53 pages • 1 hour read
John FeinsteinLast Shot
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Finding Chip Graber”
In Ventura’s room, Stevie jokes with Susan Carol about lying and breaking into rooms. He spots a stack of papers and sees a championship celebration scheduled for Minnesota State at Heavenly Coffee Field House; the company paid $3 million a year for naming rights. After a knock from a housekeeper frightens them, they figure out that Chip—full name Alan Graber Jr.—is in room 4101.
Before confronting Chip, Susan Carol gets a duplicate of Ventura’s key. They return to Ventura and meet the two Minnesota State radio broadcasters, Mike Lombardo and Trey Woods. Susan Carol lies and tells the announcers she and Stevie can’t stick around because her dad wants them at Bible study. The prior year, Woods became a minister, through the internet, in the “Church of Righteous-Thinking Athletes” (103). Stevie thinks Woods is strange.
There’s security in front of Chip’s room, so Stevie tells the guard he’s Chip’s cousin, and Susan Carol adds that she’s Stevie’s girlfriend. The big guard takes them to Chip’s room to see if they’re telling the truth. If they’re lying, the cops will come. Chip opens his door, and the guard asks if Stevie is his cousin. Before Chip can reply, Stevie mentions Whiting’s name, so Chip knows they know something about the blackmail scheme.
Susan Carol explains who they are. She tells Chip that she and Stevie overheard his conversation with Whiting. Chip claims Whiting was joking, but Susan Carol tells him he needs serious help. Chip relents and asks how much they know about the situation.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Chip’s Story”
Chip agrees to tell his story as long as it’s off the record. Stevie and Susan Carol can’t tell anyone or quote him as a direct source. Chip tells them he has classes only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and neither he nor the other three seniors on the team will graduate on time. Early in the morning, after celebrating the first Final Four in Minnesota State history, Whiting calls. He has to meet with Chip in person—it’s urgent.
Chip flunked a class last spring, and Whiting has a transcript that shows Chip failed another class, Econ 300, which means he wasn’t eligible to play any of his games this fall. Chip claims he earned a C+ in the class, but the professor can’t back Chip up because he’s dead. Chip says maybe the former dean, Benjamin Wojenski, can verify the C+, but he can’t find Wojenski.
Whiting has more bad news for Chip. He says Chip failed a class in the fall, which means he wasn’t eligible to play in any of the winter or spring games. Minnesota State will have to forfeit its historic Final Four season and face an NCAA investigation. Chip says he didn’t fail any classes in the fall, yet the transcript says he failed Whiting’s ethics and morals class. Whiting tells Chip he’ll conceal the transcripts if Minnesota State makes it to the championship and then loses.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Making Plans”
Chip doesn’t think the impending scandal will ruin his pro career. The NBA doesn’t care if someone failed in school or broke a few laws. With pro basketball, the main concern is winning. However, the scandal will adversely affect his marketing potential and brand partnerships. For Chip, the situation comes down to right and wrong. Neither he nor his dad did anything wrong.
Chip gives Stevie and Susan Carol the name of a woman, Christine Braman, at Davidson—Wojenski’s former school—who called him once saying she might be able to help him. If she can’t connect them to Wojenski, then Stevie and Susan Carol have backup plans, so Chip gives the young reporters his cell phone number and thanks them again for their help.
Now, Stevie and Susan Carol have to worry about their dads, who want to know why they’re so late. She concocts a story about appearing on more radio shows and being unable to get food or a cab. Susan Carol’s dad jokes about getting her a cell phone. At lunch, he criticizes the number of people, including the hostess, who dream of being on TV.
After lunch, Susan Carol excuses herself and calls Braman. She gets an answering machine, and the message directly addresses Chip. After a couple of missed connections, Susan Carol calls Braman back and discovers Wojenski lives in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, only an hour from New Orleans.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Buzzer Beater”
The Final Four is about to start, and Susan Carol needs a phone to call Wojenski. Suddenly, Kornheiser and Wilbon appear, and Kornheiser recognizes Stevie from earlier. Kornheiser calls them “real journalists” and refers to himself and Wilbon as “talking heads” (171). The TV hosts joke around with the young reporters about their age before leaving. Alone again, Susan Carol successfully calls Wojenski and gives him her email. He doesn’t want to come to New Orleans but invites them to his home in Mississippi.
There are many other famous media figures at the Superdome, including Chris Wallace from Fox News. He’s hosting a panel on the problems with college sports, and Whiting will appear on the show. As for the games, the first game—Minnesota State versus St. Joseph’s—is dramatic. It’s close throughout, and Chip hits a game-winning three-pointer from a long way away. The second game—Connecticut versus Duke—is less suspenseful. Duke wins by a comfortable margin, so they’ll play Minnesota State in the championship game. As Stevie goes to call Chip, Ventura—the radio engineer—grabs his shoulder.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
The motif of good journalism and breaking rules continues in Chapter 9 when Stevie jokes with his reporter partner. He says, “You know, you’re starting to worry me, Susan Carol. Lying, breaking and entering, searching people’s rooms” (124). Susan Carol replies, “We’re not really breaking… just entering. Now shut up and look” (124). The exchange suggests that reporters abide by a unique code. What seems like questionable behavior outside journalism is acceptable if it’s for a pressing story. Stevie and Susan Carol aren’t lying to people for the fun of lying. Their falsehoods take place within the context of the fixing scandal, so they serve the higher purpose of unearthing the truth.
The name of Minnesota State’s basketball court connects to the theme of money in sports. Initially, the court had C. W. Whitaker’s name—Minnesota State’s first president. A coffee company paid $3 million a year for naming rights, so the court’s name changed to Heavenly Coffee Field House. In college basketball, there’s little room for sentimentality: Economics dominates, and it pushes aside the school’s inaugural president.
The theme of teamwork appears because Stevie finds Chip’s room numbers, tells the guard outside his room that he’s a cousin and drops Whiting’s name, so Chip doesn’t counter their story. Meanwhile, Susan Carol copies the key to the room and tells believable lies to the Minnesota State radio broadcasters. She also tells the guard outside Chip’s room that she’s Stevie’s girlfriend. Stevie and Susan Carol work together. Due to their efforts, they access Chip.
In Chapter 10, dialogue builds Chip’s character as he explains what’s happening with his transcripts, and his detailed story furthers the theme of illusion versus reality. In reality, he didn’t break any rules and should be able to play. However, the doctored transcript indicates that someone in a position of power can alter the facts to manipulate the team’s season and Chip’s reputation. It also shows the dubiousness of the term student-athlete and the influence of money. Like Stevie and Susan Carol, Chip has a moral compass. The basketball star tells them, “This is about right and wrong. I’m not a cheat and neither is my father” (154). Although he acknowledges that his NBA career is likely safe regardless of the transcript situation, he is loyal to his team and his father, and wants to protect them and allow them to enjoy the honors that are rightly theirs; he values reputation and ethics, not just pragmatic issues of money and career.
In these chapters, Feinstein brings in a red herring—a literary device central to mysteries because it provides a misleading clue. The three characters center their attention on the former Minnesota State dean Wojenski. They think he can verify that Chip didn’t flunk one of his classes. Introducing Wojenski as someone who may be able to vouch for Chip’s passing grades creates the feeling that he and the reporters are on the right track. It also adds to the complexity and surprise of the mystery because by the end of Chapter 16, the reader realizes Wojenski is one of the bad guys.
Chapters 11 and 12 extend the theme of fame and stardom. At lunch, the hostess expresses her dream of appearing on TV. Susan Carol’s dad comments, “[M]ost people will crawl through mud to be on TV, and the rest will help you find the mud just to be associated with TV” (158). Wilbon and Kornheiser are on TV, and they don’t appear too happy, which indicates that fame and visibility aren’t always positive. Kornheiser speaks negatively about his own TV career and tells Stevie, “I’m not a writer anymore, I’m a yodeler” (173).
Fame and stardom link to the theme of illusion versus reality because TV and celebrity culture create false appearances and distort the truth. Fox News personality Wallace unknowingly perpetuates distorted truths about college basketball by including Whiting on his panel to discuss “what’s wrong with college athletics” (177). This is another example of irony because Whiting’s actions exemplify the ethical and moral problems associated with collegiate sports.
As for the games, Feinstein uses a literary device, imagery, to bring them to life. As Connecticut versus Duke isn’t close, Feinstein focuses on Minnesota State versus St. Joseph’s. It’s a thriller, and Feinstein depicts the suspense with precise words. The exact language allows the reader to visualize the action on the court. The narrator reveals the score and details Chip’s movements. With 3.9 seconds left, Chip circles back to get the ball, runs up the floor, creates some space between himself and the defender, and hosts up a shot “still thirty-five feet from the basket” (181). The specific words generate a clear image of the dramatic finish. They also keep the mystery relevant: If Chip doesn’t make the shot, he won’t make it to the championship game he’s being blackmailed to fix.
