Hoop Dreams Page #3

They talk the way I talk.

It was a little hard,

but I can adjust to it.

You can see there was talent there.

We kept saying up in the stands,

"Get the ball to Arthur...

because he's going to do it for you. '"

And sure enough, they gave him the ball

with seconds on the clock.

I noticed a change immediately

after he started going out there.

To see your child mature, you say,

"Oh, maybe this is good for him."

William begins

his freshman season on St. Joe's varsity...

the top-ranked squad in the state.

He's already received several letters...

from Division I schools -

Marquette and Rice and Creighton,

Illinois State...

to name a few.

Beat him! Beat him! Beat him!

Keep back!

Hold it up! hold it up!

You're killing us!

Why did he get to the ball before you?

He asks me, do I wanna be

a great player? And I keep saying yeah.

He said, "For four years,

I'm gonna be on you every day."

So he said, "You might as well

get used to it now."

hard left. No, no. Go hard left.

Right, I know you can do it.

Left, you can't. All right? Go hard.

Not bad. Do it again.

If you look at Matthew,

and again he's saying...

at the time the kingdom of heaven

will be like this.

This is how Matthew's gonna use Jesus.

This is how he's gonna start it out.

What this is saying

is you have to take the faith-

When I first came out here,

it was, like, "I wanna go home.

Is this really the right school for me?'"

But every little thing you do

that go against their rule...

you have detention.

And they'll suspend you quick

at the school too.

They'll suspend you quick.

The kids that are willing to do it...

are gonna take something away

that will help them for

the rest of their life.

The kids that are not willing to do it...

for whatever reason, uh...

are not gonna be very successful

as far as here.

The civil rights movement

started up in the '50s.

When William first entered St. Joe's...

tests revealed he was working

on a fourth or fifth-grade level.

I could see that he had the potential...

but because he was shy, it seemed as though

no one was trying to reach him.

Sister Marilyn told me,

"You have to be one good ballplayer...

to get in this school with these grades. '"

- What war beginning in the '60s?

- Vietnam.

At the end of the year,

he had gone four grades above...

just in the way he listened and learned.

Back in grammar school...

academics really didn't matter

too much to me at all.

It was playing ball for the team-

really, we was the standouts in the school.

If you showed up in class,

that was good enough for them.

I was just going to school for the girls.

Trip out with your friends...

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