... captivating ... Gradually, as anecdote after anecdote and study after study was presented, I found my views changing. Perhaps I had been wrong all these years. Maybe the hot hand was destined to join such things as Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Theranos in the mental bin of things I once believed to be real at a more naive time in my life. Part of the beauty of the book is that it’s constantly evolving. Rather than laying out a thesis statement in the first chapter and building a case until the book’s final page, it broadens its scope with each example it presents. Just as the reader begins to gain what they think is a clear and firm sense of what the hot hand is, new facts and stories arise that either counteract it or deepen the understanding of it. This quality comes, in part, from a book that extends its gaze far beyond basketball ... The book is seldom a straightforward one, which is understandable given its nuanced subject. At times, though, its anecdotes can meander, leading a reader to wonder what the larger point is and what tie to the hot hand it has, even if it eventually emerges. It can also be a bit dense at certain points, but it stands, more than anything else, as an occupational hazard of a book that has to synthesize lengthy, rigorous academic studies.

Cleverly crafted through stories, examples, personal experiences, research studies, expert opinion and theories, The Hot Hand relies heavily on Cohen’s sports reporting expertise, with entertaining illustrations taken from both the basketball court and baseball diamond ... Along with real-life examples are pages of authoritative commentary about the psychological and evolutionary ramifications of hot streaks ... The Hot Hand is an interesting and thought-provoking book on a topic that isn’t often discussed but that impacts many different interests, activities and industries

...Cohen returns, always, to the game of basketball, but he pauses along the way to provide fascinating looks at coin tosses, investments, farm yields, and other real-world instances of how probability plays out in the world ... Sports fans and science geeks alike will enjoy these travels in the world where numbers, luck, and superstardom meet.

In this meandering debut, Cohen, a Wall Street Journal sports reporter, asks what makes for winning streaks ... Is the hot hand real—can a person or team identify what led to a winning streak and thus replicate those factors? Sometimes, waffles Cohen, and when one can harness a streak, it’s a lucrative and rewarding endeavor. The narratives are reasonably entertaining and the math persuasive, but without much rationale except expressing the author’s love for basketball, the execution is unfocused. Readers looking for an answer as to whether they can strategize their winning streaks could be forgiven for wanting something more decisive than the author’s tepid 'well, kinda.'