Hoop Dreams

- -

And welcome to the 38th annual NBA All-Star game...

from Chicago Stadium.

A standing-room-only crowd.

A steal by Jordan. He spun it away from the Mailman.

Just needs a little time-out to reorganize.

And the chances of a West comeback are slipping away.

Aguirre for three.

I have never seen an All-Star game...

that had such spectacular passing...

and plays, and thundering plays like this.

They're beginning to hang, Billy.

Ah, what a way to end this ball game.

Right now, I wanna, you know, play in the NBA...

like anybody else would wanna be.

That's who - That's something...

I dream and think about all the time -

playing in the NBA.

He's just doing something that he loves so much.

He just love it so much. I'm just happy for him.

If somebody can understand the way William play...

that'll make me feel a lot better.

The way they should have understood the way I played.

This Chicagoan is making his seventh All-Star appearance.

From the Detroit Pistons, 6'1 "...

Isiah Thomas!

When I get in the NBA...

the first thing I'm gonna do...

I'm gonna see my mama, I'm gonna buy her a house...

I'm gonna go there and make sure my sister and my brother's okay.

If we were okay or not.

Probably get my dad...

a Cadillac Oldsmobile...

so he can cruise in the game.

Something real long.

Dominique! Ooh!

He dreams about it.

He look at those basketball commercials...

where they be advertising these Nike shoes?

He'll tell his little, small brother...

"Joe, Joe, that's me."

So the West leads. Thomas trying to go the distance. Loses it.

I don't even think about it, if he don't make it.

Just 'cause I'm so -

I'm so, you know, focused in on him making it.

I just know he'll make it.

I'm off to Central...

and the Congress Expressway -

a park over there where there are some pretty talented young men.

Earl Smith works downtown as an insurance executive.

On weekends he's an unofficial talent scout for several area high schools.

This is what you call "beating the bushes."

This is the job of most of your freshmen coaches...

and guys like me who - who played a little bit of the game...

who love trying to help young people on the road to success.

It's in! It's in!

Today Earl spots Arthur Agee, who just graduated from grammar school.

He's got the quickest first step that I've seen in about five years.

His first step.

I will bet you a steak dinner in four years you'll be hearing from him.

I don't even know anything about him.

Several days later, Earl takes Arthur and his family on a recruiting visit...

to the high school where NBA star Isiah Thomas played.

The visit will give St. Joseph's coaches...

a chance to see Arthur perform.

Your role today, Arthur...

is to impress the coaches.

Try not to be too fancy.

Take the open shot when you have it.

Play good defense and make good passes.

The rest of it, just play natural, you know.

I'm hoping I'm gonna go to St. Joe and play...

but first I gotta - I gotta get my books straight.

And...

hopefully come out and impress the coaches.

Is it kinda scary?

Yes, it is.

I've never been to a school way out before...

and I would be going to a school with different kids, different races.

You can look at the scenery, new friends to meet.

What if Isiah's there today?

Well, if he be there...

I'll be shocked...

'cause that'd be my first time ever seeing him...

up close, you know, real life.

Basketball has to be second to your academics.

If you don't get your grades, you're not gonna play.

If you work hard at the grades, and if you work hard at basketball...

then I would be able to help you as far as going to college.

And I guarantee this.

I can't promise you where you're gonna go and if you're gonna be a star...

but I guarantee that I would help you get into the school...

that would be best for you.

I'm making a commitment to you...

if you make a commitment to being part of this kind of a program.

Out of all of the kids at the St. Joseph Basketball Camp...

there are a few like Arthur that Coach Pingatore is recruiting.

It was like million of guys trying to be better than the other...

but, to me, I was better than all of them...

except for Isiah.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a graduate of St. Joe's...

high school all-American...

all-American from Indiana University...

five-time NBA All-Star...

Isiah Thomas.

- - Hello. How are you?

In everybody's neighborhood, there's a guy who can really play.

He can shoot the lights out.

Every time down the court - Swish, swish, swish!

Then he goes to St. Joseph High School...

and the guy gets cut.

You say, "But Tom was real good. Why did he get cut?"

See, Tom didn't learn the fundamentals of team basketball...

which is what you're learning how to play.

He told my daddy that he knew I could play...

so he just had to play me hard.

I can see the playground in him. I can see talent.

But I don't see the confidence.

With Isiah, I just knew he was gonna be a great one.

He had that total combination of personality, confidence, talent...

intelligence.

I think I see it in one kid that's coming here.

He flows with a smoothness and confidence...

and strength...

that you don't see in every kid.

But he could become a great player.

Use that hook shot. Always work it. You can't block it.

Ohh!

I just bang him and bruise him.

I'm trying to let him know right now you gonna get hit, get knocked down...

you gonna get banged around, so you better get used to it now.

Stop it. One-hand hook.

All these basketball dreams I had, they gone.

All I see - All my dreams is in him now.

I want him to make it so bad, I don't know what to do.

If they want to play basketball and stuff, that was always okay.

But I was gonna make sure all of 'em got through high school.

A high school diploma was very important to me.

My mother, she was like mother and father to me.

She don't want me really hanging around over here that much...

'cause of the gangs.

I feel if I go to St. Joseph...

I'll at least get a good chance to go to a good college.

That would be good for me.

That was my first son.

I said, "That's Daddy's man," so we just started calling him "Man."

Get around it!

I could have been a good college player.

Most likely I would have made it to the pros.

But, you know, once I had my son...

I knew then something good was gonna come out of it.

I think the talent gonna be passed on.

He told me, "I'm so scared of growing up." I said, "Why?"

He said a grown-up has so many problems. "I got so many things on my mind."

I just want Arthur to have more...

you know, have a better life than what I had.

I don't want him experiencing bad things that I went through in life.

Austin Boulevard will be the next stop. Austin is next.

Like Isiah Thomas before them...

both Arthur and William make a three-hour round trip each day...

between the city and St. Joseph's.

That was strange for me going out to a far-out school.

I saw a rug, flowers, clean hallways...

things that I didn't see in an ordinary school.

Gotta move! Gotta move!

Come on.

- Three, four, five or 10? - Ten.

You got it. Three, four, five?

Arthur wins the starting point-guard position on the freshmen team.

Agee, I want you to find in that warm-up number two.

Brown, number three.

Ettmeyer, four.

Hey, Arthur, you know if you miss free throws...

they count 'em up, and you have to pay 15 cents.

Then if you don't pay it, they gonna make you run 50 laps, and still you have to pay the money.

- You still gotta pay the money? - That's way out.

When Arthur first started at St. Joseph's...

he was a good kid, from what we saw...

but he was very immature.

He might have been a little more disruptive, speaking out...

getting into childish things.

He wasn't used to the discipline and the control.

He reverted back to, maybe, his environment, where he came from.

I just never been around a lot of white people and...

it was different, because at a black school I could associate with the people.

You know, they talk the way I talk.

It was a little hard, but I can adjust to it.

You can see there was talent there.

We kept saying up in the stands, "Get the ball to Arthur...

because he's going to do it for you."

And sure enough, they gave him the ball with seconds on the clock.