Baller 21

More Than A Game

by Chris Harvey on 09/24/09

More Than A Game, a documentary following the story of LeBron James and his High School teammates, has been hyped, blogged, and analyzed for some time now.

However, I am posting this story again because I am a huge fan of documentaries, especially sport related stories. The film is set to launch in selective cities on October 2, 2009. Below is a trailer of the film.

An interesting side story of the film project is about the Co-Writer/Director, Kris Belman. Kris, at the time, a film student at Loyola Marymount University, decided to do a school project in tribute to his hometown of Akron, Ohio, covering a local high school basketball team that was receiving national attention.

Gaining access to the players was difficult because the team was protected from over exposure and distractions from a normal high school experience, and with many news outlets being turned down by the school. Belman states that his student status, lack of experience, and not being a journalist proved to be valuable in his pursuit of this project.

Belman was granted one practice. And then he kept showing up to practice. What started as a few days turned into two weeks, with the Coach and players eventually accepting him into their circle and calling him “Camera Man.”

After six years of shooting footage and interviewing players and families, Belman realized he had the makings of a featured-length documentary. As he sought funding for the project, most producers were only interested in LeBron James, offering money to hand over the best LeBron highlights.

Not comprising on the direction of the project, a producer named Harvey Mason, Jr. saw the potential and was inspired by the story. Like Belman, Mason believed that the true story went beyond the team’s on-court success and states that “basketball was just the vehicle that moved our characters foward.” “At the heart of the film are their friendships, and what these guys sacrificed for each other,” Mason says.

With financing now secure, Belman was free to produce the story that he had envisioned from the beginning.

(Story: Production Notes)