I found the book The Final Four very interesting and stimulating because of the author’s ability to put the reader right into the action. His use of back and forth commentary gave the game the book described a real life feel. Paul Volponi did a great job of intertwining the background stories of the players with the action going on in the court. He created four main characters that although had very different backgrounds, each had one thing in common, the will to win. It would have been easy for an author to ramble on about the lives of the players before the game, but Mr. Volponi did a fantastic job of keeping the action of the game fresh in your mind. The creativeness he showed when he added in the sideline sit downs with the players and coaches was unexpected but in the end seemed necessary because it tied all of the stories going on in the book together. The author kept the reader intrigued by always ending the chapters as cliff hangers. To find so many different endings to chapters and make them all real and believable is truly a symbol of how advanced a writer Volponi is. Paul Volponi’s background in helping and growing juvenile delinquents through basketball must have played a key role in him being able to go inside each of his characters and be able to make them act and speak as he depicted they would. This really was evident when it came to Malcolm McBride, a freshman superstar who had attitude problems and was only in it for himself. He must have dealt with millions of Malcolm McBrides at Riker’s Island, a juvenile detention center in New York City, and he must have been inspired to write a book about one Malcolm that made it to the big show. Although this book is about basketball throughout, there are many different subplots that any reader could enjoy. I was taken back when Paul decided to name a player Michael Jordan because the irony seemed too apparent. However when Volponi went into the past of his fictitious MJ, he made the character seem so real. Volponi captured the struggle of an adequate sports player with the unlucky fortune of sharing the same name as a legend in the same sport. The book The Final Four is not just a wonderful portrayal of an overtime thriller. The author Paul Volponi makes it so much more by adding the intricate background stories of the players and I would recommend this book to any sports fan or to anyone who wants to read a writer at his best.