This weekend many people will be watching their favorite basketball players in action at the 2014 NBA All Star Weekend taking place in New Orleans, LA. This weekend’s festivities gives players the opportunity showcase their talent on a worldwide level, and the platform to let people know what hard work and dedication can provide you. What basketball fans don’t always get is the chance to see what happens to young basketball players in this U.S. who dream about the NBA, but for one reason or another do not make it to this level. What’s the flipside????
In 2001, Lenny Cooke was the most hyped high school basketball player in the country, ranked above future greats LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. In an era when high school stars were forgoing college hoops in favor of the potential multi-million dollar contracts promised in the NBA draft, Lenny was supposed to be the next superstar. He had the world at his fingertips. But over a decade later, while his peers are taking home MVP awards and championship trophies, Lenny has never played a minute in the NBA. What went wrong?
With incredible access to Lenny’s story as it unfolded over the past decade, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie follow Lenny from his run-down home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to the New Jersey suburbs where he spent his high school career through to the present day, with the friends and family who shared in his dreams and aspirations. Lenny Cooke is a quintessentially American story about dreaming big, the fickle nature of sports celebrity and the unfulfilled destiny of a man for whom superstardom was only just out of reach. (SOURCE)
(College Recruitment Letters)
(North Carolina University Recruitment Letter)
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