""Ballers of the New School"" uses American sports culture to challenge and explore notions of race in America. Dr. Lewis pushes back against topics such as anti-intellectualism, jingoism, and exploitation in collegiate athletics, as well as the role of sports culture in cultivating notions of masculinity. The book fearlessly critiques and challenges the notion that sports culture has altruistically functioned as a progressive pioneer of social and racial progress and offers a reexamination of the narrative of American sport as a leading contributor to racial progress by pointing to glass ceilings in areas of leadership on and off fields of play. The reconstructions as well as challenges to modern athletes that ""Ballers of the New School"" offers makes it a usable book of sometimes uncomfortable, but necessary truths.