OXFORD, Miss. - Asked if he had read the "The Blind Side," Michael Oher almost seemed surprised by the question.

"No," he said, "I lived it."

Oher did concede that he had skimmed a few passages of Michael Lewis' recently published book that details Oher's unlikely rise from a gritty Memphis neighborhood to a standout career at Briarcrest Christian to a starting role at Ole Miss, where he plays left tackle for the Rebels.

Lewis offers a poignant portrait of a young man who spent long stretches of his childhood homeless, left to fend for himself by a mother who was addicted to drugs.

His immense potential as a football player helped earn him access to Briarcrest. Memphis businessman Sean Tuohy - a TV analyst for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and a former Rebels basketball star - and his wife, Leigh Anne, recognized his immense potential as a human being, so they adopted him.

But the story also is laced with drama that stems from a heated recruiting process. Regardless, three of the principle parties - Oher, Sean Tuohy and Hugh Freeze - say their good relationships were unaffected by the book's release.

"The way I look at it, it's about a message, it's about people," Tuohy said. "That's the only way I look at it. If people disagree with details in the book, I really don't care. If they disagree with the message - that hope is something that everybody deserves, that when it's given and instilled, it can have a profound effect - then that's their problem. To be honest, I haven't really paid much attention to what people are saying. It makes no difference to me."

Some of the more noteworthy revelations in the book come at the expense of Freeze, the former Briarcrest coach who accepted a position at Ole Miss last year, just a few months after Oher committed to the school.

In particular, the book suggests that Freeze spoke with the coaching staff at Tennessee about a position while the team was recruiting Oher, and that Freeze strongly urged Oher to consider the Vols.

Freeze said there are "inaccuracies" in how he is portrayed. Lewis got his information from other sources, he said, and some of that information was faulty. Freeze said he had not to read the book, though his wife highlighted the passages that included him.

In the book, Oher says he feels Freeze used him to get a job at Ole Miss.

"That's nowhere near the truth," said Freeze, who just completed his first season as the Rebels' tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.

Freeze said he harbors no ill will toward anyone involved in the project. And for his part, Oher said he and Freeze get along fine.

"We talked about it and everything, we're still tight," Oher, a sophomore, said last week. "Everything's still the same. I mean, I'm going to eat over at his house tomorrow, just like the old days."

Tuohy, who said he and Freeze talk four times a week - "He's my pal," Tuohy said - is a fierce advocate of the book.

"I didn't write it, so I'd be the last one to say whether there are accuracies or inaccuracies," Tuohy said. "But from my standpoint, it's extremely accurate. But I only care about certain things, mainly the overall message. I mean, the book basically paints me as fat, bald and stupid, and I would hope I'm only two of those three things."

By all appearances, Oher has pretty much remained oblivious to the fact that his entire life is available for public consumption.

"People tell me I'm a celebrity, they'll talk about it in class," Oher said. "But it's no big deal to me. I'm the same guy every day."

Said Tuohy, "In Michael's world, in the confines of Lafayette County, how's he going to get more famous than he was? What he doesn't know is that there are 200,000 people in Dallas who know about him."

Oher said that if people find inspiration in his tale, he hardly minds.

"There's some good stuff about it," he said, "because there are so many kids just like me where I'm from who have a lot of talent - more talent. I know guys who are supposed to be in the NBA, but they just didn't have somebody to look out for them like I did. I mean, there's more people out there just like me - better than me."