Podcast Summary: "Writing Around LeBron: The Genius Decisions of Hanif Abdurraqib"

Pablo Torre Finds Out
Host: Pablo Torre (Le Batard & Friends)
Guest: Hanif Abdurraqib
Date: March 29, 2024

Overview

In this deeply reflective and poetic episode, Pablo Torre sits down with Hanif Abdurraqib—a MacArthur "genius," award-winning poet, music critic, and basketball obsessive—to explore his new book, There's Always This Year. Ostensibly about LeBron James and basketball, the conversation reveals how sport is a vessel for exploring profound themes of place, devotion, grief, time, mortality, and belonging. Hanif candidly discusses his personal history, struggles, artistic ambitions, and the unique alchemy of his writing process, offering listeners insight into how he constructs meaning from life’s fleeting moments.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. What Is Hanif's Book About?

• Basketball as Metaphor: Although LeBron James is central, the book is “about basketball” only at the surface; the sport is a "container" for deeper explorations of place, devotion, and grief, especially as refracted through anxiety about time and mortality. (00:55)
  • Hanif: “Basketball is the container for this larger consideration of three major points... place, devotion and grief... lensing those things through this increased anxiety about time and mortality...” (00:55)
• Writing Without a Map: Hanif resisted tidy summaries; the writing process echoed the improvisational nature of basketball—sometimes you “jump in the air with no real plan,” and something emerges. (08:15, 08:42)

2. Connections With LeBron and "Omitting" the Big Story

• Early LeBron Encounter: Hanif once shared a court with a young LeBron ("about ten seconds"), but the anecdote is absent from the book.
  • Choice to Exclude: Including it would serve ego, rather than the narrative. Hanif wanted to keep LeBron and himself on "parallel arcs" rather than intersecting as characters.
  • Hanif: “It wouldn't serve the book. It would serve myself. There’s a difference between something you’d say to impress on a date, and something you’d put in a book...” (06:21)

3. Hanif's Basketball Self-Scouting Report

• As a Player: Point guard, “can hit open shots, but not a very eager shooter. Very good passer... Will not attempt defense... I’m fine to just hang out.” (09:41-10:41)
• Pickup Basketball as Reflection: Pickup games reveal not just physical ability but how people approach longing, unfulfilled dreams, and mortality. (12:29)

4. Personal History: Struggle, Survival, and Reconciliation

• Incarceration and Homelessness: Hanif talks openly about his past, time spent incarcerated and unhoused, and how reflecting on these periods was necessary for self-acceptance and presence. (15:00-16:45)
  • “Theft of Time”: Surviving past one’s own expectations feels like “theft.”
  • Hanif: “I’m hyper-aware there were past versions of myself that were less tethered to my own survival... I have stolen so much time back.” (15:13)
• Probation Officer’s Verdict: “You’re not a bad person, you’re just a bad decision maker.” (16:45)

5. Rapid Literary Success and Relationship With Writing

• Surprise at Success: Hanif is more surprised than anyone at his transformation from "mall lurker" to acclaimed author, and reflects on the incremental nature of change. (18:05-21:55)
  • “Small things feel unbelievable, and then this next small thing feels unbelievable.” (21:10)
• MacArthur 'Genius' Call: A hilarious and disorienting experience—Hanif describes being told he won while at a noisy coffee shop, unable to process any details. (21:55)

6. Articulation of Feeling & Craft of Description

• On Naming Feelings: Hanif’s writing isn’t just expression but a deliberate construction to invite readers into complex, shared emotional frequencies.
  • Hanif: “A feeling on its own is a primary color... To add a complexity is to invite you into a world that is not yours, but in which we can share some emotional frequency...” (23:23-24:14)
• Memorable Reading: Hanif reads from his book, describing the beauty and finality of Game Sevens as a metaphor for holding on to moments before inevitable endings. (24:30-26:30)
  • Quote: “If you know this feeling as I have known this feeling, if you have wanted to hold the moment before an inevitable ending in your hands and stretch it to near distortion, you also love a game 7... Someone has to go home, and yet no one wants to.” (24:30)

7. Writing Practice: Pleasure, Effort, and Process

• Loves Writing, Dreads Completion: Unlike many, Hanif enjoys the act of writing more than “having written”; completion brings dread because it means doing it all over again. (30:04)
• Effort and Labor: Prefers work that shows its rigor and sweat—not like “lazy birds” singing. However, this last book came surprisingly easily. (31:09-32:53)

8. Suffering as Prerequisite for Art?

• Rejecting Suffering: Hanif once believed suffering was key to artistic achievement but learned the dangers of tying pain to legacy. Now, he pursues pleasure and sustainability in his work. (34:54-36:01)
  • Hanif: “I can’t go to that place to make art anymore... I would like my art’s legacy to be intertwined with some form of pleasure for myself.” (36:01)

9. Material Objects, Critique, and Beauty

• On Critique & Pleasure: Dissatisfaction can lead to pleasure and beauty—for example, using a crystal sneaker to refract rainbows into his “sneaker room.” “Our dissatisfactions can be a starting point of critique that steer us towards a pursuit of pleasure.” (36:14-37:28)

10. The Raccoon Meme and Making Art That Lingers

• Cotton Candy Raccoon: A viral video as metaphor for longing and impermanence, compared to the transient nature of internet content. Hanif aspires for his works to “hover and linger forever,” resisting disposability. (38:27-39:55)
  • Hanif: “How do I create something that has a bit more durability? I tried to make something special and unique... not just for the sake of being in a temporary conversation.” (39:55)

11. Second Person, “Our Enemies,” and Seduction

• Hanif uses the second person and first person plural to create intimacy and communal experience. The opening line of his book—“you will surely forgive me if I begin this brief time we have together by talking about our enemies”—was intentionally constructed for this effect. (40:35-41:54)

12. Home, Place, and Ohio

• Local Loyalty: Hanif’s love for Columbus and remaining rooted, even in the face of place-bashing like Joakim Noah’s infamous anti-Cleveland comments. (42:54-44:21)
  • Building a Heaven: “Tell me if you’ve ever built a heaven out of nothing, and then tell me what it would take for you to look for a new one somewhere else.” (47:20)
• Community as Architecture: The people—not the resources—define the value of a place. (47:34-48:49)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Avoiding Personal “LeBron” Anecdote:
  “There’s a difference between the kind of thing you might say on a date to impress someone and the kind of thing you might put into a book to further a narrative.” — Hanif (06:21)

• On Surviving and Outliving Yourself:
  “You say, I don’t think I’m gonna survive past this point. And then you do, and then you do, and then you do. It feels like you’re effectively in theft of time.” — Hanif (15:13)

• On Artistic Process:
  “Most people I know enjoy having written more than writing, but completion fills me with a sense of dread...” — Hanif (30:04)

• On Creating Art That Lasts:
  “How do I create something that is a little... that has a bit more durability to it?” — Hanif (39:55)

• Game Seven Metaphor (Full Reading): (24:30-26:30)
  “If you have wanted to hold the moment before an inevitable ending in your hands and stretch it to near distortion, you also love a game 7. Someone has to go home, and yet no one wants to. The party was good, but it has to end for someone...” — Hanif

• On Place and Belonging:
  “Tell me if you’ve ever built a heaven out of nothing, and then tell me what it would take for you to look for a new one somewhere else.” — Hanif (47:20)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:55 — Hanif’s elevator pitch: Basketball as vehicle for deeper themes
• 05:00-07:10 — On sharing the court with LeBron James & why it’s not in the book
• 08:15-09:33 — Writing the book as improvisation; “jump passes” metaphor
• 09:41-10:41 — Hanif as a basketball player: self-scouting
• 14:42-16:45 — On incarceration, homelessness, and seeking self-peace
• 16:45-17:07 — The “bad decision maker” quote
• 21:55 — Hanif winning the MacArthur Fellowship story
• 24:30-26:30 — Reading and discussing Game Seven as metaphor for longing
• 31:09-32:53 — Effort, labor, and lazy birds
• 34:54-36:01 — Rejecting suffering as a prerequisite for art
• 38:27-39:55 — Raccoon meme, impermanence, and making art that lasts
• 42:54-44:21 — Defending “home” vs. coastal/sports snobbery (Joakim Noah on CLE)
• 47:20-48:49 — Building a heaven: place, memory, and belonging

Tone and Closing Thoughts

The episode weaves humor, wisdom, and literary beauty with moments of vulnerability and candor. Hanif’s meditative approach to sport, place, memory, and survival is echoed in the language (“seductive,” “musical,” “generous”) and in Pablo’s responsive, playful hosting. Intellectual, emotional, and slyly funny, this conversation is for anyone interested in sport not as spectacle, but as life’s amplifier—and writing as both chronicling and creation of meaning.

Listen If You Want To:

• See beyond box scores into what sports contain about life, death, nostalgia, and survival
• Understand how a writer’s mind transforms grief, place, and devotion into generational art
• Hear how artistry is constructed, not through suffering, but deliberate joy, pleasure, and connection
• Experience memorable storytelling, metaphor, and candid self-reflection—on and off the court