More Than a Game

⭐9/10

This is a 2006 documentary about a group of friends who became Ohio basketball phenoms in the early 2000s. Of course that group included LeBron James, the greatest high school basketball player of all time. 

I had seen this documentary before, but after reading There's Always This Year, it was time to revisit it. It's an interesting one in that it was made so long ago that LeBron was not yet LeBron, even if he was already the best player alive, and yet he's still the NBAs central figure two decades later. Of course this documentary isn't about LeBron alone, but by the end he is clearly the main character. 

I love this doc. It didn't get rave reviews, and I'm not totally sure why because I think it's essentially perfect. It's an underdog story in that these were all pretty poor kids, mostly from the projects, and they became best friends and stayed together through the years. They are all pretty funny and entertaining, and it's so, so cool to see them go from the courts at the YMCA to playing for the national championship on ESPN. 

I wasn't quite old enough to watch this unfold when it did, so it's great to revisit here. They do a great job of contextualizing their success, these kids beating prep schools like Oak Hill where kids are coming from across the country to play basketball, only to lose to a team of a few local Ohio kids. It also highlights LeBron's ascension, from a talened young kid to an absolute phenom by the time he's 16. It was funny watching the praise montage in He Got Game, only to see it repeated here in this movie in real life. It really is the best, real-life rags-to-riches basketball story, and that 10 season LeBron documentary is going to go hard when it finally comes out to dethrone The Last Dance. 

I think the other highlight for me was the coach, Dru Joyce, who again went from being his son's grade school coach to being the coach of national champion. But I loved the way he talks, and is kinda the perfect father-figure for this ragtag group who pretty much all lack father figures. He's soft spoken and I love the things he says, both acknowledging the weight of this situation and yet making it about more than basketball. It just made me think about how few men would be able to steer these guys in the right direction, and yet he did it while only ending up in that position by chance. Sometimes I wonder how different the LeBron story could have been if a lesser man was in Joyce's spot. 

Anyways, awesome documentary about the greatest player of all time. How can you not be romantic about basketball??? 

(For the record, Jess said that Last Dance was better, so I guess Jordan retains GOAT status for now)