to be the proud owner of the best basketball court in Bothell” (28). Nick was amazed by the court and he practiced on it on a regular basis, almost every day. Nick had a court all to himself and he could get better at basketball in the process. Nick knew his basketball skills would improve because of this new hoop and court. But a couple of days later, Nick’s dad and Mom got into a huge argument about how the installation of the court was a bad idea since it took out the rose garden and how Nick’s dad was being too strict with Scott playing basketball. So after a period of yelling and screaming, Nick’s dad said “You want it; you got it. I’m gone. I’m out of here” (29). This changed Nick’s life around since there was now no one to help him with his basketball or to be with when bad things came about. Now Nick would have to practice basketball all by himself. Nick was very upset and depressed that his dad would not be there for him on a regular basis, only if something very important came up. Nick knew that it would be tough without his dad around. With these two events, Nick was going have a whole lot of time to practice basketball, but by himself. While Nick was practicing basketball and catching up with his dad on the phone, there was also trouble at the Dawson across the street. One of the players on the team lived there, Trent Dawson. Trent’s brother Zack had shot one of Nick’s friends, Michael Ushakov. Trent wasn’t feeling good about living with his maniac brother. So Nick came in. Nick went to Trent’s house every day to ask him he wanted to play basketball with him. Deep down, Nick knew that this would cheer up Trent and make him feel less stressed out. One night, Nick even let Trent sleep over at his house for safety. Nick said, “Come back here when you are done, Trent, and I’ll make you something to eat, and you can sleep here tonight” (136). Over time, Nick and Trent became better friends, and they eventually led the Bothell High varsity basketball team to a league championship with their impressive teamwork from practicing basketball together.
While Nick was practicing basketball with Trent, he was also reaching out to help him in any way from his troubled family because deep down, Nick cared about Trent. Nick wanted to see Trent happy and back to normal. While Nick was progressing extremely well in basketball, he was also reaching out to a boy that many people would not even think of helping. Nick was helping Trent by helping him learn some new basketball skills and he always offered Trent a place to sleep by letting him sleep in his house if he had to go somewhere. Nick was also improving in basketball because he was put on the first team in front of two other seniors for the second half of the season. Nick’s was doing all of the right things to lead his team to many wins in the future. His coach and his teammates also liked his work on the court. The players in the locker room said, “Great game, Nick! Way to step up and be aggressive” (186). Nick was even getting these comments from the seniors. Nick was making good decisions on the court and off of it, too, that transformed him into a completely better person overall.
Nick Abbott progresses into a hero for readers throughout the book with an improvement in personality and character. He develops throughout the book into the quintessence of a moral character that does things in ways that benefit others. Nick also progresses in basketball where he makes the right choices during the games and he gets others involved by passing them the ball so they could do something. In Carl Deuker’s Night Hoops, Nick realizes the qualities that make him a hero for others, especially Trent Dawson, and he becomes a moral leader for his friends and an emotional leader for the players on his basketball team.
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