While all of that was happening, Susan and other parents including one of the evaluators were helping their kids out. In the next practice Patel gave a speech about how injuries were part of sport, and they were gonna have to step it up. This is the fourth book to have Rowley as a minor character, (books being The Long Haul, The Getaway and The Deep End).

There are practice 3 times a week plus one on Sunday and on top of that he has to keep up with his schoolwork.He is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.

While they were practicing, they made a ton of mistakes and when they did, Patel made them run sprints to the other side of the cafetorium but that everyone more tired which caused them to make more mistakes so after a while, everyone except for Preet was running sprints. Greg quickly realizes that she traded him because he was dragging the team down, but at the last second, he accidentally makes a half-court 3-pointer, letting him and the other Funky Dunkers win, establishing the Dunkers as the second-worst team in the state and the Winter Dogs as the worst team in the state.

In the top drawing of page 40, it is shown that Greg's mom bought Chickpea Clusters even though in Wrecking Ball it is revealed that Greg is allergic to chickpeas. Kinney would reveal in an interview with The Boston Globe that the book would focus Greg's relationship and perspective on sports, a story he wanted to explore in the series for a while and that he thinks he finally “nailed it”. Upon learning about a Field Day at school, where the winning homeroom gets a day off, he begins to train for the day.

There were random outbursts of laughter from his little cheeky chubby face as he looked up at me smiled and went straight back in. Preet would hit some crazy shot and someone on the Funky Dunkers would score at the other end and that went on for a while. Greg stated there was a " Fan of the Game" which he was interested in, so he started doing stunts which could get you on there.Greg Heffley starts by saying that he hears that every athlete is born with a special gene and that he was born without one. The team started with dribbling drills then passing but because of all the tables, half of the team had to practice on the stage that was set up for a kindergarten play. Before the second half started, the team helped themselves to the Woodley's cooler that they used from summer vacation that wasn't clean.