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Monday, September 28, 2009

Hoop Screams

I was annoyed watching Charlie Rose the other day when LeBron James, talking of the documentary that was made of his high school team, kept speaking about the virtue of he and his friends all "working together towards their dream" re: winning a high school basketball national championship (which I did not even know existed.) 

What? Working towards a dream? Really? Being handed a 6-8 man-child with freakish talent is neither "working" nor some collective team goal, it's a fucking GIFT!!  I don't wanna understate these kids' play, or their hard work, but camon. Any high school team handed LeBron James is not exactly the Hickory Huskers, it's the 1996 Bulls times the 1986 Celtics. Please.

I thought of this just now as I was reading THIS, a great article about why Hoop Dreams still matters, and saw this:
Hoop Dreams, which chronicles five years in the lives of two high school basketball players from inner-city Chicago, resonated with audiences precisely because it wasn't about famous people. Unlike, say, Sebastian Telfair and Lance Stephenson, two New York City schoolboys who were the subject of recent documentaries, William Gates and Arthur Agee were not can't-miss prodigies. Gates eventually became a bit player at Marquette, while Agee played two years of junior college ball before suiting up for Arkansas State. Agee bounced around basketball's minor leagues for a few years after that, playing for teams eager to capitalize on his Hoop Dreams notoriety, but neither player ever sniffed the NBA.

No, these guys were just ordinary people, but the moments of trial and tribulation that were caught on film proved to be, well, extraordinary...The movie ends with Gates reflecting on all the friends and family who were so desperate to see him fulfill his hoop dreams, much more for their sakes than for his. "When somebody said, 'When you get to the NBA, don't forget about me,' I should have said, 'If I don't make it, don't forget about me.'" Neither Gates nor Agee ever made it to the NBA, but 15 years after they first brought reality to the big screen, these two ordinary people are as unforgettable as ever.
Hey, we all love LeBron. And I'm sure the movie has some heartwarming moments. But I'm supposed to give two shits about how great some high high school team LeBron played on was? Really? It's like Bob Gibson going 22-9 in 1968. All I can think of is, how'd he lose 9?
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