america has long been obsessed with celebrity and the quest for fame. Thirty years ago, millions of moviegoers experienced that desire firsthand through the groundbreaking documentary Hoop Dreams, which focused on two teenage basketball players, Arthur Agee and William Gates. The pair never achieved their dream of making it to the NBA, but Agee and Gates ultimately made more of an impact than many who did.
“I always wished we had made it,” Gates told The Guardian. “That feeling will never go away. I wish we could have achieved the ultimate hoop dream.”
Agee says he is still impressed by the success of the documentary. “I never thought (the documentary) would become anything big, let alone last thirty years,” he says. “It’s always a surprise for me. Hoop Dreams is so much a part of pop culture now. The film really lives on.”
At its core, Hoop Dreams is a typical American story: a story from rags to (hopeful) riches. The filmmakers, director Steve James and producers Frederick Marx and Peter Gilbert, met Agee in 1987 prior to his freshman year of high school. He was then a street baller who showed great potential. Agee was invited to a summer camp at St Joseph High School outside Chicago, where his idol Isiah Thomas, a two-time NBA champion, played under longtime coach Gene Pingatore, who was still the coach when Agee arrived. It was at that camp where the filmmakers met Gates, one of the most promising young hoopers in town. Both attend St. Joseph, but Agee is soon forced to leave when his parents cannot afford the high tuition and his game does not develop as quickly as his coaches want.
But the almost three-hour film remains in the minds of both young guards. Gates shines in high school and is invited to prestigious Nike shows, but he suffers a serious knee injury that prevents him from reaching his sky-high potential. Agee attends a Chicago public school, John Marshall High, where his team performs much better. The film ends with Gates attending Division I school Marquette, while Agee attends a junior college.
“Being young, 14, growing up in the inner city of Chicago, someone who wanted to invest in your life whether they had a camera or not, I was drawn to that,” Gates says. “When (the filmmakers) asked me the question, ‘What do you want to do (with your life),’ I said, ‘I want to make it to the NBA.’ That was probably one of the most impactful questions I’ve ever received.”
“For me,” says Agee, “it was crazy because I was always in love with television. I always wanted to be on television. So when the cameras came around, I thought, ‘Man, this is my chance!’”
The film shows their homes – in Agee’s case, sometimes with the electricity turned off due to lack of payment – the dynamics of their families and the climb (to say the least) that both would have to achieve to get out of their impoverished neighborhoods. . And while neither Agee nor Gates made it to the pros, both remain two of the most important players in Chicago history.
“(Hoop Dreams) shared with the world the reality of when you don’t make it,” Gates said. “There are many more (such people) on our side than those who make it… And what to do when the new dream (arises afterwards). Maybe it’s coaching or something else in sports. But I had to channel what the new dream looked like at that moment.”
The two remain as inseparable from each other as from the basketball story itself. At first, the lighting from the documentary was fun and glitzy. The two made money (though not necessarily millions) thanks to the film’s success. They were invited to speak to schools and teams and to give presentations at awards ceremonies. They met political figures and hung out with celebrities at parties. Gates met Michael Jordan and later even trained with him and was offered a workout with the Washington Wizards. But his body couldn’t keep up with his ambitions and injuries forced him to retire from the sport. Agee chased his dream of playing as far as he could, from college to semi-pro. He also dabbled in acting. Now he runs one Hoop Dreams clothing line and continues to do speaking events. He and Gates, who is a preacher in San Antonio and recently a memoirs and has its own clothing line, host a Hoop Dreams podcast. And they are also planning a sequel to the film. But despite their fame, not every door flew open.
“When I was doing the NBA (trying to coach for a team), I was like, ‘Arthur who?’ When my agent made those calls, it was ‘Arthur Agee who?’” Agee says. “That’s what GMs and scouts would be like. I had to go the semi-professional route. Really, the real NBA players – those are the guys who give me and William our respect because they got it.
Gates also encountered problems in his attempts to break into the pros. “I tried out for two teams,” says Gates, who broke his foot just before training with Jordan’s Wizards in the late 1990s. He also gained a lot of weight at one point in his life because he was disillusioned with the sport. Later, he slimmed down and he and Agee hosted pick-up games in the summer with some of the NBA’s big names, including Chris Webber and Juwan Howard.
Something that the 1994 film doesn’t delve into much is how close Agee and Gates were when the filming took place. When Agee was released from St. Joseph, Gates requested coach Pingatore to reinstate him. He felt lonely without him. The two talked often and commuted to the mostly white school in the suburbs together. Before the film, Agee says, he looked up to Gates, who was famous at 14, the next big thing in Chicago Hoops. “Me and Will had known each other since sixth grade,” Agee says. “His primary school and my primary school used to play against each other. We always knew about him.”
Looking back on the film, Agee laughs and says he wishes he could read the contracts better. Because although they were both paid for their part in the documentary, it was a small part of the money the film made from their stories. For his part, Gates says he wishes he had listened to his body more. When his knees hurt, he says he should have held back and not pushed himself through an injury, something that led to him needing knee replacements later in life.
Despite the injuries and despite the fact that Agee has left the school, both, perhaps surprisingly, express their appreciation for St. Joseph and the late Coach Pingatore, although they agree that the school should have made more of an effort to keep Agee in keep the program. But while some may think that their ups and downs in the game may cause them to despise the sport, the opposite is true.
“For me,” says Gates, “the game is forever in my heart.”
“I still love the game,” Agee says. “I still play it.”
Now their children also play competitive basketball. Agee and Gates both coach, watch the game, speak to teams and players and share their stories. Speaking of which, although the film failed to get an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary – a travesty for many, including famous film critics Siskel and Ebertwho called it one of the best films of the 1990s – Agee and Gates hope the Academy can recognize them this year as the film approaches its thirtieth anniversary.
But perhaps more importantly, Agee and Gates are planning a follow-up to the original Hoop Dreams, a project they’re calling After the Dream. It includes updates on their lives, as well as those of other characters in the film, from best friends to deceased family. Agee’s father was murdered after the film’s release, as was Gates’ older brother and mentor, Curtis. The upcoming film will also show how Hoop Dreams changed basketball and movie culture. It will also be a testament to the connection that Agee and Gates share.
“To always be connected to William Gates,” says Agee, “who was one of the first guards I wanted to play with – there wouldn’t be another person I would like to be connected to other than him.”
“What people don’t know is me and Agee – we’re so different,” says Gates. “But we have no choice but to go together. He gives me an aspect of life that I don’t have, and I give him an aspect of life that he doesn’t have. Those things are the greatest bond.”
