Pandemic Playground

In “Lost in the Game: A Book about Basketball,” New York-born author Thomas Beller recounts his deep ties to basketball in New Orleans, from local courts to the NBA. The chapter “Pandemic Playground,” first published by N+1 in 2020, captures the sport’s abrupt halt as a Pelicans vs. Kings game gets canceled on 11 March 2020, foreshadowing a new era of restrictions. Beller’s yearning for the game finds expression in his night photos of isolated courts (Beller 156, 159). Amid COVID-19, he ponders the escapist facet of basketball through a fictional project inspired by Cheever’s “The Swimmer.” This conflict between escapism and pandemic reality crescendos when Beller, a father, debates joining an amateur game in New Orleans but chooses against it, symbolizing the sacrifices of community protection and the weight of individual choices during the pandemic.