Hoop Dreamin'...
I just saw "Hoops Dreams" again...That movie is dope, dope....dope.
To me that was more of a 'Chicago' story than a basketball story. High-top fades, Cabrini projects, Seward Park, Westinghouse gym, line-dances, and house parties with no electricity..West Side livin'!...
I've seen "Hoops Dreams" about ten times now, but I haven't caught it in over the last three years. It is fun to see a lot of old faces throughout the flick....Funny, there were several McDonald's All-Americans that came from Chicago during William Gates's and Arthur Agee's time period. Howard Nathan, Tom Kleinschmidt, Juwan Howard, Deryl Cunningham, Rashard Griffith, and Jaimie Brandon. Where are they now?
A lot of people really feel bad about basketball after watching that movie. Their reasons are valid, but if you look at basketball with reality, the sport is still great for inner cities. Ball is one of the the only things that not only gives inner-city kids self-esteem, but ball also is the only thing that gives a urban public school any esteem. Shameful...but true. And there's not a lot of other strategies to entice kids to stay in school and push out of the system.
Believe me, if there was no ball, there would be about twenty or thirty kids from each school back out in the street roofing hubcaps, or worse yet, about ten in jail and five or six dead.
So, I can't fault guys like "Coach Ping". Yes, he's a hard-@$$, and he is a Chicago old-school relic. However, he has pumped a lot of kids to colleges, and believe me, without a St. Joe's or a catholic league education, those kids couldn't get a job twisting caramel wrappers at the Ferrara Pan company.
Interesting note: Two summers ago, I was chilling with Deryl Cunningham, who played for 'Coach Ping' at St. Joe's, between rec games that he was reffing at a health club in the Gold Coast. Other than Juwan, he had no idea of where any of those guys like Nathan, Kleinschmidt, or Gates were. One statement that hit me more than anything from our conversation was when he said..."I should have gone to Duke".
When he said that I immediately thought about Calvin Hill's statement about athlete's lives. "There are two lives for athletes. The life that they lived during their careers, and life that they spend on looking back at their career."
"SI" said in this summer's 'Where are they now?" issue that Arthur is starting a clothing line based around the movie...the cycle continues...So, before I shoot the system down. William got a Marquette education. Arthur had a shot at JUCO...Both had shots, and like it or not...The shots were available because of ball.
Second note: It was funny to see Bo Ellis "Chicago style" selling William Gates on Marquette by stating that Junior Bridgeman, Marques Johnson, Bob Lanier, and Oscar Robertson played in the same building....Looking at the rafters, they're in the Bradley Center...Yo Bo, those guys played at the Mecca. Stop fibbin'....
Still is and always will be one of my TOP FIVE Movies of All-time,
BD
To me that was more of a 'Chicago' story than a basketball story. High-top fades, Cabrini projects, Seward Park, Westinghouse gym, line-dances, and house parties with no electricity..West Side livin'!...
I've seen "Hoops Dreams" about ten times now, but I haven't caught it in over the last three years. It is fun to see a lot of old faces throughout the flick....Funny, there were several McDonald's All-Americans that came from Chicago during William Gates's and Arthur Agee's time period. Howard Nathan, Tom Kleinschmidt, Juwan Howard, Deryl Cunningham, Rashard Griffith, and Jaimie Brandon. Where are they now?
A lot of people really feel bad about basketball after watching that movie. Their reasons are valid, but if you look at basketball with reality, the sport is still great for inner cities. Ball is one of the the only things that not only gives inner-city kids self-esteem, but ball also is the only thing that gives a urban public school any esteem. Shameful...but true. And there's not a lot of other strategies to entice kids to stay in school and push out of the system.
Believe me, if there was no ball, there would be about twenty or thirty kids from each school back out in the street roofing hubcaps, or worse yet, about ten in jail and five or six dead.
So, I can't fault guys like "Coach Ping". Yes, he's a hard-@$$, and he is a Chicago old-school relic. However, he has pumped a lot of kids to colleges, and believe me, without a St. Joe's or a catholic league education, those kids couldn't get a job twisting caramel wrappers at the Ferrara Pan company.
Interesting note: Two summers ago, I was chilling with Deryl Cunningham, who played for 'Coach Ping' at St. Joe's, between rec games that he was reffing at a health club in the Gold Coast. Other than Juwan, he had no idea of where any of those guys like Nathan, Kleinschmidt, or Gates were. One statement that hit me more than anything from our conversation was when he said..."I should have gone to Duke".
When he said that I immediately thought about Calvin Hill's statement about athlete's lives. "There are two lives for athletes. The life that they lived during their careers, and life that they spend on looking back at their career."
"SI" said in this summer's 'Where are they now?" issue that Arthur is starting a clothing line based around the movie...the cycle continues...So, before I shoot the system down. William got a Marquette education. Arthur had a shot at JUCO...Both had shots, and like it or not...The shots were available because of ball.
Second note: It was funny to see Bo Ellis "Chicago style" selling William Gates on Marquette by stating that Junior Bridgeman, Marques Johnson, Bob Lanier, and Oscar Robertson played in the same building....Looking at the rafters, they're in the Bradley Center...Yo Bo, those guys played at the Mecca. Stop fibbin'....
Still is and always will be one of my TOP FIVE Movies of All-time,
BD
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