Writing the Pine

When I first heard about More Than a Game about a year or so ago, I figured it was just another run-of-the-mill sports documentary about one of the greatest athletes in the world.  Which I didn’t mind of course since LeBron James is my favorite basketball player to watch and I’d gladly watch a movie about him.  (Hell, I even bought Brian Windhorst’s book The Franchise: LeBron James and the Remaking of the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Not the best writing but pretty informative nonetheless.)  But as the months passed and more and more information was released about the actual movie, it was clear that it wouldn’t just be about LeBron.  While promoting the film, LeBron had made sure to mention that More Than a Game is a story about five friends and not just about himself.  I guess you could say that made me less excited to watch Kristopher Belman’s film, but more interested in it, if that makes any sense.

I’ve been following LeBron since about his junior year of high school at St. Vincent-St. Mary so the cast of characters in the film weren’t strangers to me like they would be for other moviegoers.  I knew Dru Joyce III was the team’s diminutive point guard and also the son of head coach Dru Joyce II, whom the film also spends a good deal of time focusing on.  I knew Romeo Travis was a fringe D-1 prospect that ended up at the University of Akron (along with the younger Joyce).  I didn’t really know Sian Cotton (I don’t care for Ohio State) or Willie McGee but I remembered their names from reading about LeBron during his time at St. Vincent-St. Mary.  What I didn’t know, however, was that they all (with the exception of Travis) knew each other from an early age and shared a bond every parent would want their children to have with their own friends.  You can see from the pictures and video footage of the boys growing up that they truly do love and care for each other and that their friendship is real.  I know the word gets tossed around a lot but it really was kind of inspiring and I couldn’t help but think about my own friends while watching the movie.  And while much of the movie focused on the group’s friendship, it also delved into each of their own individual stories, which was a nice and necessary touch.

But let’s not be crazy here.  The appeal of the film is that one of the five best friends is the greatest basketball player in the world today and was garnering national attention since he was 16.  There is no second-place finish in the Under-14 AAU National Tournament without LeBron James.  There are no three state championships without LeBron James.  There is no national high school championship without LeBron James.  There is no More Than a Game without LeBron James.  Belman, however, does a superb job in balancing James’s story with everyone else’s.  As I said, LeBron was adamant in his promotions of the film that it is about a group of friends and it holds true to his proclamations.

The "Fab Five" not to be confused with the other "Fab Five"

At an hour and 45 minutes long, the film is surprisingly long.  On a personal level though, it seemed a little longer than that but only because I already knew most of LeBron’s story in high school.  A critical moment in the film was when Belman went into LeBron being suspended by the Ohio High School Athletic Association for accepting two throwback jerseys from a sports memorabilia store and how the team responded without him in the lineup, but I already knew what happened so for me it was just time passing.  I read reviews about how Belman should’ve gone more in-depth about all the other controversies that swirled LeBron, but I think everyone who watches the film can understand that the players had to deal with a lot of crap because of LeBron’s rock-star status.  Besides, those stories don’t really tie into the theme of the film and it did do a great job of showing how hurt LeBron was for being suspended and how his friends stayed supportive.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t have a quick aside about LeBron the baskeball player because I do love to analyze basketball.  I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I knew LeBron would become one of the all-time greats in NBA history since I first read about him and saw him play several years ago. (I just wish he made a pit-stop at North Carolina on his way to that.) His talent and athleticism was always evident and quite frankly, you’d have to be flat out stupid to believe he wouldn’t have been a star in the League. The film’s most exciting moments come unsurprisingly from breathtaking highlights of LeBron absolutely destroying his opponents. It’s really just awesome to see the things he was able to do when he was only 15 and 16 years old. But if you watched any of LeBron’s games or read any articles about him from earlier in his NBA career, the commentators or writer would always go out of his or her way to mention how mature he was for his age and how he was a natural leader. I never pay much attention when I hear that because those statements get tossed around way too much in sports. But there was one scene in the film that made me think, “Hey, maybe it was true about LeBron.” In the state finals of the boys’ junior years, St. Vincent-St. Mary was down by two with only a few seconds left when the other team grabbed a rebound off a missed shot and Dru Joyce III inexplicably got a technical foul, essentially guaranteeing defeat for his squad. Everyone was staring at Joyce in disbelief but LeBron looked at him and just sternly yelled “WHY?????” And that’s it. Now it might not seem like a big deal but I can think of a lot worse ways for a 17-year old kid who could’ve played in the NBA before he reached puberty to react in such a pivotal moment.  There were some other scenes that delineated LeBron’s growing leadership qualities but that scene stuck out to me the most.

Click on the image to check out bonus footage of LeBron in high school. If you want a glimpse at how dominant he was in high school, make sure you watch the video entitled "PRACTICE". The moves he pulls off in that video are absolutely ridiculous. And remember, he's only in high school.

I definitely enjoyed myself watching More Than a Game.  While I acknowledge I am a huge LeBron James fan, I actually think the movie would be better for someone who knows nothing about him.  There weren’t many people in the theater when I saw the film (I caught an 11:20 AM show) but I’d say more than half of the people were sniffling and had tears in their eyes at some point in the movie.  Don’t laugh because you might catch yourself crying while watching it too.  It’s unfortunate though that many will brush More Than a Game off as just another basketball movie because they would be missing out on an emotional and moving tale.

To check out bonus footage of LeBron in high school, click on the image below.  All the videos aren’t available yet so make sure to keep going back to see what else has been added.  And make sure you watch the video titled PRACTICE (the one with him in his high school jersey).  The moves he pulls off in that video (as a high-schooler!) are absolutely ridiculous.