It was two years ago this October when I first met Alex Squadron.

We were down at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena. The city’s new NBA G League team, the Birmingham Squadron, was practicing on the court, and Alex Squadron was there with me waiting to interview players and coaches.

Alex Squadron had just moved to Birmingham from New York, and his plan was to write a book about the Birmingham Squadron and life in the NBA G League. Our initial conversation went something like this.

“Wait, your name is Alex Squadron and you’re writing a book about a team called the Squadron?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“That’s your real name?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s crazy, man. Welcome to Birmingham.”

I gave Alex my cell phone number and told him to call me if he ever needed help with anything. And that’s how I met Alex Squadron, who was writing a book about the Birmingham Squadron. Naturally, we were friends from the start.

Alex Squadron, who is 28 years old, spent that first season with the Birmingham Squadron, and the book — “Life in the G” — is now out and available in time for the 2023 NBA and NBA G League seasons. I can’t recommend “Life in the G” enough. It’s an instant classic on the level of “Hoop Dreams” and “Friday Night Lights.” For sports fans, it’s essential reading. Any fan of basketball will absolutely cherish every single word, but “Life in the G” is so much more than a book about basketball.

At its heart, “Life in the G” is a book about the relentless pursuit of dreams and the sacrifices that people will make to give themselves a chance to accomplish something other people might call impossible.

Here’s a link to the book’s Amazon page. It’s also available locally in Birmingham at Little Professor Bookshop and Legacy Arena.

Alex Squadron’s appreciation for the game of basketball pours through every page of “Life in the G.” He took a major chance himself to write this book, and that gamble should not be lost on readers. Squadron quit his job at SLAM Magazine in New York and moved to Birmingham without a book deal. When I first talked to him two years ago, Squadron didn’t even know if his book was ever going to be published.

He made it happen, and there’s a lesson in that, too: Always bet on yourself.

“I’ve always loved basketball,” Squadron said, “and I knew no one had ever written a book about the G League. There was definitely a lot of risk involved, but I knew it would be an interesting story. When I moved there, I was all in. I just went to everything the team was doing.

“I think I just got lucky because the players and the coaches were so open and vulnerable.”

Luck had nothing to do with it. Squadron is a first-class reporter and a brilliant writer. “Life in the G” is American basketball canon.

The book has national reach, but readers in Alabama will appreciate the inside look at the lives of former Auburn player Jared Harper, former Alabama player John Petty, Jr., and new Alabama assistant coach Ryan Pannone. Hired this offseason by Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats, Pannone was the head coach of the Birmingham Squadron for the 2021 season.

Oats is getting an excellent assistant in Pannone, who is a basketball junkie of the highest order. Alex Squadron’s first description of Pannone in “Life in the G” is gold. It comes during a hilarious open tryout for the Birmingham Squadron. “Pannone’s passion for the game is so pure that it comes across almost childlike. His enthusiasm is comparable to that of popular television character Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sedeikis in the Emmy-award-winning series of the same name. When players left puddles of sweat on the floor, it was Coach Pannone who raced over, towel in hand, eager to clean up the scene.”

Squadron’s respect for the G League is what carries this book. For a player, the path to the NBA from the G League is a narrow one. The G League is not about being a star who can score the most points. NBA scouts aren’t searching the G League for the next Zion Williamson or Kevin Durant. The G League is about learning how to be the perfect role player and teammate for players like Williamson and Durant.

The G League is filled with NBA-quality dreamers who are waiting for their turns. Players in the G League are one step away from the NBA, but at the same time they could be playing overseas for far more money. In that respect, the G League is one of the purest forms of professional sports in the world.

It all makes for a compelling case study of the human heart, and Squadron’s book captures that beauty with one wonderful story after another.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, wild times and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.