Lincoln Mendoza is the book’s protagonist. He is a Hispanic American junior high basketball star who has recently moved from San Francisco’s urban Mission District to the suburban Sycamore. His character arc focuses on his movement from discomfort with himself and his surroundings to comfort with both, explored principally via the upcoming basketball game between Columbus and Franklin. Lincoln’s early anxieties center on what it will feel like to play his old team and teammates. In a conversation with his friend Tony, Lincoln asks, “Are they mad at me? [...] You know, movin’ away. Like my new school playin’ you vatos?” (3); he doesn’t feel he fits in to his new school, but he fears that his old friends will no longer accept him because of the move. Despite Tony’s reassurance, Lincoln can’t disentangle his cultural identity from his geographical location.

Lincoln’s comparison of himself to the camel driver in his school geography book encapsulates his self-conception as the novel opens: “brown as earth and no one knows his name” (14). His motivation is to fit in, but this desire is also a source of internal conflict, as he doesn’t believe he can fit in anywhere now that he’s moved.