LeBron James Biopic A Slam-Dunk Success, But Ignores Important Faith Angles
(REVIEW) LeBron James is one of the best NBA players of his generation. You could also say that he’s the best basketball player of the 21st century. Some argue he’s even better than Michael Jordan.
The winner of four NBA titles, James is also the league’s all-time leading scorer. Regardless of where you fall in the Jordan-James debate, there is no doubt that the player known as “King James” is at least among the top five players in basketball history.
James’ recent success is what makes this two-hour film even more compelling. Based on James’ 2009 book “Shooting Stars,” co-written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Friday Night Lights” Buzz Bissinger, the new film (streaming on Peacock starting June 2) with the same name recounts the inspiring story of his road to stardom that took shape during his high school years.
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James’ coming-of-age story, directed by Chris Robinson, is both inspiring and entertaining. Whether you enjoy basketball or not, this biopic does a very good job keeping audiences vested in the success of James and his three best friends/teammates, even though you already know he’s going to go on to become an NBA star. What it does lack, however, are important faith angles that helped shape his life and pro career.
The movie follows James and his friends during the late 1990s while growing up in Akron, Ohio. The quartet (they call themselves the “Fab Four”) first met while playing youth basketball. As the book notes, “United by their love of the game and their yearning for companionship, they quickly forged a bond that would carry them through thick and thin (a lot of thin) and, at last, to a national championship in their senior year of high school.”
James is remarkably played by Marquis “Mookie” Cook, who looks a lot like a younger version of the real-life Los Angeles Lakers star. This lends the movie plenty of credibility from the start. The movie, however, is also effective because it treats James as a supporting character rather than the main protagonist. Much of the film is seen through the eyes of his friend Dru Joyce III, played by “Stranger Things” alum Caleb McLaughlin.
While the acting is very good, the film does have its negatives. It bounces too much from one story line to another. It tries to cram in too much, and the use of basketball games to keep the story flowing will certainly appeal to sports fans but not those just looking to learn more about James’ off-the-court life and motivations. Viewers more interested in what James was doing and thinking as a teen, rather than a budding baller, will be left disappointed.
James and his friends attended and played hoops for St. Vincent-St. Mary, a Catholic school. This is another area of weakness in the film. Aside from a few references to church and scenes showing Catholic clergy, faith is not even a backdrop in this film.
As someone who attended LaSalle Academy, an all-boys Catholic school in New York City with a strong basketball program (I also covered sports for my high school newspaper at the time), I can tell you that prayer is an important part of pre-game rituals. We see none of that in this film. You wouldn’t even know James and his friends were at a Catholic high school if not for the team’s name emblazoned across their jerseys.
James is a Christian, and in the film he is relatively grounded — aside from a few silly remarks — given his early fame. By the time James attended St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, he was a basketball prodigy and a firm believer in God. You get none of that in this movie.
In the 2009 book “LeBron James: The Making of an MVP” by Terry Pluto and Brian Windhorst, the authors give some insight this movie failed to present in terms of the importance of a Catholic education to the NBA star’s future success. School librarian Barbara Wood said James “liked the order at St. V. I think he would admit now that coming here was a good thing for him. He had stability. He had to follow the rules. He had to be somewhere on time. He had to keep his shirt tucked in.”
You get none of these type of interactions with teachers and other people at the school in this film.
America magazine went further, pointing out that there often is “a temptation to say that the athletic success of Catholic schools simply comes down to money. They attract students who are able to pay hefty tuition fees; and, the argument goes, the rich can afford resources that give them a distinct advantage. But Lebron James was not rich. Neither was George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth, whose parents were so overwhelmed by work responsibilities (they lived above a saloon they ran) and family tragedy (as many as five of Ruth’s siblings died in infancy), they sent seven-year-old George to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in 1902, where the strapping Brother Matthias Boutilier introduced the young Babe to baseball.”
These are all examples lacking from this film. Nonetheless, “Shooting Stars” is a wonderful movie with lots of great characters. But when it comes to faith and religion, this movie fails to fully capture the environment around James during his formative teen years. That’s a shame since this is a sports film that’s not only engaging but will certainly leave viewers smiling by the end.
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor at Religion Unplugged and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. He is the author of “The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event.” Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.