Like Boseman, Ford logged hours extensively researching hischaracter, working tounderstand the ins and outs of the sport, though he's not a huge sports fan generally.
The speaker is his son, Louis, trying tounderstand the death of an older friend not a fictional character but the 17-year-old boy to whom the story is dedicated.
Thelonious is the broken soul of the film (I understand how ridiculous that sounds), a forlorn, slow-moving character who seems to be pining for his more dignified past.