Jerry Maxwell and his good friend Roary are both handicapped. They divide their time between Max's bar in San Francisco and the bleachers of the Oakland Sports Complex to cheer on the Golden State Warriors. Together the two set out to make Jerry's dream of playing professional basketball a reality. Inside Moves is an off–beat, exuberant and extremely emotional novel focusing on the bonds of friendship between two men brought together by physical and psychological challenges, and their dreams of creating more meaningful lives for themselves and their friends. Often classified as a sports novel, basketball is merely the backdrop to this human comedy of love and sorrow and the healing powers of friendship and community. Released to wide critical acclaim by Doubleday in 1978, Inside Moves went on to sell over 160,000 copies through numerous printings. A motion picture of Inside Moves was released in 1980, directed by Richard Donner with a screenplay by Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin.