Gunnin' for that #1 Spot

C

Directed by Adam Yauch

Beastie Boys MC and high school hoops phene Adam Yauch's basketball documentary "Gunnin' for that #1 Spot" follows a group of supremely talented blue chip prospects as they prepare to play a showcase game at New York's famed Rucker Park. The end result is a glossy yet empty film that skips over the bigger issues of high school recruiting in favor of a superficial look at the bright futures enjoyed by only the tiniest fraction of high school athletes.

Rucker Park's Elite 24 showcase game takes the nation's top 24 prep basketball players, regardless of class or age, and throws them onto the the center court at Rucker for an annual streetball game. Yauch focuses on eight players participating in the 2007 edition of the game, namely Michael Beasley, Jarryd Bayless, Kevin love, Kyle Singler, Lance Stephenson, Brandon Jennings, Tyreke Evans, and Donte Green. If those names sound familiar to you it's probably because most of these guys tore it up for one years in the NCAA and have already moved onto the greener pastures of the NBA where they are making millions as 20 year olds. Yauch gives some brief insight into the pasts of some of these players before showing us the run up to the Elite 24 game and the final battle on the blacktop of The Rucker.

"Gunnin'" is really nothing more than a glorified promotional spot for The Rucker and the athletes covered by Yauch. There is no real attempt to investigate some of the underlying issues with the recruiting process or some of the more unsavory elements of the high school showcase circuit. I don't think that every documentary on high school athletes needs to be an expose on the sociology of sport in the style of "Hoop Dreams" but there is really no reason to just crank out a vapid highlight reel with no underlying message to share with the audience. Yauch also casts his net too wide, focusing on eight players participating in the Elite 24 game, a number that is far too large to actually allow the viewer any serious insight into the situations of any of these kids. It is also worth noting that Yauch only focuses his film on guys who were basically bonafied blue chippers who were for the most part in the top 10 of their respective classes. Guys like Michael Beasley and Kevin Love were NBA ready during their senior years of high school so there isn't much suspense in wondering if they'll make it to the league or not. This obfuscates the fact that for every Michael Beasley there are thousands of other high school hoop stars who never make the league, a reality only quickly made reference to in Yauch's film.
I attended a CEGEP that had a very good basketball program and was friends with a number of the players. One of them went to a big shoe camp in his final year of CEGEP, meaning that he was considered to be one of the top 100 or so prospects in North America. When he got back I asked him how many of the guys who were at camp with him he though believed they would make the NBA. Without missing a beat he answer "All of them." To me, this is what is fascinating about the recruiting process. It's a system that fosters for the most part unrealistic dreams before chewing up and spitting out kids whose lives are for the most part constructed around and dedicated to basketball. Yauch's film doesn't focus on any of these kids but rather rolls out the red carpet for a bunch of guys who could have skipped college altogether and headed to the NBA if such an option was still available to them. There's no drama or insight in making a film about a bunch of kids whose ticket to the league is already punched. Maybe I was expecting too much from Yauch's film but the subject matter he covers is so rich with human interest that making a Sportscentre style highlight package of high schoolers dunking on each other completely fails to capitalize on the drama that's out there for the taking.
The fact that the Elite 24 game is not really that big of a deal, either in the prep hoops world por the real world, also makes Yauch's attempt to build it up into a monumental, life altering event for the kids appear a bit contrived. The fact of the matter is that although most of these guys probably enjoyed playing at The Rucker the game was probably nothing more than another event on a busy basketball calendar for most of these guys.

Overall was "Gunnin" leaves us with is an extremely quick glance at the highest rungs of prep hoops that is at times entertaining and always flashy but fails to mine the depths of what is essentially a fascinating slice of American culture.