A Basketball Post???

Hold on ladies, don't leave yet. This is really a post about a movie about basketball.

Well I guess that isn't completely true either. There certainly is basketball throughout the movie, but the message behind the game is so much more than that. It's the story of one man's determination to give hope and a fighting chance for success to a group of young men, boys really, that otherwise might never of been so fortunate.

The movie originally came out in 2005 and it stars Samuel L Jackson as the Richmond High School basketball coach who in 1999 made history.

The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia's site about Ken Carter:

Carter gained notoriety in 1999 when coaching the Richmond High School Oilers. He canceled all of his undefeated basketball team's games and practices for eight days -- forfeiting two games (one non-conference game and one alumni game) -- because fifteen team members had unacceptably poor academic performance. This event was known as "the lockout", and his actions were criticized by the school, players' parents, the community, the schools where his team was scheduled to play, and media commentators. Carter maintained that his athletes must take their studies seriously as good academic performance would give them access to college and other opportunities in life. Public opinion eventually changed, and he was praised for his determined emphasis on encouraging proper life priorities for his team.

Personally I think this is Jackson's best performance to date. The movie does have a fair amount of four letter language in it, so if that doesn't sit well with you you may want to skip it. Otherwise I highly recommend checking it out.

Well there you go, I actually did a post about basketball...kind of

If you follow college hoops and are fully engulfed in March Madness go by Travis's site for all the action. He does a great recap of all the games.