I have no clue what the cover looks like. It’s been probably grade school (90s, late 80s) since I read it.
The basics of the story:
man goes to mars to find aliens. Man finds aliens who can “jump” without jumping. Their legs just get really long.
man starts basketball team. Only problem: they need water. A lot. Man has two sets of five players; first set is great, second set can’t play to save their lives. While first set is in, second set showers. While second set is in, first set showers.
So they win basketball games, and they come to play this other fantastic team (they are on earth). The game is close. The lead the first set gets, the second set loses. And they switch off every five minutes.
With ten minutes left in the game, the first set tells the man that they’ll play the final 10 mins to ensure victory, even though it will quite possibly kill them.
They win, and though he gets offers for them to play more for lots of money, he decides to take them back to mars because . . . actally, I don’t remember. It was a very strange story.
Anyone ever heard of this? I promise I’m not smoking anything odd.