When director James first came up with the idea of shooting the film, he was still in graduate school. As an out-and-out basketball fan, James suddenly realized that what basketball means to him is completely different from what it means to black kids. In the United States, black children from poor backgrounds want to get ahead, and entering the professional sports circle is one of their few good ways; but for James, basketball is mostly just a hobby, although he likes it very much. Sports, but not necessarily turn it into your future career. Realizing this, he and his friends began to make a documentary about basketball. After communicating with the film company they worked with, they decided to shoot a street basketball court and the players there. The main idea of the film was to show the rules and culture of the sport of streetball. Of course, if there was a star in the subject, then they will become a large income eligible
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Soon after the shooting started, scout Earl Smith told James that he had found several black kids with good talents, who were likely to enter the NBA in the future. James decided to follow one of them immediately. Due to funding issues, it seems that he can only shoot one. The selected player is called Arthur. Arthur entered the basketball training camp at St. Joseph's High School with the help of Earle. They met William at St. Joseph's High School. After watching William’s game, James was convinced that no matter how difficult it would be to shoot two players at the same time, he would have to film the stories of these two players. Originally, James only wanted to make a 30-minute short film, but following the tracking of the two subjects, he realized that it should be possible to make a longer story, so he filmed it for five and a half years until it was The two entered college
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