Here’s the pitch: we’ll follow Jerryd Bayless, Michael Beasley, Tyreke Evans, Donte Greene, Brandon Jennings, Kevin Love, Kyle Singler, Lance Stephenson before and during the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic at Rucker Park. The first half provides profiles of the eight players follows the players a few weeks before the game. Their various upbringings are far more interesting than their various skillsets on the court.
My main problem with it is the second half, which is the actual game at Rucker Park. I’m not a fan of the editing on this. Most distracting are the play rewinds—it reminded me of a Premo track when you sort of just want to get to the rest of the song already. When they talk about Rucker, it’s always mentioned that nickname’s are something you earn, something to be proud of. Whenever a player does something nice, a still-photo of them is shown and their new nickname is stamped on top. It seems to be one of the main premises of the game portion of the film, and it didn’t work for me because Bobbito starts throwing the nicknames out left and right. Also, the game’s just not good.
It reflects the weird culture of elite prep basketball, where player rankings are so crucial. All-star games are individual showcases. As much as the movie tries to represent Rucker Park as Mecca, the players don’t do a great job of selling the idea that it’s more than just the same game, different venue. They don’t care too much about filling the stat sheets. Unfortunately, it’s not because of their burning desire to win on a legendary court—it’s because stats don’t matter as much as collecting oohs and aahs. The end result is a sloppy game full of botched dunks and bad passes.
As a movie, I can’t really recommend it unless you’re fairly interested in basketball. It would’ve been better to watch it last year when most of these kids were drafted, but a single year shouldn’t be long enough to make a lot of the movie feel so irrelevant. It’s unfair to compare but it still has to be said: Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot has nothing on Hoop Dreams.