Hoops: Escape or Illusion? A Review Essay

Abstract

Hoops: Escape or Illusion? A Review Essay John Edgar Wideman, in his work Hoop Roots, articulates the need he had for basketball in the poverty-stricken neighborhood where he grew up when he tells the reader that: Growing up, needed basketball because my family was poor and colored, hemmed in by material circumstances none of us knew how to control, and if wanted more, a larger, different portion than other poor colored folks in Homewood, had to single myself out. (6) Wideman does, indeed, on to parlay skill and talent on the basketball court into a college education that led to his becoming a prominent writer, lecturer, and University of Massachusetts professor. But is there too great an emphasis on using sport as a means to escape the poverty and crime that characterizes many urban African-American neighborhoods? Many leaders of the African-American community have decried the mindset that says that the only hope African-Americans have at access to success is through sport. Arthur Ashe, tennis great, often urged his admirers to spend as much time in the library as they did on practicing their sport. He believed that education was the key to African-American success. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., writing in the August 1, 2004 issue of the New York Times recalled his father as saying, If our people studied calculus like we studied basketball...we'd be running M.I.T.(A11). Harry Edwards, famed sports sociologist and widely recognized expert on race and sport, has often spoken out about what he has called the disproportionately high emphasis on sports achievement (qtd. in Leonard). Yet, Dr. Edwards has also come to the conclusion that this traditional overemphasis on sports may eventually come to benefit the African-American community. He believes that this interest in sport may be the only means that the African-American community has of engaging its young people in positive activity, activity that may eventually lead to greater social mobility. Perhaps the film that best captures the heart of this controversy is Hoop Dreams. Escape or illusion? Perhaps a little of both. In Hoop Dreams, a documentary that chronicles a span of five years in the lives of William Gates and Arthur Agee, two African American youths from the projects of Chicago, the director Steve James captures the essence of this dream and its ramifications. Both Gates and Agee are likeable, talented young men who share similar circumstances and dreams. Both men hope to use basketball as their way to success, dreaming of playing in the The film begins with an obvious allusion to the dream that Gates and Agee share. A rhythmic chant of hoop dreams plays as the camera shows first the and then the crowded courts of a housing project, followed by a shot of people walking into Chicago Stadium where the NBA All Star game is being held. Michael Jordan is shown stealing the ball and then streaking down court for a monster dunk as thousands of fans yell and cheer. Interestingly, the camera chooses to focus on the well-heeled, well-dressed white fans before following the El into Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project and the home of William Gates. Gates and his mother are watching the game on television, reveling in Jordan's artistry. Next, we are shown Gates dunking the ball a la Michael Jordan before seeing him earnestly saying, I wanna play in the NBA like any body else would wanta be. That's my dream. That's what think about all the time. Playin' in the NBA. Soon, we are in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, in the home of Arthur Agee, who is watching his idol, Isaiah Thomas, play the same game. He tells us that when he goes to the NBA, the first thing he will do is go see [his] mama and buy her a house. Later, Bo Agee, Arthur's dad, tells us, I don't even think about it, if he don't make it 'cuz am so focused in on him making just know he will make it. The film then follows both boys over the next four years as they try to attain that dream. …