Hoop Dreams at 30

Steve James, Peter Gilbert, and Frederick Marx's documentary Hoop Dreams was released in 1994 to nearly universal acclaim. Shot over seven-and-a-half years and edited down to 171 minutes from over 250 hours of footage, the documentary chronicles the lives of Arthur Agee and William Gates, two young African American boys from inner-city Chicago who dream of becoming professional basketball players. The film offers a heart-rending portrait of their quests, the immense sacrifices they make to pursue their dreams, and the hopes that their families and communities put on their shoulders. It also offers a searing indictment of how youth sports exploit the talents of athletes—especially lower income Black athletes—and callously dispose of those kids when they no longer prove valuable. Hoop Dreams powerfully demonstrates how sports intersects with race, class, gender, business, and geography. It is perhaps the most influential and celebrated sports documentary ever produced. And now, thirty years after its release, the documentary is a key text in sport history. The late film critic Roger Ebert named it the greatest film of the 1990s, and in 2005 the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Journal of Sport History associate editor Travis Vogan had an opportunity to talk with Hoop Dreams director Steve James about his classic documentary and its enduring legacy.Travis Vogan (TV): When Hoop Dreams was released in 1994, it was more of a journalistic or sociological project. Thirty years later, it's a historical document of a moment in American history and culture. What do you think we can now learn from Hoop Dreams as a piece of American cultural history?Steve James (SJ): I think that the strength of the film is not really the basketball part of it. Obviously, they [Arthur and William] have the basketball dream and they're pursuing it avidly. And that is a feature, particularly in the Black community, that continues to this day. So, that aspect of the story continues to resonate. I meet young ballplayers or ex-ballplayers who say, “You know, the film really spoke to me.” They weren't even born when Hoop Dreams came out. So on the basketball front it has a continuing legacy. But I think the deeper legacy of the film is the way in which the pursuit of basketball serves as a metaphor for the difficulty of aspiring to be successful in poor communities, and particularly poor Black communities. And in that way, not much has changed. I mean, the business aspects that Hoop Dreams revealed were surprising to a lot of people. How the business of basketball sort of reached down to these younger levels of players. We've now come to accept that as part of the landscape. If anything, it dwarfs what we showed in Hoop Dreams.TV: William and Arthur seem pretty aware of how sport seeks to exploit their talents. Do you think young athletes today are even more cognizant of that inherent exploitation and more willing to try to get what they can while they can?SJ: Yeah. When we made Hoop Dreams many people said, “How can these kids believe they're going to make it to the NBA? Don't they realize so few people make it to the NBA?” As if these kids were completely naïve. And I think one of the things Arthur and William clearly understood—and you see that in the film—is that there's more to this than just the idea of making it to the NBA. They understood, even back then, that basketball is both a passion and an opportunity. And on some level, it's a business that they are going to try to navigate and use to their advantage. In their cases, it got them to college—and that's no small thing. And so the kids even back then were far less naïve about the business aspects of popular sports in America. And I think kids today clearly are not naïve about that. I think they and their parents understand that this is the way the game is played—the game off the court. If anything, I think there is more a danger of losing the pure passion for the game and getting overwhelmed by the business aspects it. But that's probably not true. There are still plenty of young players who come along who seem to just love this game.TV: It seems like the sports industry has become far more sophisticated too. Some of the scenes in Hoop Dreams where you interview various college coaches seem almost quaint by today's standards.SJ: Yes. You know, we went to the Nike camp, that was our glimpse into the business aspect of the game writ large—the “meat market” and all of that. Now shoe companies are very much involved with young players and teams at the high school level. The desire to latch onto young, promising players has reached down earlier and earlier, and colleges are offering scholarships to players who are in ninth grade who they believe are going to become serious prospects. I think we've come to accept all of that now in a way. Chicago was one of the last cities to embrace the AAU system. That was because high school coaches were really powerful there, and they resisted the AAU encroaching on their domain. But that's all changed now. And the AAU is a perfect example of the business aspect of basketball becoming all-powerful to the point where the high school team is no longer the center of a player's identity.TV: I wonder too how NIL [Name, Image, and Likeness] and other developments would change a project like Hoop Dreams were it made in 2024.SJ: There's a part of me that is like, “Oh, does the business have to be that overt at that level?” There's a part of me that pines for the fantasy of amateur sports. But it was always a fantasy. And if anything, NIL could end up saving college basketball, at the very least. Because instead of players being one-and-done, more players could decide to stick around because they could be assured of making some serious money and not putting themselves at risk of failing in the NBA. Right now, men's college basketball, I think, is in serious decline. The women's game is dominant in the last couple of years—and I don't think it's just because of Caitlin Clark. I think it's because in the men's game the very best players are done after one year.TV: What are some of the works that influenced Hoop Dreams? Did they mainly come from within or outside the realm of sports?SJ: I grew up in a sports-mad family. I played basketball through high school and one year as a walk-on in college at James Madison University. So, basketball was everything to me. Growing up, I used to get Sports Illustrated. And I couldn't wait for the Sports Illustrated to arrive each week. A big part of its appeal was reading these profiles of young, usually Black, players who had overcome tremendous odds to become successful. As someone who was pursuing basketball, they were doubly appealing to me. So, that's probably the root, in some way, for me personally.When I formed an interest in film, there were some films that really pushed me in the direction of wanting to do documentary. One was Barbara Kopple's Harlan Country, USA (1976). I was really struck by how she had managed to ingratiate herself into this situation where she was a clear outsider and then tell the story in a powerful and important way. And then I was really taken with Michael Apted's Up (1964–present) series when I was in grad school. I was fascinated with this notion of seeing people literally grow up on film.So, I think all of those things were influences. I continued to play basketball in grad school [at Southern Illinois University] down at the rec center, and one day I had this epiphany that it would be interesting to do a film about the pick-up game. I played so much pick-up basketball that I was fascinated with the subculture, and particularly fascinated with the Black subculture. So that was the initial impetus. But then once I got to Chicago and started the film, the focus shifted.Also, when I made this film for ESPN called No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson (2010), I realized another aspect of why I think I gravitated to wanting to make Hoop Dreams. When I was in high school, the team I was on was largely Black. The high school was itself was about 50 percent Black and white, and there were only two white guys on the varsity basketball team—myself and another guy. I had these great teammate relationships with the players on that team, but I really never knew them in any meaningful way beyond the court. And I realized when I made No Crossover that part of the motivation for me wanting to do Hoop Dreams years earlier was a desire to really come to understand my teammates who I had a great camaraderie with but never really got to know.TV: Were you in some ways picking up on films like Cooley High (1975) and Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975), which both take place in Chicago and concern ill-fated basketball stars?SJ: I hadn't seen either of those when I started Hoop Dreams. There was a book I read around that time called Friday Night Lights (1990) by H. G. Bissinger. That wasn't the inspiration for Hoop Dreams, but I read it when we were trying to get underway and I remember thinking, “This book really gets at it. This book really gets at how football resonates culturally, racially, and otherwise.” So, I remember being really taken with that. And growing up, the first mature book I read that I felt like I truly loved was the book on Connie Hawkins, Foul! (1972). So, there were all these things that I think kind of pushed me in that direction, but no other films on basketball.TV: As I understand it, Hoop Dreams was originally going to be a thirty-minute production for PBS. When did you know that this project needed to be bigger?SJ: When we started, the idea was very modest. It was to focus on a single playground and get at some of the culture of pick-up basketball. My thought was that we would see some young dreamers like Arthur and William. I expected we'd see some older players who had come through the system and were back on the neighborhood court, which is kind of like what William's older brother Curtis ended up representing in Hoop Dreams. And we were looking at courts where some NBA player had played. In particular, we were looking on the West Side because that's where Isiah Thomas grew up.The initial budget was for a six-month project and a short film. I got a small grant from the Illinois Arts Council for $2,000. And we decided that we should just go find a court and start doing some filming. And during our initial week of shooting that was our purpose. But when we were out with [independent talent scout] Big Earl Smith, this guy who knew all the courts of Chicago, he discovered Arthur. It became readily apparent to us that this was really interesting. Like, “Wait. He's going to recruit this kid? And we're right here?” So, that initial week we filmed Big Earl discovering Arthur. Shortly after that Earl took Arthur out to the camp at St. Joseph's [High School] where he got to play against Isiah [Thomas].We were filming Arthur and his family meeting [St. Joseph's] coach [Gene] Pingatore. Coach Pingatore says, “If you come here and you work hard at the books and you work hard at basketball, I'll help you get to a college.” I remember thinking, “What an extraordinary promise. He just met this kid. And he's telling this kid that he will help him get to college.” So, that's where the idea was born both to change the focus of the film. We would have to figure out a way to film for a period of time with no money, and we were thinking, “Well, maybe we could just check in with them once a month somehow.” My joke was that we would keep filming Hoop Dreams until someone finally gave us money. And that's kind of true. And then we just got more and more involved in it, and more and more taken with the stories that were evolving.We met William at that same St. Joe's camp. He wasn't playing because he had turned an ankle. But Pingatore had talked about what an amazing talent he was. We thought, “Well, maybe we can follow both of these kids because one of them will end up being interesting.” We didn't expect we would end up following both Arthur and William; we were just trying to hedge our bets. And we didn't think about how brutal it would be to maybe have to tell one of the kids that we weren't going to film them anymore. So, fortunately, it worked out that both kids’ stories made it the film it is. And I think I've discovered over the years with the films I've done—none more dramatically than Hoop Dreams—that you always start out with an idea of something you want to do, and it may even be a pretty great idea, but the fun and the joy of making documentaries is to let them take you where they take you instead of you trying to force them into a box.TV: It also seems like there's a lot of serendipity involved.SJ: Just about every great documentary that I can think of benefits from serendipity.TV: It's amazing to me that you found Arthur and William in those first weeks, because I was going to ask if there were other players you were considering who were eventually left out of the film.SJ: There were other players we looked at, but it didn't work out for one reason or another.TV: As I understand it, you all shot over 250 hours of footage. Are there any threads or scenes that you would have really liked to include that were left out?SJ: There was one in particular that I really wish had stayed in the film. At one point, they were making a television movie based on Isiah Thomas's mother and him [A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story (1989)]. They put out an open casting call to play a young Isiah, and Arthur auditioned. It's a great scene. Obviously, Arthur didn't get the job, but he was auditioning to play his hero. And then they ended up shooting scenes of basketball games literally at St. Joe's. We documented a day of shooting in the St. Joe's gym, which was hilarious because Pingatore was coaching the actor who was playing him. It was a great scene, and I don't know why we cut it out.TV: I'm kind of surprised Arthur didn't get the job. He's so charismatic.SJ: He did a pretty good job in the Are there any scenes that you wish you would have edited or scenes that you don't think as thirty years There's I really think should go out. But in any film, you have to try to include the scenes that the of all that you I don't think the film is at all to St. Joe's coach but I was surprised at the he from I expected Pingatore to be because he to be for how he with and also how he with William. But I was kind of at how people to to him as if he was a truly I never felt Pingatore was a at He's just a And he's one of those coaches that a And when a white coach a lot and a lot of his players are Black I think there's a for white read a kind of into it. I think that Pingatore was in many ways about of his Black players. like he had some when it came to But the that he at kids in have doing that time read too much into that and kind of onto him in ways that I think were to One of the things I like about Hoop Dreams is that you let the for And you a even But there are a couple of that I read as pretty when Arthur is being from St. Joe's for not you Pingatore as of than which his in the In another moment when the are going into St. Joe's to with the you include a shot of the and on the of the which us that this school is a I every film has a point of There are when we I had to Pingatore to us to film that scene. And the way I it to him was that here was a family that was so to seeing their and have an opportunity to go on to college that they to come in and work all this out. And what this will is how the are to which is What I didn't believe you guys are making them this And we to that. And in that it is one of the more scenes in the film, and we into it. It's interesting. I've that in with and literally during that are other that are more One of my of the movie is after from the The last shot in that is this with of but only a of people. It that as as this is for and it's a very small and And the shot you see is a basketball game where the are completely and the place is In those of the film is wanting you to on where our I read that you the with some when you realized that their had turned There is of them the but is not in the film. you talk about the that you think documentary have to their and how you that with Hoop We talked at great about the money so they could get their turned back We didn't talk at great about we should do it or We decided pretty that it was something we needed to And we decided we needed to do it because of an to help in that but only I think this is had just how it had for We that was our as telling this We felt like it was important to the that they had had their turned off and that's how it had for But then once we had we felt like the right for us to do was to help them out. The big was not we should do that or But the big was we should include it in the film. And we decided not to because we that it seem as if we were on the back to say, how we this And that's the last we to We felt like we didn't at all for doing that. We just felt like this was something that we needed to do for and and and that it was for years I never this But Arthur has talked about it and I think he even about it on the for the so it's not a anymore. And that all their during filming and then they got And it was an thing. We had of the They to which me But we had their of it. We were all this in the film. But when they a cut of the film, they if it could be because they had back and they that their not be part of the film. We and took it out. But back when to get from we do that. came to us and said, a And we found a So, you know, you could for journalistic we do any of that or if you do it you should it in the film. in I now with that But at the time we decided not to it because we felt like people it as us on the And then we took the out of the film because the us It was the we could do for of the more it was an on my that because I had a with from she was the one who us that the had turned and that things were and that Arthur was about it I said, “Well, like to film and for us to come film when Arthur was at But for reason let out and he came in the of us filming. He was not He felt like we had around his which we And so that was a serious that I've to going as a You always want to and with about the most continued to make and films about and No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson The in the What is it about sports that you back as a I think to what I earlier about growing up in a family. I mean, even my was a and in my that was Sports is just in my And I fascinated by sports. I have to come a that you can into in a meaningful way that in the sports Sports are a part of our on so many And I think one of the things that sports stories really to me is that they are a way to get at all of these things that interest me that are beyond the playing or the playing court. The sports stories I've to I've gravitated to because they have so much more to about us as a We have a to on the back about sports and in this There's this to believe that sports have the for of that is and I have it in my it is also not true. Sports has also Sports continues to even while it There's just a

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