Hoop Dreams: Final Essay

In the film Hoop Dreams one follows the progress of two young African American men whose future hangs entirely on their athletic prowess in the game of basketball. Their present situation is grim to say the least, living in a “wrong side of the tracks” type of urban neighborhood. Even in the rough neighborhood that the two young men reside, they have family and friends who support them in their dream to play college and potentially NBA level basketball. And it is this outlet alone that will make or break their potential for a better future.

            William Gates is one of the young African American men who are followed in the documentary Hoop Dreams. His future is drastically changed with his recruitment into the private high school of St. Joseph due to his basketball prowess, which he has refined to a form of art with years of street basketball under his belt. When the documentary crew follows William out to the wealthy neighborhood in which St. Joseph is located one can tell the drastic difference the three-hour commute makes, as far as social standings and situations are concerned. In William’s neighborhood the viewer sees sketchy looking young men standing at street corners and tenement building after tenement building. While in Westchester (where St. Joseph is located) one sees tree lined streets with extremely nice looking houses lining the streets. This is the proverbial night and day difference that William experiences every school day.

most likely the one thing that turned around Arthur's and Williams lives

            Meanwhile Arthur Agee (the other young man featured in the documentary) who also got recruited to St. Joseph fails to keep up with the payment required to attend the private catholic school. He then gets kicked out and sent to his neighborhood public school. In the documentary the viewers should notice the subtle difference in the pep-bands of Marshall (the public school) and St. Joseph. St. Joseph band kids had shiny new instruments while the kids at Marshall had slightly beaten in instruments. But as far as raw musical talent goes, Marshall had far more soul. And that soul was transferred onto the basketball court as well. While in William’s senior year St. Joseph doesn’t make it past the first playoff round, Arthur and Marshall take it all the way to third place in the state tournament.

            But to put the ol’ undergraduate brain to evaluating the social situation that these two young men reside, one must look at the culture in which William and Arthur are living in. Just in their neighborhood alone, one sees next to no successful individuals, no one with a four-year college degree and nearly no one with a well paying job. This lack of people to look up to seems extremely detrimental to any young person. It seems that the only way to get out of the sub-par neighborhood is to be good at basketball, like William and Arthur’s hero Isiah Thomas. This then forces the viewer to ponder the whole ramification of teaching an entire subset of American youths that their future relies purely on their physical prowess, not their academic prowess. The lack of support for the academically gifted can be seen in Arthur’s public high school Marshall. The teachers tend to give up on the majority of the class, giving most of their focus and attention to the few students who try. Arthur is not one of those students; instead his only form of support from the school comes from the basketball coach.

            Meanwhile at the private school of St. Joseph one sees academics playing a much larger role, even in the life of William who has hinged his future on his athletic prowess. In the classrooms, the student to teacher ratio is a lot small then at Marshall and the focus of the teachers is towards the sub-par students (like William) and pulling them up to snuff. This reflects in William’s future, in particular his plethora of college recruitment letters and also finally in his college selection, Marquette. Meanwhile Arthur is forced (due to grades) to attend a two year technical college in Arkansas and then he gets transferred up to a four year institution, all the while playing basketball.

            Hoop Dreams allows the viewer to see in the years surrounding Michael Jordan’s success, that the only visible, heralded route to success and fame is through athletic prowess, not academic. And the viewer sees that on numerous levels, in particular through the night and day difference of the focus between Marshall and St. Joseph. At Marshall a success would be a former student who graduates, at St. Joseph a success would be a student who graduates from a four-year private school. So it appears that the only form of success for an inner city youth would only be achieved through the game of basketball.