Shawn Harrington, a basketball coach at Marshall High School, was shot on January 30, 2014 while driving his daughter on their morning commute. Over the next three years, as shocking number of his Marshall players were murdered, the dream of the game providing a better life seemed all but gone.
Shawn had once appeared in the iconic basketball documentary “Hoop Dreams.” His decision to come home to Chicago was triggered by the birth of his daughter and a desire to make a difference on the troubled West Side. Author Rus Bradburd, a college basketball coach for fourteen seasons, recruited Shawn to play at New Mexico State in the 1990s. Shawn left that school after a single season and Bradburd eventually quit coaching to become a writer. Twenty years later, in the aftermath of Shawn’s mistaken identity shooting, Bradburd reached out to his former player to rebuild their complex relationship and to examine the impact of gun violence on Shawn’s family, school, and Chicago’s basketball community.
“All the Dreams We’ve Dreamed” is a true story of courage, endurance, and friendship that plays against the backdrop of one of America’s most violent neighborhood.
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Chicago native Rus Bradburd is the author of three previous books:
- the novel-in-stories, Make It, Take It
- the controversial Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson
- his memoir about Ireland, Paddy on the Hardwood.
Rus and his wife, the award-winning poet Connie Voisine, live with their daughter in Chicago and New Mexico.
Rus Bradburd 