High school basketball is the subject of this compelling, if uneven (and curiously timed), documentary. Featured are Brian Walker, the product of a lily-white town in basketball-mad Indiana, and Stretch Graham, from a black New York ghetto. Both are surefire bets to play college ball. But both have doubts. Brian begins to suspect his future is being decided by his ambitious parents and omnipresent scouts; Stretch hates to leave his friends, though he knows college is his ticket out of poverty. There are a few obviously contrived-for-the-camera scenes. But the movie, shot in the 1975-76 season, nicely details the climactic games for both players, raising questions about what damage we do by throwing our young into big-time competition. (Unrated)
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