Things begin to change soon for Josh, however. JB gets a girlfriend, and begins spending less and less time with Josh and Chuck. Josh begins to feel lonely, and jealous of JB, leading to anger on the part of Josh. After a failed bet with JB leads to JB accidentally cutting off five of Josh’s dreadlocks, Josh must have his head shaved, and his anger toward JB only increases. At the same time, Chuck’s health takes a precipitous decline, as his lifetime of poor eating habits combined with a genetic predisposition to heart conditions finally catches up to him, causing him to experience numerous symptoms from nosebleeds to coughing fits to mild heart attacks. Josh’s anger spills over during a basketball game when he intentionally throws a hard pass at JB’s face, striking him squarely on the nose, and nearly causing a break. As a result, the relationship between the brothers is nearly broken as well, leading to JB giving Josh the cold shoulder for much of the novel.

Ultimately, Chuck has a major heart attack, and is admitted to the hospital. Josh realizes that his father’s superstar feeling of invincibility, his young age of 39, his horrible eating habits, and his distrust of doctors, have all led to Chuck’s heart attack. Over the next few weeks, Chuck suffers two more major heart attacks, the second of which ultimately kills him. Chuck’s death seems to suck all the light out of Josh’s life, but Josh comes to understand that he still has his brother, JB. JB feels the same way, and as such, both brothers renew their relationship. Josh comes to understand that JB will symbolically take his father’s place, and aside from their mother, the brothers realize that all they have are each other.

Alexander uses numerous metaphors when describing the experience of watching or playing basketball; this is merely one of the first. Josh says first that he is "on fire," showing that he knows he is fierce and is doing very well. Then he says that the hoop is "for sale" and he is "the buyer," another way of showing that he "owns" the hoop because he "bought it" with his prowess.

This is one of Dad's basketball rules, and it resonates throughout the entire text. Dad uses basketball terms to say that the game is life and the court is your family: no matter how hard things are, you need to remember to always "stay" in your family because that is where you belong.

When Josh complains to Dad about JB and his new girlfriend and how Dad ought to talk to him and tell him he's neglecting the family, Dad laughs and says, "Filthy, talking to your brother right now would be like pushing water uphill with a rake, son" . This Sisyphean task of trying to push water up a hill with a rake is an effective way of suggesting how useless it is to try to get through to JB. As the water would slip through the rungs of the rake, so Dad's words would fall on JB's deaf ears.