Baron D Hall
In the spring of 1990, the largest crowd ever to watch a high school basketball game packed into Indianapolis’s Hoosier Dome for the biggest game the state had ever seen. This is the story of the boy who carried a small town with him onto that floor.Damon Bailey grew up in a town too small for a stoplight, carrying a state’s expectations before he was old enough to drive. In Indiana, basketball isn’t a pastime. It’s an identity, and Damon was asked to carry it before he’d thrown a single varsity pass.In 49 States follows Damon through his senior year: the friends who never let him carry it alone, the family that kept him grounded, and the crowds that grew bigger with every game he played. Life outside the gym asked just as much of him as the games did, and what he learned there mattered as much as anything he did on the court.Inspired by true events and real people who lived through Hoosier Hysteria at its peak, this is a story about what it costs to carry a hometown, a team, and the people you love, all at once, when the weight never lets up.In 49 states, it’s just basketball. But this is Indiana. 6
