The back of the beat-up
old jacket that contains my video copy of the movie Hoop Dreams hypes
the documentary as follows: “They have nothing – except talent and a dream –
and in this tough Chicago neighborhood, dreams are all they can count
on.” From this, we would expect to see the basketball equivalent of Rocky.
The description on the jacket continues: “You will come to know them and root
for them as if they were your friends, your family, and against all odds, these
boys will prove that with faith, talent and a little luck, anyone can achieve
the American Dream. An amazing and uplifting chronicle ….” Why the
distributors of this film felt the need to market the movie in this way is a
mystery. In the entire 176 minutes of length, nothing in the movie would
even suggest that this description on the jacket is an accurate
summation. This may be the most depressing of movies that I have ever
seen because it contains almost no element of hope. For once, we see in a
movie that the “million to one shot” that the underdog has to face is truly a
“million to one shot.”
William Gates is a young
high-school prospect that grew up in the Cabrini Green neighborhood in
Chicago. Arthur Agee, another basketball prodigal, grew up in the West
Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago. Both of these black youths are
recruited to play high-school ball at a very early age. Arthur was
“discovered” while in grammar school by Earl Smith, an unofficial basketball
scout who hopes to turn young finds into professional prospects later in
life. William appears slightly more thoughtful and articulate than Arthur,
but in several other respects the two young boys are remarkably similar.
Both William and Arthur have fathers who off and on completely disappear from
their children’s lives. Both of the youth are extremely close to their
mothers. And both do poorly in school. Coach Gene Pingatore of St.
Joseph’s Catholic School convinces William and Arthur to enroll in St.
Joseph’s. To get to St. Joseph’s requires that each ride the bus two or
three hours each day to the southwestern Chicago suburb, and it puts a
financial strain on each of the families to have the two go to school
there. But it is at St. Joseph’s that the two young boys part
company. William, during his freshman and sophomore year, becomes the
star basketball player and is compared to his hero, Isiah Thomas. Arthur
is unable to compete at this level, is failing most of his courses, and is
eventually asked to leave the school when his family is no longer able to pay
the school’s tuition. Arthur’s parents, Arthur “Bo” Agee, Sr. and his
mother, Shirley Agee, feel that the school has reneged upon an agreement that made
allowing Arthur to finish his education at St. Joseph’s. The family was
so poverty-stricken at this point that they even had their electricity shut off
for failure to pay the electric bill.
Arthur’s parents may be
the two most interesting individuals in the movie. Shirley’s dream is to
become a nurse, and she eventually does graduate from the nursing program that
she has enrolled in with a graduation ceremony held in a near-empty
auditorium. Outside of his son, we’re never sure what Bo Agee dreams
about. He says at one point that he doesn’t even think about his son
never making it to the NBA. Bo has a lengthy criminal record and has
spent much of his life addicted to Crack. At one point, Bo, playing
one-on-one basketball with his son, walks off of the blacktop to make a drug
deal – all contained on film. After making one of his many returns to
home, Bo has a religious conversion and swears off the drugs. Arthur
sometimes seems to show his father affection (probably for the sake of
appearances), but for the most part, he seems understandably guarded whenever
his father reenters his life.
William also has a lot
of people “depending” upon him to make it big on the basketball courts.
William’s brother, Curtis, a failed college basketball star, now vicariously
lives off of his brother’s success. William, though not a stellar
student, has slightly better grades than Arthur. As early as his freshman
year in high school various Division One college basketball programs are
recruiting him. William has an on and off relationship with Coach
Pingatore. Pingatore, though a much better than average high school
basketball coach, is nevertheless reminiscent of every crotchety old gym coach
that most of us have ever known. His temper is short, and he’s unafraid
of humiliating his players in front of the players’ teammates and family
members. Pingatore is quick to give personal advice to William and the
other players, and almost all of it is bad. And it’s in this atmosphere
of constant browbeating by his coach that William’s high school years take a
turn for the worse. During his sophomore year, William misses two free
throws during an important game, and this predates many disasters still to
come. Shortly after this, William injures his knee, and he was to be
bothered by this knee injury for the remainder of his basketball career.
And during his junior year, just when he was to make his return, William
becomes a father when his girlfriend gives birth to a girl. We are never
sure if William’s mind is completely upon the game of basketball again.
As it turns out, leaving
St. Joseph’s may have been the best thing for Arthur – at least so far as
basketball goes. He enrolls in a high school called Marshall and he
eventually becomes its star player. So much of an improvement does his
presence bring to Marshall’s program that by Arthur’s senior year the school
goes to the state tournament and brings back the third-place trophy.
Unfortunately, his academic record never truly improves. His grades are
so poor that many of the better college programs do not want to touch
him. And Arthur’s lifelong friend, Shannon Johnson, disappears from the
school and probably is lost to the world of crime and drugs. Eventually,
with his mother and father (who once again returns home to “support” his son)
looking on, Arthur agrees to attend a junior college in southern Missouri.
This junior college does not have the credentials to inspire hope for anyone in
Arthur’s position. Of the seven black students attending this college,
six of them were in the school’s basketball program. Arthur does
eventually graduate from junior college and went onto play basketball in
Arkansas from where he received his four-year degree.
Even after his knee
injury, William is still recruited by the better schools. He also attends
a Nike basketball camp directed by Frank Du Bois. Spike Lee, Mike
Krzyzewski, Bobby Knight and Isiah Thomas all make appearances at the camp, and
the boys who attend get to hear various rants from the visiting celebrities
about the need to excel. William eventually accepts an offer to attend
Marquette where he obtained his degree, but he never made a mark for himself as
a player at the University.
William struggles with the
tying of his entire identity to basketball. In an argument he has with
his girlfriend concerning his inattention to his duties as a parent, he tries
to emphasize to her that basketball is his way out. His girlfriend is not
too sympathetic towards this line of reasoning. At another point in a
conversation he has with Coach Pingatore, he mentions that he plans on becoming
a communication major in college and, at some point, returning to communicate
to Coach Pingatore that he will not be donating to his program. This
after Coach Pingatore tells William that William’s high school playing time had
not been quite what he, the coach, hoped for. “Will you remember me if
I’m not in the NBA?” William at one point sadly states. William, by this
point, grows tired of all the talk about his prospective professional career.
We are left to wonder if
the “hoop dreams” of the two young boys “that turns them into men” (according
to the video jacket) ever amounted to anything. In watching Hoop
Dreams, we do and we don’t care for the boys and their families. A
New York Times review of this film expressed the thought that this movie never
looks beyond the stereotypes. I don’t think this is an accurate
criticism. I’m not sure the boys were able to look beyond the
stereotypes. Nothing in the movie makes me more uncomfortable than
watching either Arthur or William in an academic setting. Though failing
in math, Arthur tells a career counselor that, outside of basketball, he might
be interested in becoming an accountant or an architect or even run his own business
– and we know that he will never accomplish any of these things. The two
are almost encouraged to smile whenever they appear foolish in school.
When Arthur is unable to comprehend a Spanish phrase during class, he laughs
along with his friends. When informed that for the fourth time his ACT
scores are not sufficient to get him into a Division 1 school, his recruiter tells
William to smile, as “it is not the end of the world.” In the entire
movie, we see virtually no one who cares that the boys are not succeeding
academically except when it comes to their basketball play. And even the
two boys do not seem to care.
Arthur never stopped
believing that he would go to the NBA, and he never makes it. Apparently,
William, at some point, did get an NBA tryout (after the release of this film).
Unfortunately, his one chance ends when he injures his foot. But perhaps the
boys were not wrong in thinking that basketball was their ticket out of the
ghetto. Even if neither made it to the NBA, it was their basketball
abilities rather than their classroom knowledge that allowed them to pick up a
college degree. Unlike in most movies, their world did not come crashing
down upon them when their dreams went unfulfilled. However, also unlike
most other movies, we are never surprised that their dreams went
unfulfilled. What surprises us the most is that they even made it as far
as they did – and this fails to uplift us. (Probably they came closer to
their dream than most of the boys in the neighborhood because by some fluke
they happen to be subjects for a major motion picture.)
What most people would
identify as the real tragedy occurred later on to the family members who tried
to make their lives revolve around the boys’ basketball careers.
William’s brother, Curtis, was murdered in Chicago in 2001. Arthur’s
father, Bo, was shot to death sometime in 2004. But even this is not
unexpected. Due to repetition in the lives of young people like William
and Arthur, these events end too familiarly. And just as William was to
father a child out of wedlock, we learn that Arthur fathered two children of
his own while attending college. Probably as occurred with his own
childhood, Arthur will appear and disappear from the lives of these children as
they grow to adulthood. If one of the children happens to be a boy, maybe
Arthur will then dream about the days when his own son will become an NBA star.
December 28, 2007
© Robert S. Miller 2007
"Probably as occurred with his own childhood, Arthur will appear and disappear from the lives of these children as they grow to adulthood. If one of the children happens to be a boy, maybe Arthur will then dream about the days when his own son will become an NBA star."
ReplyDeleteHow do you know what kind of father he is?
I don't know what kind of father he was, and I hope he turns out to be a wonderful father.
DeleteMaybe I shouldn't have used the term "probably," but my impression at the time of viewing the movie was that we were seeing a repeat of family history. I would be interested in your input if you have some information that says Arthur was a good father.
Five kids by five different women. He refuses to work. Total loser.
Delete