Travel Team is the story of a boy, Danny, hoping to find his role in his community, a community famous for its celebration of basketball—The Bay. Danny's father was even drafted by the Golden State Warriors. Anyone familiar with that team will not be surprised that years later, Danny's dad is still given a standing ovation when he shows up to help his son's team in the final game.
Danny's journey starts with his frustrations with his height. His genetic luck seems to have failed him, because—even though he's a star player—he's too short to be competitive. His height can be seen as a metaphor for his fears of failure, his lack of self-esteem (possibly because his father has been absent through his childhood). His father's return may represent the son's reintegration of his absent father into his sense of self, a new source for hope and pride. This "ghost of the father" is common in literature, and it always seems to occur around a coming-of-age story, so Travel Team might even be called a Bildungsroman.
This is shown to be the case in the final scene when Danny learns that he's in a growth spurt, having already grown an inch and a half. He has indeed progressed forward in his maturity, both by physically growing, and by finding his confidence and succeeding at the task his father set out before him.
