Mirthful. Meticulous. Mischievous.

I didn’t grow up watching basketball. Baseball and football were the sports that captured my attention. That was until Michael Jordan took control of the Chicago Bulls in 1991. Call me a frontrunner or a bandwagoner if you will, but that first trio of championships opened my eyes to the beauty of basketball. And then my hometown Houston Rockets, led by the grace-meets-power of Hakeem Olajuwon, won back-to-back titles in 1994 and 1995, only for Jordan’s Bulls to win three more consecutive trophies, complete with maniacal rebounding skills of Dennis Rodman and subtle smoothness of Scottie Pippen.

Suffice to say that, when Shea Serrano writes about a certain kind of basketball looking “expensive,” I see exactly what he’s describing in my mind’s eye. Throughout his newest book, overtly titled Expensive Basketball, he waxes eloquently and hilariously about the people, plays, and personas that make his favorite sport look really good. Sure, his choices of events and players are incredibly biased towards the television age, the era of ESPN, and the ability to watch certain clips over and over and over and over again on YouTube. But Serrano doesn’t shy away from that bent – in fact, he leans into it. He wants to write about the sort of historic basketball moments that have captured and kept the attention of people for decades now.

To be clear, the man loves his lists. It’s a function of his personal style as a writer and critic. Many of these chapters are related in some combination of objective timestamps and subjective judgments. Moreover, he’s neither afraid to state his opinions clearly nor fearful of being wrong. In his mind, he is not wrong when he talks about Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Reggie Miller, the 1993 Charlotte Hornets, A’ja Wilson, Diana Taurasi, Larry Bird, or a host of people who create beautiful, luxurious, magnificent basketball. Serrano is simply telling you how he feels about his favorite players, games, and careers in basketball. He’s not necessarily trying to bring you around to his way of thinking – though it would be nice if you would – but he’s a fan of this sport, and he loves talking about it.

Honestly, this is why I’ve been a fan of his work ever since he was writing about concerts for Houston Press back in the ‘00s. He’s a tremendous storyteller with a hilarious point of view who loves nerding out with like-minded people. You might not love the Spurs and hate J. Cole like he does – though it would be nice if you would – but he’s much more interested in having fun conversations with funny people. Enhanced by the gorgeous illustrations of Ian Klarer, Expensive Basketball has become the first book I’ll reach for when people ask me why I enjoy Shea Serrano so much.