@Randy, @KVV, @MerchCzar - Great job on this one. Having seen Hoop Dreams in a theater in Ann Arbor at the height of the Fab Five area was awesome.
Randy - Love the shout out to the Fab Five. Growing up in the Detroit area basketball scene of the early 90s was awesome! Watching Webber and Jalen Rose play in their final state championship games is probably my favorite hoops memory, other than UNLV destroying Duke in 1990 (Go Rebels!).
Jalen Rose’s 1991 Detroit Southwestern team is the best team I’ve ever seen play. Dominant!
The '89-'90 team might have been even better. Rose, Lenard, Eisley, Mance, and Carter all were D1 players, and the first 3 obviously made the NBA. That was such a fun team to watch.
Oh man that hurts. The Flying Illini were the first college team I can remember and I was obsessed. That loss to Michigan still hurts so bad. One of two times in my life they were legit good enough to win the title and came within sight.
Haven’t listened to the pod yet, but can’t wait. Hoop Dreams is amazing - maybe my favorite documentary ever. Saw it in the theater back in the day and it’s such an incredible look at IL high school basketball perhaps in its peak era.
All this coincides with a great time in hip-hop and rap music as well. Rock and Roll/Grunge too. 85-95 was a truly great time to be a kid/teenager/young adult.
That team was so cold… A bunch of 6’6" athletes that cold flat out fly. Liberty, Bardo, Hamilton Battle, Gill, Anderson… They were a fun bunch to watch.
Yes sir….Bardo at 6’6 1/2” was the tallest guy in the starting lineup - playing PG. Not only that….the style. The dunks, fast breaks, swagger….they even started the baggie shorts trend in college hoops. Now granted, the Fab Five took it to another dimension. But the Flying Illini were the shit.
I was a 10 year old living in Las Vegas when UNLV hit their peak. I remember going to some home games and just how lit the Thomas and Mack was back then. I remember going to the championship parade and not understanding why it was such a big deal that the Rebels were national champions. I wish I could have appreciated at the time how big of a deal it was that UNLV had briefly elevated itself into the top tier of college basketball. Even to this day, Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, and Greg Anthony are heroes in Southern Nevada.
For anyone looking for a good companion piece to Hoop Dreams, I would highly recommend the book The Last Shot by Darcy Frey. One of the best sports books I have ever read.
Thanks so much for this pod! Watched Hoop Dreams on a multiple-VHS tape rental from Blockbuster in 1995 in Ann Arbor, and even after 3 hours it felt like the movie had even more to say. Haven’t watched it since then but the two scenes where Arthur’s mom makes him a special dinner for turning 18, and the scene where his father is shooting around the playground in a very jarring passive-aggressive fashion towards his son, still resonate even after 30 years.
And Anderson Hunt from Detroit Southwestern! Can there be a Trap Draw deep dive on best high school hoop coaches? Perry Watson, Gene Pingatore, Bobby Hurley’s dad
