53 pages • 1 hour read
John FeinsteinLast Shot
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Letter”
Before Chapter 1, the book begins with a letter from Bobby Kelleher, the president of the USBWA, informing Steven Thomas—Stevie, the main character and protagonist—that he and Susan Carol Anderson won the USBWA’s contest for writers under 14, so he gets to the Final Four in New Orleans. When Chapter 1 begins, Stevie reads the letters not once, not twice, but three times and then screams joyously.
Stevie’s mom tells him there’s a chance that neither she nor his dad, Bill Thomas, will be able to take time off work and go with him. Yet Stevie is confident his dad will come through. Stevie and his dad bond over college basketball. Since he was four, his dad has been taking him to college basketball games in Philadelphia, where he lives. Stevie prefers college basketball to the NBA and wrote an article for his school’s newspaper, The Main Line Chronicle, about how some players for the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t care if they lost.
Stevie loves sports journalism. At five, he taught himself to read with the sports section. He admires sports reporters as much as athletes. Due to the internet, Stevie can read articles from other newspapers. Aside from the Philadelphia reporter Dick Jeradi, Stevie admires Mike Lupica and Dick Weiss from The New York Daily News. But the writers he likes most are Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. They work for The Washington Post and have a sports talk show on ESPN, Pardon the Interruption.
Jeradi helped Stevie secure press passes for a game between the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University at the Palestra—Penn’s home court. Stevie loves the great seats, the free food, and the chance to interview players and coaches. He writes and revises an article that focuses on the Palestra and submits it to the contest.
Stevie’s dad comes home from his job at a law firm, and Stevie tells him the big news. As Stevie predicted, his dad agrees to go with him. His dad jokes that he could scalp a ticket—resell it at a much higher price—if he needs extra money. Stevie can’t wait to go to New Orleans, and he and his dad arrive at their hotel an hour before midnight. In the lobby, Stevie sees Kornheiser shouting at a hotel employee because Kornheiser wants a suite, not a room. Stevie and Kornheiser have a brief exchange, and Stevie gets the feeling this is going to be “the most unbelievable weekend of [his] life” (20).
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Other Winner”
Stevie is about to meet the other winner, Susan Carol, at the USBWA awards breakfast. She is from North Carolina, and he suspects she likes the Duke Blue Devils since they’re from her state. Stevie hates Duke because the team always seems to be in the Final Four and hogging the spotlight. Duke is in the Final Four this year, along with St. Joseph’s, Connecticut, and Minnesota State. Chip Graber plays for Minnesota State, and although he’s short for basketball, he’s their best player. His coach is his dad, Alan.
Susan Carol is with her dad, Reverend Don Anderson. Stevie can’t get over how tall she is. He notices her brown hair and Southern accent. She is pleasant and tells Stevie she liked his story, but he is somewhat mean to her. He thinks she’s “pretty […] for a giraffe” (25). Susan Carol confirms she’s a big Duke fan, so Stevie tries to upset her by telling her that Duke’s legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski—Coach K—cusses often, but she remains unbothered.
Guiding Stevie and Susan Carol through the Final Four weekend are two veteran sports writers, Weiss and Bill Brill. Weiss will help Stevie since they’re both from Philadelphia, and Brill will assist Susan Carol due to their shared love of Duke and Coach K. Away from Susan Carol and Brill, Stevie feels less pressure. When he criticizes Susan Carol and her love of Duke basketball, Weiss tells him she wrote an excellent story. The praise upsets Stevie.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Dick Vitale, Babeee!”
At the USBWA breakfast, the president, Kelleher, gives a speech and acknowledges Stevie and Susan Carol while criticizing young people who want to be TV personalities instead of dedicated reporters. As part of the contest, small, low-budget newspapers will run Stevie’s and Susan Carol’s reporting from the Final Four, so they will have to publish a story each day they’re there. She already wrote her article on Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim after scoring an interview with him through Coach K, which peeves Stevie. He’s thinking about writing his story on Chip, even though tons of articles will focus on him.
On the way to the Superdome, Stevie and Weiss encounter scalpers. They speak to a man, Big Tex, who is dressed like a cowboy and selling individual tickets for $3,000. Weiss tells Stevie people can also buy tickets through the schools if they donate around $50,000 to the respective school’s athletic department. Weiss then explains how television influences the games and makes them longer.
There’s trouble at the security check because Stevie has only a school ID, but the security guard says he needs one that was government-issued. Weiss says a county in Pennsylvania issued the school ID, and “that’s a government” (25), so it should count as a government ID.
The guard begrudgingly lets them pass, and Stevie and Weiss run into the explosive ESPN college basketball personality Dick Vitale. He screams his opinions about the Final Four and promises to send Stevie some of his products, including his new book, which Weiss actually authored. Although Stevie has been at the Superdome for less than 10 minutes, he already feels “a little overwhelmed” (44).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Student-Athletes”
Weiss and Stevie walk through a crowd of cameras and photographers and by the rows for the press. Stevie notices Coach K talking to the CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Billy Packer. Weiss tells Stevie that all the coaches have to talk to Nantz and Packer because CBS pays “a billion dollars for the TV rights” (47), so they want their announcers to get access to the head coaches.
Stevie and Weiss meet up with Brill and Susan Carol, and Brill playfully compliments her on her outstanding writing, which makes her blush and annoys Stevie. Soon, it’s Stevie’s turn to blush. Coach K comes over and tells him how much he liked his piece on the Palestra. The amicable interaction deviates from Stevie’s fantasy of confronting Coach K about the preferential treatment he supposedly receives. Coach K isn’t “mighty and evil” (49) but friendly.
When Brill tells Coach K that Stevie isn’t a fan of Duke, Coach K isn’t surprised. Growing up in Chicago, Coach K didn’t care about Duke either. He tells Stevie to root for the teams he likes, as long as he’s fair when he writes about Duke. As Coach K leaves, he invites Stevie to come to a Duke game sometime, offering him free tickets. Stevie doesn’t think Coach K is serious, but Weiss tells him he is.
Stevie watches Duke’s practice, and the number of people involved amazes him. There are assistants and managers, and the managers have to clean up any sweat on the basketball court. Weiss tells Stevie that managers have to interview for the position, so it’s a prestigious role. Lawrence Frank was a manager for Indiana’s fiery head coach Bobby Knight, and Frank coached the New Jersey Nets.
The practice lasts only 50 minutes, and Weiss explains that it’s not a genuine practice—it’s for the press. Later, the teams go to a private place and truly practice. After Duke’s practice, Stevie and Susan Carol reunite. Since she’s excited about getting to watch practice, Stevie pretends that it isn’t a big deal for him. But when they walk into the interview room, Stevie can’t suppress his awe; like Susan Carol, he’s amazed at how big it is.
Stevie, Susan Carol, Brill, and Weiss listen to a moderator instruct the media on how the press conferences will go. The four of them make fun of how often the moderator says student-athletes. Stevie and Susan Carol share a laugh, and once again, Stevie admits to himself that he thinks she’s pretty.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
Before Chapter 1, Feinstein inserts a letter from Kelleher of the USBWA. The first voice the reader comes across isn’t the narrator’s but Kelleher’s. The inclusion of the letter creates an intimate tone because the reader sees a document that is meant for someone else. This contributes to the realism of the story, which Feinstein reinforces by using real-life media figures like Kelleher and Kornheiser.
The letter also introduces the main characters and basic plot elements. Stevie is the main character. He’s the protagonist, so the third-person omniscient narrator mainly focuses on him. Susan Carol is the second main character, as she works with Stevie to solve the mystery. Although she antagonizes Stevie, she’s not the antagonist; she has no active opposition to him or intent to harm him. Rather, the tension between these characters is rooted in Stevie’s assumptions about gender and college basketball and his attraction to her. Through the letter, the reader learns Stevie and Susan Carol are talented teen sports writers. They won the USBWA contest for writers under 14, and their prize is a trip to the 2005 Final Four in New Orleans.
When Chapter 1 starts, the third-person omniscient narrator—someone often referred to as an “all-seeing eye” who is not the characters and knows everything—takes over the storytelling. Chapter 1 takes place in Philadelphia, which is where Stevie lives with his mom and dad. Stevie appears closer to his dad, who started taking him to see college basketball games across Philadelphia when he was five, than to his mom. The father-son storyline relates to the Final Four too; Chip, another main character, plays for his dad, Alan, the coach of Minnesota State.
Chapter 1 sets up a series of juxtapositions, a literary device that compares two separate ideas or things. Stevie has a rosy view of sports journalism and college basketball, but his experience at the Final Four reveals a different side of the sport and career. Stevie calls Kornheiser and Wilbon his “two heroes” (14), but when he sees Kornheiser in the lobby of the New Orleans hotel, he’s not acting heroic but throwing a fit over getting a room instead of a suite. The incident with Kornheiser lays the groundwork for a key theme that ties in with juxtaposition: illusion versus reality. Throughout the book, Stevie has to adjust his views as he discovers more about how college basketball and the world in general work.
Stevie views Duke and Susan Carol with disdain. The interactions between Stevie and Susan Carol link to the motif of gender and add a bit of romance to the story. Feinstein utilizes a common romantic arc in which the characters start off fighting before getting along. Stevie and Susan Carol don’t become boyfriend and girlfriend, but Feinstein uses allusion—a literary device that lets the author suggest something without explicitly saying it—to indicate that Stevie has a crush on Susan Carol. Summing up Stevie’s initial thoughts about her, the narrator writes, “She had long brown hair and, he had to admit, she was pretty […] for a giraffe” (25).
Through tone—that is, the attitude of the characters or the work—Feinstein illustrates the differences between Stevie and Susan Carol. While Stevie patronizes her, she maintains a gracious attitude. She tells Stevie, “I read your story. The one that won. It was very good. I’d like to go to the Palestra someday” (25). Stevie’s hostile tone remains strong in the opening chapters. He tries to get a rise out of her by mentioning that Coach K curses a lot. He acts as though he has to be mean to her because she’s a girl and likes Duke.
The first four chapters also establish the motif of journalism and upstanding reporting. The characters talk about the importance of unbiased writing, and Kelleher criticizes young people who simply want to be on TV. Kelleher says, “We need to encourage real reporting because it’s important” (30). His statement is an example of foreshadowing because Stevie and Susan Carol produce consequential reporting by the end of the weekend.
The encounter with the scalper and the security guard brings in the theme of money and furthers the theme of illusion versus reality. In reality, the Final Four seems to be more about making money than about watching college basketball. More so, the numerous guards give the appearance of security, but this is an illusion: Despite the countless rules and guards, a mischievous blackmail plot develops.
Through Vitale, Feinstein explores the motif of journalism and how it conflicts with TV stardom. Vitale’s tone is bombastic. His dialogue contains several exclamation points and words in all caps. Vitale tells Stevie, “I’ll send you my new book! Hoops [Weiss] wrote it for me!” (44). Vitale isn’t depicted as a serious reporter. On the contrary, he didn’t even write his own book and doesn’t attempt to hide that fact.
The theme of illusion versus reality is also present in Chapter 4 when Stevie meets Coach K and realizes he’s a nice person. Although the coach disarms him, Stevie maintains his condescending tone toward Susan Carol by making it seem like it wasn’t a big deal getting to watch the Final Four practices. Near the end of Chapter 4, Feinstein provides a clue that Stevie can learn to get along with Susan Carol when they both laugh at the insecurity and pretense behind the term student-athlete. Neither Stevie nor Susan Carol is under the illusion that these players are students first.
