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Film's Stars Still Have 'Hoop Dreams'
A Decade After Glory Season, Ballplayers Still Love the Sport
 Listen to John Ydstie's conversation with Arthur Agee and film director Steve James.
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| Arthur Agee during his senior year at Marshall High School in Hoop Dreams, directed by Steve James. Photo: Fine Line Features |
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William Gates in Hoop Dreams, directed by Steve James. Photo: Fine Line Features
 Watch a clip of William Gates and Arthur Agee talking about their NBA aspirations, from Hoop Dreams.
Watch a Hoop Dreams clip of basketball scout Earl Smith taking Arthur Agee on a recruiting trip to St. Joseph's High School -- alma mater of Agee's hero, Isiah Thomas.
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April 1, 2002 -- Arthur Agee and William Gates began like many other inner-city youths, honing their basketball skills on ill-kept neighborhood courts. But the gifted Chicago athletes won a chance to attend a basketball-power prep school and play for a legendary high school coach -- and their odyssey was captured in the award-winning film Hoop Dreams.
The 1994 film's young stars didn't realize the ultimate hoop dream: making it to a National Basketball Association team. But 10 years after their high school glory season, parts of the dream still linger. For All Things Considered, guest host John Ydstie talks to Agee and to Hoop Dreams director Steve James.
In the mid-1980s, filmmakers Steve James, Peter Gilbert and Frederick Marx approached documentarians at Kartemquin Films with an idea: a short film on the "street basketball" culture of Chicago playgrounds. But once the filmmakers found Agee and Gates, the project grew, becoming a chronicle of nearly five years in the lives of the boys and their families.
The filmmakers distilled 250 hours of film into Hoop Dreams, and it won critical raves and awards -- including a best documentary honor at the Sundance Film Festival.
Filmmaker James says that being in the film has proved "both a blessing and a curse" for Gates and Agee, bringing notoriety that has burdened them in some ways and helped them in others. Gates graduated from Marquette University, married his high school girlfriend Catherine (they have three children), and has worked as a community youth leader.
Agee went to Arkansas State University, left in his senior year to play semi-pro ball, and now lives in a Chicago suburb where he plays in various small leagues. He works as a basketball coach and teacher's aide at the Hillside Academy Alternative School, runs the Arthur Agee Role Model Foundation, is trying to launch a sports clothing line, and says he'd still like to get his college degree. He also has extended his film career, with a cameo appearance in Spike Lee's He Got Game and a prominent role earlier this year in the made-for-cable basketball movie Passing Glory.
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"I play religiously, every day. I never left the game. I love it, love it, love it."
Arthur Agee
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At times in the past 10 years, James says he thought Gates and Agee "seemed to have come to terms with the idea of letting the dream go -- but I'm not sure anymore." Gates, who said years ago that he was done with the game, now "seems to be trying to go back," James says.
And Agee says that basketball is still his "first dream" -- though now he dreams not of the NBA but of playing overseas. "I play religiously, every day," he says. "I never left the game. I love it, love it, love it."
Other Resources
• Visit the Fine Line Films Web site for Hoop Dreams.
• Visit the Web site for the Arthur Agee Role Model Foundation.
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