Documentary Analysis: Hoop Dreams

One of the biggest factors in achieving your dreams is the support system that you have behind you. There is only so much a person can control before it begins to wear you down, and you can’t endure anymore. In the beginning of the documentary Hoop Dreams, both boys had a strong dream of making it to the NBA, but slowly over time you begin to notice that dream of theirs start to fizzle and become out of reach. In this situation, Arthur and William both had the odds stacked against them even before they attempted to pursue their dream. The struggles financially, educationally, and pressure from family were too substantial to ignore, and eventually led to their failure.

As a child, the environment you were born into is the only one you ever

truly comprehend. Arthur and William both grew up in a tough neighborhood with plenty of crime and drugs. They are limited as to what they can do educationally, considering that a majority of the kids in their school dropout, and never finish. This automatically lowers the standards as to what they achieve. They don’t strive to surpass expectations in school, since that is what the others around them are doing. When they transfer to St. Joseph high school, it is a total culture shock for the both of them. They had never stepped out of the neighborhood from where they were from. Within a fairly short period of time, it was discovered that they were below their grade level, and once you are that far behind your peers, it makes it exceedingly rigorous to play catch up. Not doing well in school does not help their dream of playing professional basketball. To be able to acquire a scholarship to a quality college, it requires you to obtain a certain ACT score. For a while, William struggled to meet the requirement, and in order for him to have any chance of progressing to college, he needed those scholarships. In the end, William went to Marquette and Arthur went to a Junior College. Both of them dropped out, and as a result that means not playing basketball anymore. As multiple coaches had told them in the past, school needed to come first, but for them it was a struggle, and there was a lack of passion as a result of where they were educationally.

Lack of finances not only stopped both from excelling in their education, but as well as their basketball career. Arthur and William were both on scholarships to come to St. Joseph's for free. Since Arthur was not matching up to the skills they had set for him in basketball, the school stopped giving him money to attend. The family could no longer afford to send him there, so there was no other choice but to send him back to his previous school. This doesn’t only hurt him from growing as a player, but also probably weakened his self esteem, which maybe made him begin to doubt his potential. Rejection is never a satisfying feeling, and from it came one of the first dents in his dream.

Once you lose the passion for something, you will never achieve what you had in mind.

Both of their passions in the beginning of the documentary came from simply their love of the game. Overtime, both began to realize the serious side to basketball. Starting with Coach Pingatore harsh coaching skills. He pushed William so vigorously that he ended up obtaining a severe knee injury, and was out almost an entire season. William’s knee was definitely a constant setback for him. There were innumerable times in the documentary when he was playing and his knee would give out. The frustration of not having the same capabilities made William desire to conclude his basketball career. William not only faced pressure from his coach, but as well as his family. The family was relying on him to achieve basketball professionally, and support the family financially. The leading reason why he began to give up was due to the fact that there were such high expectations for him, and he didn’t want to let anyone down. I remember a situation in the documentary when he was talking about how people back home were talking about when he would play professionally to not forget anybody, but he expressed that he hopes they don’t forget him when he doesn’t

succeed.

Even with growing up in a fortunate environment, the chances of making it to the NBA are still 1 in 10,000. For Arthur and William, everything outside themselves were too great to handle. The only way they had any hope of making it with their situation were to have a passion that was undeniable. Their doubts began to settle quickly when they began to feel overwhelmed with school, and the truth is that the two go hand in hand. When their prospects of school failed, their dream of basketball went along with it. Priorities begin to change as you experience life, and you begin to realize that you aren’t the same person as you were in high school. Just like every child dreams of being an astronaut and travel to space, usually those dreams do not tend to stay with us. Instead, mindsets become more realistic, and you stop reaching for the goals that fall out of range, especially when opportunities are scarce.