Homecourt Advantage

Ostensibly concerned with the women behind the men who move the ball for the fictional New York Flyers, this first novel from former and current basketball wives Ewing and McCrary wobbles unsteadily from the announcement by Alexis--wife of team owner Mike Mitchell--that the mostly African American team will be sold to a known bigot if they don't win the championship. The tie that binds the tales of the players' mates together is Casey Rogers, fantastically successful attorney and wife to Brent, star player for the Flyers. Their marital problems quickly steal the focus from the team's difficulties. From this tipoff, the novel weaves in and out, dribbling and passing the action from couple to couple. We get lots of sad but unconnected backstories, lots of catty infighting and (often justified) jealousies among the wives, all of whom are intensely (if predictably) aware that their husbands belong to the fans and owners more than to them. Meanwhile, the team itself tries to ignore the ""personal fouls"" in their lives and plays on as the pressure to win mounts and the episodic soap opera ticks away with the clock. Tritely and carelessly written, the book has too many howlers: ""Naturally he did not forget to pack the brand-new Calvin Klein underwear for his road trip, unlike when he was at home with his drawers full of holes""; ""He treated players like machines on a southern plantation."" The book moves in fits and starts toward a predictable conclusion and fails to realize even the most fundamental possibilities of a good sports novel from the wives' point of view (readers would do better to try Balls, Nanci Kincaid's recent chronicle of football wives). (Nov.) FYI: McCrary is married to Greg Anthony of the Seattle Supersonics (formerly of the New York Knicks). Ewing was married to Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks. Both women hold law degrees.