More Than a Game

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Alberta, British Columbia, or Ontario

Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 105 mins

Directed by: Kristopher Belman
Music by Harvey Mason
Country: United States

Premise
From grade-school through high-school, LeBron James and four talented teammates burn up the basketball courts throughout Ohio.

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Before LeBron James was an NBA All-star, Olympic gold medal winner and made more money in 10 minutes than you make all year, he was a highly recruited phenom at Akron's St. Vincent/St. Mary's High School. This documentary follows James and his closest friends/teammates throughout their high school years as they deal with adolescence and the pressure to be the best team in the country.

The buzz: First-time director/co-writer Kristopher Belman, who originally planned to make a much shorter piece as a school project, certainly stumbled onto a great subject. Hopefully he can turn "More Than a Game" into an exploration of what happens when child athletes become celebrities, not just a "Before They Were Famous" salute to King James.

The verdict: Rather than examining our culture of looking for child prodigies and ask how a kid confronted national attention, the film sticks to amusing anecdotes and last-second shots.

It's a fun, fast-moving document of friendship and ambition, and a treat for basketball fans who appreciate natural talent and a strong work ethic. Too bad Belman glosses over the details that, aside from James' rise to fame, make this story bigger. He runs away from the impact of James and his fellow African-American friends electing to go to a predominantly white school, and he fails to consider what the lesson may have been if James, who at 17 was dubbed "The Chosen One" by Sports Illustrated, had crumbled from the media attention instead of turning into a star.

Did you know? To raise money the team sold a wide variety of items, including duct tape. Is there any more encouraging way to prepare kids for the real world than getting them to do/sell something totally boring?

Review by Chicago Tribune