Hebrews 11:1

When I was sent a pre-release copy of ESPN’s documentary Black Magic, I was stoked to get the opportunity to finally watch this documentary. Living in Canada, I don’t have the chance to watch ESPN, yet all summer long I kept hearing great reviews about this documentary which only served to increase my curiosity.

When I cracked open the DVD and noticed it was 224 minutes long I began to question what I got myself into. Who wants to sit on the couch for nearly four hours watching a documentary? I hadn’t even pressed play and I could already feel my butt becoming numb at the mere thought of sitting on the couch for that long.

Despite some initial hesitation, four hours later I was still trying to absorb what I just watched and wishing the documentary had been longer.

Yes, you read that right: After sitting for nearly four hours watching a documentary I was hoping there was more to watch and learn.

The documentary started with an incredible look at the secret game that John C. McClendon organized back in 1944. The illegal game between Duke University and North Carolina College was the first time a team of black players played a team of white players and is viewed by many as a huge step forward for the game of basketball and integration. The documentary continued to focus on McClendon and showed how his motion offense changed the way the game of basketball was played and the role he had in ending segregation in NCAA basketball.

We live in an era where players, coaches and anyone associated with a professional sports team are warned not to cause ripples. What amazed me while watching this documentary was the fact McLendon risked his career, reputation and possibly even his life by trying to bring about positive social change while attempting to improve the way the game of basketball was played. It wasn’t for his own personal glory, it was because he saw the benefit of this game to his players and to African Americans all across America.

While many basketball fans look to Mike D’Antoni with awe and admiration for how he’s changed the NBA over the past decade, the simple truth is what D’Antoni’s numerous accomplishments pale in comparison to what McLendon accomplished. McLendon was mentored by Dr. J. Naismith on how the game should be played from baseline-to-baseline and with that knowledge he created revolutionary offensive sets which would see lots of transition baskets and shots within the first eight seconds.

Another part of the documentary that caught my attention was the rare candidness that Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland showed when talking about the mistakes he’d made in life. Far too often professional athletes hide behind cliches when “apologizing” for their mistakes. Kirkland broke free from this and was refreshingly honest and candid in talking about the mistakes that resulted in him spending time in Northeastern Penitentiary. The part with him talking about Kirkland ripping up the Anthracite Basketball League and scoring 100 points in a game while in NE Penitentiary is some truly remarkable material.

Just when my attention was starting to wane, another gem came out about the start of John Chaney’s coaching career. While most basketball fans know Chaney as the coach at Temple, his coaching career began at Cheyney State College where in 1978 where he brought his team to the Division II Finals. Chaney has long been a favourite coach of mine so the chance to listen to him tell stories of his time as a head coach had me completely mesmerized.

I consider myself as a fan of the history of the game, but after watching this documentary I realized just how much I have to learn about the game. Between all the anecdotes from Willis Reed, John Chaney, Bob Love, Al Attles, Richard “Pee Wee” Kirkland, Bob Dandridge, Sonny Hill, Harold Hunter, Cleo Hill, Ernie Brown, and the widows of Clarence “Big House” Gaines and John McLendon, I’ve learned that I still have a ton to learn about the history of basketball and the NBA.

Throw narration by Samuel L. Jackson and music by Wynton Marsalis and Black Magic is able to provide the perfect combination of entertainment and information.

I don’t care how big of a basketball historian you consider yourself, I feel confident that there are parts of this documentary that will teach you something. For a rabid basketball fan like myself, watching this documentary was like sitting in a lecture hall for four hours while soaking up over 100 years of the history of the game.

If you’re looking for a way to get your basketball fix this month and learn something new, I’d like to recommend picking up ESPN’s riveting documentary Black Magic.

By Ryan McNeill

As a coach for an elementary school basketball team I’m always looking for a couple extra drills to add to my practices. I was looking at DVD’s this month and I came across one featuring Brian McCormick called “Great Ball-Handling Made Easy” that caught my attention. The cover wasn’t as flashy at the DVD’s by Better Basketball or Magic Johnson but after reading his book “Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development” last month I became a fan of his coaching methodologies and I assumed that a DVD he endorsed would be full of drills I would want to incorporate into my practices.

I’ve been coaching elementary school basketball for nearly 10 years and as this season begins I’ve found myself wanting to incorporate some different drills into my practices. After reading Coach McCormick’s book last month I decided to get away trying to implement zones and set offenses and instead try to incoporate more games into my practices. This DVD didn’t include any specific games I can run with my players like his book did, but the DVD did address a lot of skill sets and skill progressions that I was able to easily adapt into games. Some of the specific skill sets that I have started to implement based on the skill progressions included in this DVD are the Behind–The-Back Dribble, Spin Dribbles and the Space/Pull Back Crossover Dribble.

Something that I’ve been struggling with in my practices is teaching my students how to successfully complete a fake crossover without carrying the ball. Without fail whenever one of my grade 7 or 8 students attempts this move they find their hand under the ball and are called for travelling. This video did a great job of breaking the fake crossover down into six mini-steps and when I used these in my latest practice my kids gobbled this up.

Another great tool included with this DVD was the “Take to the Court” card that I found inside the sleeve for the DVD case. After watching nearly 70 drills during the hour long DVD my mind was swimming and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to remember all of the drills that Brian brought up in this video. Now I’ll just bring the card that holds the drills and sub drills to my practices and it will serve as a quick and easy reminder of the drills and progressions that Coach McCormick recommended.

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, I haven’t watched any other DVD’s so I don’t have anything to compare this DVD with. All I can tell you is that I was looking for a DVD with some drills that could keep my practices fresh while challenging my students and this DVD met that requirement. While this DVD doesn’t have the same production work as the other prominent videos on the market it does have quality content that coaches of youth teams will appreciate.

You can order this DVD by clicking here.

By Ryan McNeill

This weekend I was fortunate enough to watch the basketball documentary “With This Rock.” This DVD is an independent release and doesn’t have the same flash or production as ESPN’s “Through the Fire” or the ‘90′s classic “Hoop Dreams” but it does an excellent job capturing the politics and corruption involved with basketball in Flint, Michigan. The DVD begins with a scene from the Michigan State National Championship ceremony in Lansing but the documentary quickly changes gears to show that things weren’t all positive in Flint in 2000. Between clips showing physical abuse by the police, shady business deals by crooked politicians to profiles of players who failed to make their mark once they left Flint, director Emmanuel White does a great job of shedding light on the fact that basketball has broken numerous hearts in Flint.

Through watching documentaries like “With This Rock” or “Flint Star” this summer I have come to the conclusion that Flint basketball players are so successful because they dedicate their lives to basketball in an attempt to escape their poverty. Because they have so much to gain through success at basketball and so much more to lose by not escaping Flint they are willing to spend countless hours honing their craft in an attempt to get a scholarship or to obtain riches through playing in the NBA.

A local high school coach, Greg Burks, backs-ups this belief when he tells White that “I’ve been to New York. I’ve been to Kentucky. I’ve been all over the country. I’ve seen and been around the best and I haven’t seen anything compared to Flint basketball players. They have a certain amount of toughness, a certain amount of drive that kids usually don’t have.”

It’s this mental toughness and desire to escape Flint that is something that either catapults Flint players to greatness or devours them. “With This Rock” does a great job of documenting how this drive effected the lives of Terry Furlow, Charlie Bell, Justus Thigpen Sr, Leon White, Roy Marble, Bill Harris and Eric Turner. This drive to escape Flint helped most of these local legends achieve greatness but it also resulted in Furlow’s life ending prematurely due to drug use.

While most of this documentary is dark and depressing there are parts of the documentary that show some of the redeeming qualities of Flint. One highlight for me was the way that Charlie Bell’s parents instilled the value of an education in their son. As children basketball prodigies are often coddled by the public and their parents. The problem with this coddling is when they don’t make the NBA because they are quickly dismissed by fans and “leeches” that had attached to them for the next big thing. This leaves these young men without an education and any way to sustain the flashy lifestyles they become accustomed to living. White was able to sit down with the parents of Charlie Bell for this documentary and it was clear that they had prepared their son for the fact that he might not be able to make a living as a pro basketball player. One of the things they stressed to Charlie since a young age was the need for an education so that he could support himself once his days playing basketball were over.

Another highlight was the profile on the playing career of Flint legend Eric Turner. While watching “Flint Star” earlier this summer Turner was a player that was mentioned but Marcus Davenport wasn’t able to dedicate a lot of time in his documentary to Turner. White was able to collect a lot of video from his playing days and he did a great job of interviewing a wide variety of coaches and former players about Turner.

While this DVD isn’t as polished and slick as Marcus Davenport’s “Flint Star” and tends to be depressing at times, it’s still worth checking out because it will give you some more valuable insight into what life is like within the Flint basketball community.

Look for an interview with director Emmanuel White on the Hoops Addict Podcast later this week.

This week I’ve mentioned the economic hardships of growing up in Flint, but I’ve received some emails reminding me that I’ve failed to provide you with stats to back this up. According to a 2000 census, 124,943 people live in Flint, it has an unemployment rate of 12.9% and 18,832,000 residents don’t have a diploma or GED.

Coach Swain from Delta College told Davenport that, “we don’t have no $30,000 jobs no more here now. It’s just keeping it real now in the hood. All we now is the court. That’s where we’re working at now.”

Early into the documentary Flint hoops prodigy Mateen Cleaves summed up the plight of his community when he told Marcus Davenport that “coming from Flint you got guys that are hungry. You see friends here one day, the next they calling you to say their dead. You grow up and you see the drugs being sold. A Mercedes Benz? I never saw one as a kid unless I was out in the suburbs and I saw someone driving one down the street. I always dreamed about getting out of the neighborhood. I knew I wasn’t no rocket scientist. I wasn’t the smartest kid. I was decent in school but I knew I had to obtain a certain grade point average to play basketball, and that’s why I went to school – to play basketball. That’s why I went to school, to be honest, to play basketball. I knew basketball was my way out. I knew basketball was going to put food on the table for me and my family. Like I’ve said, I’ve seen drugs being sold, guns, violence and all that kind of stuff and I’m like man, this ain’t the lifestyle for me. This isn’t how I want to live the rest of my life.”

Flint Resident, and Clark Atlanta University student told Davenport that, “out here in Flint there’s already a high crime rate, without basketball it would be nothing but a ghost town. So many cats thrive off basketball, so many cats live off basketball down here. Basketball down here is a way of life, it’s a way to get out. A lot of cats struggle but they know that if they hoop and can get to college and get that degree than they can go anywhere in life.”

A coach at Genesee County Job Corps Basketball told Davenport that, “the reality is this right here, a lot of our males today come from single parent homes. The mother was working one job, now she’s working two jobs so now you have young males raising themselves. So in the process of raising themselves, if they don’t have a good foundation of positive peers around them, good positive community around them, what are you going to get? Nine times out of ten you are going to get something society that don’t want to see on a daily basis.”

Watching Marcus Davenport’s hoops documentary Flint Star reminded me of how fortunate I am to have grown up in a suburb in Ontario because I’ve never had to worry about money and I have been blessed to live a fortunate life.

A lot of basketball fans are familiar with names like Morris Peterson, Mateen Cleaves, Charlie Bell, Eddie Robinson, Glen Rice and Latrell Sprewell, but there are lots of amazing basketball players from Flint that basketball fans haven’t heard of.

As most hoop fans know, basketball is full of stories about great playground players or high school prodigies who weren’t able to escape the clutches of the streets to play pro basketball. Sadly, Flint has it’s fair share of these stories as well.

One of those players is Eric Turner.

According to a Flint Summer Pro Am coach, “Eric Turner was something to see. He could pass the ball. Shoot the ball. Handle the ball. He could do just about anything. He was a first team All-American in high school and he started at Michigan his freshman year. Matter of fact, he was a freshman All-American. Drugs caught him. He could have been playing pro. He came out early out of college after his sophomore year. Matter of fact, Roy Tarpley is the one that got him off. Tarpely is over there sniffing saying come on ET.”

Another coach that loved the way that Turner played that game was John Hogan. Hogan told Davenport that “the best point guard, they called him ET because ET would look one way and dish the other way. ET was the man! We look at Mateen Cleaves, but ET was there first. ET was the best point guard to come out of Flint. He could shoot the jumper. He could pass left and look right. He could go through the legs. He was like another Magic Johnson.”

Another coach that sang the praises of Turner was Michigan coaching legend Stan Gooch. During the documentary Gooch told Davenport that, “Eric Turner, in my mind was the best player to come out of Flint, in high school. He didn’t finish at Michigan so Glen Rice is probably the best that went on after that. As a high school player he was worth, between assists and points, over 50 points per game. He averaged almost 25 points a game and 14 to 15 assists a game. He was awfully good. That ball club in ‘51 had him on it and Mark Harris who scored 44 points in the finals.”

It’s a shame that so many great players like Earl “Goat” Manigault, Eric Turner and Raymond Lewis didn’t make it to the NBA.

Earlier this month I was given a copy of the basketball documentary Flint Star by it’s director Marcus Davenport to view and then write about on Hoops Addict. When Marcus first approached me about writing about his documentary I was hesitant at because aside from Hoop Dreams there haven’t been any basketball documentaries that have impressed me.

I sat down this week to view the documentary with minimal expectations but I was so impressed by the documentary that it’s been playing every day on my DVD player since I popped it in.

The idea behind Flint Star was to introduce basketball fans to the “real” aspect of growing up in a ghetto in a way that ESPN or NBA Inside Stuff will never be able to accomplish. Davenport was able to earn the trust and respect of citizens of Flint and the result is a documentary that provides basketball fans a true glimpse into the struggles that this community faces.

It’s not just the people of Flint that know hardship. During the taping of this documentary Marcus maxed out countless credit cards, slept in his car and traveled from Atlanta where he teaches to Flint to record interviews and games.

While chatting with Marcus this past weekend he told me that, “The best part of making the film was also the worst part – the hustle. I spent everything I had and more, maxed out more credit cards than you could imagine, and devoted hours and hours to bring my vision to reality. I love the fact that I made something out of nothing. I hate the fact that this movie is such a strong part of my existence and daily decision making process. I would encourage everyone to follow their dreams, but I wouldn’t encourage people to sacrifice everything and face being bankrupt and stressed out in the process.”

Davenport spent countless hours taping, editing and then promoting this movie. He told me that, “every weekend, break, and holiday was spent editing. I did not make time for anything but Flint Star for a long period. Once the film was completed, I had to promote the film. I would be out at every niteclub, game, concert, etc. throughout the city of Flint. I passed out expensive flyers and when my money ran out I made paper flyers. I created my own commercials and paid for them to air throughout the state of Michigan through Comcast Cable. That didn’t last too long because the money was too high and I took the hustle to the internet and became the champion of emails (email is free promotion). I really enjoyed my entire independent filmmaker experience. I learned a lot about friends, family, and independence. When you are broke and chasing a dream, even your closest friends and family members will not always support your efforts. This experience has been a great learning tool that will help me to one day be a great success in this industry. I get the most joy out of hearing someone say that they enjoyed my work. In my mind, the enjoyment of the viewing public is priceless. I feel that there is nothing that I cannot accomplish because of the obstacles that I had to overcome in order to fund, shoot, edit, complete, and promote this film. In life, what doesn’t kill you only makes you crazy, broke, angry, self-dependent, knowledgeable, and eventually stronger!”

Because of the importance of this documentary on the life of Davenport and the people of Flint I didn’t want to try to condense my thoughts into one article so I’m going to be posting a couple of article this week that deal with Flint “celebs,” the economic hardships of living in Flint and my general thoughts on the documentary. Most writers and bloggers try to condense articles and quotes to fit inside a certain amount of space and to maintain readers attention but I feel that there are a lot of important things in the documentary worth talking about with readers of Hoops Addict so I’m going to be posting four more articles this week for you to read.

To get an idea for what the documentary looks like you can view clips of the commercial for Flint Star, the introduction to the documentary and a couple of videos by clicking here and here. Enjoy!