Last Chance U: Basketball (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - Bound for Promised Land - full transcript
The foul was on number 24.
Akinsanya for the Bulldogs...
Hey. They're callin' a timeout
'cause they don't know what to do.
They're gonna crack.
They're gonna crack. They ain't felt this.
Four... Listen, listen! Four is the shooter.
Four is the shooter.
So if he's in the corner,
remember when you're chasin' it down,
we not lettin' 'em back.
Opposite or back.
Move!
Foul is called on number 12, Will Silmon.
- Yeah, I'm good now. I'm good now.
- Smooth?
Yeah, I'm smooth, I'm smooth.
Deshaun Highler is ready
to get back in it, I think.
Highler is such a alpha personality.
Refuses to lose.
There's no way Highler
will step off the floor
as an upset is brewing here.
Hey! Motion. Come on, come on! Go!
Go! Motion!
Go, K! Go!
Highler to Zeigler.
To Allen on the elbow, yes!
Yeah! Let's go, son!
Let's go, son!
Searcy gets ripped. Smith now, to Hampton.
Hampton gets fouled.
- Hampton falls on his bottom.
- Hey. Let's go!
- Go. Let's go.
- Go! Go! Go, go, Shaun!
Back the other way. Left to right,
Zeigler to a cutting Highler.
Finishes with a scooped layup
- off the glass.
- Sweep! Sweep!
Defense!
- Help, help, help!
- Defense! Defense!
Defense! Defense!
A steal by Highler.
Highler to KJ. Wide-open lane.
The two-hand flush.
Let's go, let's go!
East LA trails by one.
- Defense! Defense!
- LJ!
Ten, ten, ten!
Ten, K. Ten!
East LA will apply a full-court press now.
Come on, man. Let's go!
- Go, go, go, go!
- Pick it up, bruh!
- Yeah!
- Hey!
- Go, go, go, go, go!
- Harding.
Another steal by Hampton.
Go, L. Go! Corner! Corner!
Highler attacks.
Straight to the cup! Finishes!
- Let's fucking go!
- Let's go!
- Let's fucking go.
- Timeout!
- Timeout!
- This is our pace, right?
This is our pace, okay?
Let's go. Press break. Press break.
Johnson stops at the elbow,
wide open underneath.
- Left all alone was Silmon.
- LJ, swap.
Motion. Go! Motion.
- Hey!
- And a steal.
- Back the other way, a steal for East LA.
- LJ!
No-look pass.
Hampton finishes left side.
- Harding will drive inside.
- Open!
- It's Akinsanya who is fouled by Hampton.
- Hey, hey, hey! Hey, hey, hey!
- Good foul.
- That's a foul, man.
- No, that wasn't a foul.
- Good foul, good foul.
- That was not a foul.
- You got the foul.
Back and forth they go, punch for punch.
This is the tightest game
East LA has been in in quite a while.
Highler.
Right-wing angle. Well-defended.
The Allan Hancock Bulldogs
will not go away here tonight.
Harding drives to the cup!
Lays it up, lays it in.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Let's pick this shit up!
Come on! Let's pick it up!
Highler puts it on the floor
with his left hand. Right hand!
East LA cannot afford a slip.
Allan Hancock looking
to shock the Huskies.
It's Hampton, he fakes. He'll drive. Good!
And a tense game
here at East Los Angeles College,
both teams fighting
for the right to move on.
Akinsanya will get it across.
And a steal by Highler!
Picked up by Muhammad.
Zeigler into the front court.
Zeigler spins.
Zeigler inside, can't finish.
But he'll get two at the free throw line.
63-58. State championships waiting at
West Hills College in Lemoore, California.
Three-day tournament on the line.
Listen. If they're in zone,
we wanna run double again.
If they're in zone,
we run double again, you got that?
All right, here we go. "Finish" on three.
- One, two, three.
- Finish.
We're good, gentlemen.
We are good. We are in this!
We are winnin' this game, gentlemen.
We are winnin' this game.
- Let's go. "Family" one, two, three.
- Family!
It's a must-win situation.
High-pressure situation tonight.
Johnson, around the corner.
Stops in the paint.
Kicks out to Harding. For three, yes!
Plenty of time.
Defense! Defense!
Akinsanya. Akinsanya to Mensah.
Mensah for the tie!
Short.
Loose ball. Muhammad with the rebound.
- Thirty-six seconds to go.
- Yes, sir, Lik!
Yes, sir, Lik!
So, this instantly has
turned into a free throw game.
As Muhammad misses the first one.
Second attempt.
Rims out. Akinsanya with the board.
Thirty-three seconds to go,
and a chance to possibly tie
for Allan Hancock.
Well-defended by Highler.
KJ comes up with it.
He's pushed to the floor.
He'll go to the line.
All we gotta do is make one.
All we have to do is make one.
KJ rims out on the first one.
Hey, just one, bro. Just make one.
High tension.
KJ gets it to fall!
Come on! Come on!
Crossover move.
He'll drive.
He's in the corner. He's stuck!
Throws it up!
And it's last touched by East LA
- with 8.0 to go.
- Hey, we're almost done. Almost done!
Fighting hard for East LA.
Hey, do not foul.
If he shoots the three,
listen, we wanna contest it,
but we don't wanna...
He makes the three, we have four!
But we can't foul him while he's shooting.
Grant, you're throwin' it in.
Whoever catches it,
you have to take it up.
You got me? You gotta take it up.
Now, K!
30... 24!
Switch it all. Switch everything.
Johnson the trigger.
Surveys. Akinsanya left wide open.
I think that was too risky there,
if I'm East LA.
Highler to Zeigler. He's instantly
fouled from behind by Johnson.
LJ will get two shots.
- Oh, fuck!
- Come on. There you go.
There it is.
Sit down.
Oh, man, this is coming down
to the last possession.
LJ needs this one.
Allan Hancock will have
a chance to send it to OT.
LJ, yes.
Three-point lead.
6.1 to go.
- Harding.
- No foul!
- No foul! Hands up!
- Four seconds to go.
Harding left wing.
Throws it up!
East LA punches their ticket
to the state tournament.
The road to state continues.
East LA with a 25-game win streak.
They move to 29 and one.
Threes! Threes!
- Hey, three more!
- We got three more!
- Three more! Three more!
- We got three more! We got three more!
East LA 68, Allan Hancock 65.
This one is a final. What a game.
Man, it's great. Going to state.
Uh, that's the goal, so...
the guys did what it took to get it done,
and it was just knucklin' it up
and... and playing, so...
Uh, good job by these guys, just fightin'.
State! State!
Let's go! Let's go!
Whoo!
- Hey... Whoo!
- Everybody squeeze! Squeeze!
- Squeeze!
- Yes, sir, coach.
- Squeeze.
- Three more left! Three more left!
- Three more!
- Three more!
Let's take a trip, man!
Let's take a trip! Let's take a trip!
- It wasn't good. It was enough.
- It was there, nigga.
- It was there.
- It was enough. It wasn't good.
- But it was enough.
- All right, hey, listen...
Hey, good job, men. Um...
That's some heart
right there, fellas.
Wasn't nothin' great. But great winning.
All right? We fought.
We, like, fought, we found a way.
We found a way.
It was ugly, and we found a way.
Make sure you all get it straight.
Y'all go on and check
and pick out your rings tonight.
- Here we go.
- Hell, yeah!
- Yeah!
- Still need everybody to... Hey!
- Everybody eatin', yeah?
- It took everything.
It took everything,
and we still ain't there.
What that tell you? What that tell you?
All right, let's go. "Family" on three.
One, two, three.
- Fam!
- Good job.
- Hey, where Dez at?
- Phone.
- Hey, yeah, where...
- Where Dez at?
Hey! My boy. My boy.
My boy!
Coach said after the game,
it was really late,
we were sittin' here chillin',
it was, like, midnight,
and Coach walked right out this office,
and, Coach, what did you say?
You said, "Thank God these dudes
like each other, 'cause we..."
- "We didn't do nothing."
- We had no chance of winnin' that game.
We had no chance,
we didn't do nothin' right.
- But...
- But they liked each other,
- and that... that won the game for us.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Joe and Shaun had a lot to do with that.
- Yeah.
They had a lot to do with that, to...
To play that bad in the first half
and keep their spirits high, that, uh...
man, that helped us.
I wish we could bring in somebody
to play, like, Wednesday.
Tuesday. We can get in a...
We can get in a scrimmage. Uh...
Get in a scrimmage with...
with someone there.
- ...their spacing offensively...
- Santa Rosa is, um...
Their guards are very good,
they're really good
at driving and kicking.
Size-wise, they... they can't match up.
That game will just be methodical,
and it'll be about focus
and execution and detail,
'cause if we win that game,
the game Saturday is going to be
the most anticipated game
in junior college basketball, Saturday.
I mean, we've been on a collision course
with San Francisco City since September.
I'm not gonna say we're
the two best teams in the state,
but we're the two most
talented teams in the state.
There's gonna be a lot
of talent on that floor on... on Saturday.
It'll look like
a Division I basketball game.
This to win the game,
0.2 seconds left on the clock.
Squeeze. Squeeze.
- Squeeze. Squeeze.
- Yeah, man.
You got one more day of wearing that.
- Maybe two. Maybe two. Maybe two.
- That's crazy, bro.
Hey, that was our last game here, bro,
you thought about that yet?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
He believes he broke his toe
during the game on Saturday.
When he was running,
the other player, like, kind of, stopped,
and he, like, jammed his foot
against the side of his shoe.
So, he's been in pain, like, since then.
If you pay close attention,
you can see he's kind of limping,
trying to hide it, but, pretty bad, too.
It's not... It doesn't look too good.
Tell you this, man,
and I love y'all for this,
'cause the reason why we won
is 'cause y'all stuck together.
It had nothin' to do with makin' shots.
We 0...
How the hell you gonna be 0 for 12
and win a playoff game? 0 for 12?
- 0 for 12.
- 14 from three.
18 for 35 from the free throw.
18 for 35, but we won
'cause y'all... y'all was together.
I think two things, and I'mma
take credit for the second one.
The first one is y'all stayed together,
the second one is
we was in better shape
than them, all right?
So I'mma take credit for that.
So, y'all know what we doin'
after this, here we go.
- Let's go. Come on. Get a lane!
- It's what the game'll be like.
- This is what the game's going to be like.
- Rebound. Outlet! Go! Go!
- Go! Go! Go!
- It's gonna be just like this Saturday.
Finish that, rebound!
We ain't winnin' no game all sloppy.
We ain't winnin' nothin' sloppy, go again.
- Yeah, we should... What, nigga?
- Get off me, cuz. Get off.
What's up, then? You soft.
Grown... I'm a grown man, get off me.
- Throw that shit!
- Rebound.
Too grown for this.
They gotta foul me, Coach!
They gotta foul me.
Move. Set.
Ball. Get off me, you little...
Oh, shit.
I'm talkin' to you. Oh!
I don't know why. This supposed
to be a detailed chill day.
Or a chill day, I heard.
That was preparing for San Francisco...
It should have been.
- Yeah, I was preparing.
- Yes, because that...
- That's how we have to play.
- I'm like, "That's what it'll be like."
- It'll be like that.
- Mistakes by both, all over the court.
- Yeah, we just gonna be flying.
- Flying.
- Dudes gonna have to hoop.
- Yep.
- Everybody...
- Hey, real quick, so it looks like...
just so everybody gets yourself
mentally prepared,
looks like Thursday morning,
we're gonna leave, we'll shoot somewhere,
and then we'll go probably
check in a hotel
and then we'll relax and then we'll...
The next morning,
we'll have that figured out, breakfast.
We'll go get a fuckin' dub.
- Yeah.
- Huh?
Gonna whup some ass.
Listen, we... It's gonna be four days.
Usually, when I travel, if I'm goin' four,
I take...
- I bring four... five drawers.
- Bringing five.
- I bring five drawers.
- Seven.
- He's bringing one.
- Huh?
You doin' somethin' else
- if you need seven drawers for four days.
- He's bringin' one.
Gary doin' somethin' else.
Whoo, whoo!
Hey, fellas. Hey, fellas...
- Hey...
- Shaun's birthday's today.
So we could either sing
Happy Birthday, or birthday licks?
- Birthday licks! Birthday licks!
- ♪ Happy birthday... ♪
- ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- No, no, no, no, no!
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you ♪
- ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- Bring 'em in!
♪ Happy birthday ♪
♪ Happy ♪
♪ Birthday ♪
- ♪ Happy birthday ♪
- I love y'all, man.
- I love y'all. Come on. Come on.
- ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
I love y'all.
Let's handle business this week.
- "Family" on three. One, two, three.
- Family.
Is Coach in there?
- Don't let that fool leave, Coach.
- Who?
I'm right here, bruh.
- Don't let him leave.
- Oh, he's tryin' to.
- Oh, man, Coach. You know me too well.
- He don't.
Hey, I had a dream about
what we was doin' to San Fran,
- and this ain't in my dream.
- It's not? It wasn't...
Your limpin' around
was not in my dream, dawg.
You messin' up my dream.
- But how you not gonna do this?
- For... Bro, for...
You would've been straight today
if you just did it two days ago.
- For a little toe?
- Yes!
- What the... What the heck you think?
- My whole foot.
Your whole foot.
Have me in here...
And then, you need to do this,
like, four times tonight, bro.
And then you need
to take some inflammatory.
- Shaun, put the whole foot in there.
- What?
- You need to put the whole foot in there.
- Oh, my God, bro!
- You got it, Shaun.
- You gotta swish it around.
It's not even that much ice.
- Stay... Keep it in there.
- No, it's enough. It's enough.
It's enough. It's enough.
But, in all seriousness,
I think we've gotta be very real
with the American people,
I don't like how
we are scaring people, unnecessarily.
- And that is, unless you...
- It literally, within 48 hours,
it... it went from... from it just bein',
it's not somethin' we gotta...
You know, it's... we're not close to it,
until, all of a sudden,
- now everybody's in a panic.
- I think there's, what...
30 cases in the US?
Well, I saw four...
I was just looking it said, 472.
That's crazy.
I was watching ESPN last night
and you had, I think it was in Japan, one
of the baseball games, you have, like, a...
40,000-seat stadium,
completely empty, and them playing,
it looked like practice.
So, that's what this is about to be.
We practice harder than anybody else.
That's true. That's gonna be...
We practice...
we practice harder than we play.
- So we'll just...
- Maybe it'll be like a practice?
The positive is
we get to play our game.
The negative is it's just not going to be
what we thought it was going to be.
Yeah.
Families, friends, spectators, coaches...
Coaches is what kills it, man.
- Fools about to get some deals.
- To get scholarships.
- They was about to get deals.
- You see that level of talent...
- You watch us play City...
- All from local...
You watch us play City and you'll be,
like, "That dude can play at my level."
- Yeah.
- 'Cause they already on the fence...
Nine dudes, there's coaches, like,
ready to offer nine dudes on our team.
- They're there on the fence.
- They're judging...
- They did that against Rio.
- Right there on the fence.
You stressin' me out,
because this junk is hard, dude.
Recruitin', that... that junk is hard,
- gettin' them dudes out, man.
- I know.
- Yeah, and, like...
- It's hard, bro.
You just think about how important
it is for them to see them in person, too.
- Yeah.
- That sucks.
Fifteen.
Make it, LJ, make it.
Throughout the year, man, we've...
All kind of... crazy stuff, whatever,
you guys have done a good job.
29 and... 29 and one, right?
- Yeah!
- Yeah!
We all know we gotta go
finish this thing, all right, so listen.
We got somethin' that's...
is not as encouragin',
but what is encouragin' is we still...
we goin' to play for a state championship.
Are we not playing this weekend?
- We playin'. That's the good news.
- Oh, no...
- No fans?
- The bad news is they shut it down.
No fans?
- I said it.
- Oh, shit.
- I said that shit.
- What?
That shit about to be a scrimmage.
- Listen.
- Wait...
- Listen. Yeah.
- All weekend?
- Oh!
- Yeah.
- That's bad.
- But listen,
But, listen, the most important thing,
how it's being caught.
Yeah, it's a... it's a respiratory disease,
but we talkin' about the germs
that you carryin' in on your body,
and then we takin' it to our face,
- and, of course, direct...
- ...and all that.
But we takin' it to our face.
Make sure those hands... Look at Coach.
2020 off to a bad start.
Rob, you sanitizing right when I said it.
I actually think we good,
and they have a cure for it,
but who knows how long they...
- when they release it.
- It'll get to rich white people first.
- Yeah, we... Hey, our pract...
- This'll be practice.
- Hey, we play harder in practice anyway.
- So fuck it.
- So, here we go. All right?
- Fuck it. Hands up.
- Hey, "Family" on three. One, two, three.
- Family!
Dude, you goin' to Carolina.
Hey, we gotta win this shit.
Why wouldn't we?
Why wouldn't we?
I don't know, I guess
I'm stating the obvious but, like...
I'm pretty...
Well, it's up to you two over there.
- It is.
- That's all I'm saying, it's up to y'all.
If we don't win, it's up to y'all.
Hell, y'all won us a game
just with your attitude.
- Yeah. Coach told me the same thing.
- Just think if you balled.
- Coach told me the same.
- Just think if you was hoopin'.
You know what I mean?
Think if y'all was hoopin'.
No, I feel good.
I especially feel good about
the opportunity to play
- hopefully, the top two seeds.
- Right.
That's what we gotta hope for, because you
don't wanna leave anything unquestioned.
- Yeah.
- Nothin'.
- Nothin'.
- So if we can...
So if we can play City,
and then we can play Santiago Canyon,
- then there's absolutely no question.
- Mm-hm.
- It's like, this is the coldest team.
- Mm-hm.
This is one of the best years ever
for JC at the top, and we won it.
- Look at this shit. Empty drawers.
- This...
It's Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, all right.
Uh...
Yeah, these.
I had a lot of family that was
gonna go to the game,
but everybody cancelin' they stuff,
because they can't go inside the game
'cause of the coronavirus.
Uh... Everybody's pretty bummed out.
So, yeah, that sucks.
My Pa be... He'd be drivin'
from Timbuktu to see me play.
- Timbuktu.
- Like, for real.
I already heard, champ.
You know I know everything.
Okay.
- Tell your mom?
- No, I'm about to... about to tell her.
White people, homie.
White folks.
They got the power.
Can't never forget that.
It's like, "Now I got a bunch of niggers
coming to play some basketball..."
"Shut it down, Jimmy."
I'm goin' anyway. I'm gonna stand outside.
Doctor Fauci said this morning,
if you stand next to somebody
who tested positive,
you should self-isolate and get a test.
You say your White House doctor
is telling you something different.
Did you see they just canceled Pac-12
and the WAC?
- Yeah?
- Right, today, it was today, too.
They just canceled both of 'em.
I mean, we the only ones left.
CIF canceled.
Yeah, everybody's canceled.
It's only gonna get... There's...
there's no chance it gets any better, so...
'Cause you're talkin'... This is just...
This is, like, first quarter of a game.
I mean, it's gonna be a minute.
It'll be, like, May before
they get any handle on any of this.
Let's go in there,
let's be ready to get on the court.
- All right.
- They don't need to know nothin'.
Oh, they've been readin' it too.
They just said, like, Pac-12 ain't
going down. Everybody... everybody know.
We haven't, though.
- What y'all tryin'...
- But the NCAA is not canceled.
- What y'all trying to do?
- Yeah.
- That's what all the...
- What y'all tryin' to do?
What? No, no, no.
I mean,
but everything else is canceled,
like, we're literally the only thing
going on, right?
- The only...
- It'll be just like October again.
ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC
and Big Ten, all canceled.
Y'all want to play?
Yeah, I want to play.
- I wanna get this over with.
- He all ready...
So no more practice.
I wanna... I wanna play.
Man, we worked all this year
- just for it to stop like this?
- Yeah.
Hey, we... we only got 'til Sunday.
Shaun the most eating-ist
at practice person I know.
- I know. Always eating at practice.
- How this fool gonna...
- They gonna say...
- Look. It's your fault.
- How you gonna let this dude...
- And don't eat it all.
- He never eats it all.
- ...eat chicken sandwiches
while we doin' shootaround?
- Who?
- Then Shaun walk
with the chicken sandwiches
in the middle of the shootaround.
- You know what I'm sayin'?
- Hey, man, I get shit done, though.
- As long as we 29 and one.
- Oh, it's when I brought you Popeyes.
I get shit done, Coach.
I need to go buy
some water and stuff.
I was clowning around two... last week,
these fools is panicking,
- I was like, "Dude, I'm about to..."
- Man, I...
I finna go buy me some water now.
I did something kind of close, man.
I bought two cases of beer last night.
Threat!
Coach,
we the only ones left playin'.
- Nobody in the country...
- In the world.
In the whole entire country,
we the only ones...
Feel sad for dudes like Joe, man.
Joe, like...
He done worked hard for this moment.
- Shit, Taj.
- Taj.
All these dudes work hard for this moment.
This didn't happen before.
- Ah, yeah, man. There's been many...
- I was readin' the Bible.
Israelites and all that,
this happened before.
Every now and then, God gotta
get people attention, and I get it.
He got
the whole world's attention now, so...
Yeah.
First cases were in November.
- I didn't know.
- But we just didn't know
how serious it was until recent.
So, it went from Corona, to China? Then?
- No. Corona, like, California?
- No, it started in...
It started in China, dawg.
Nothing to do with Corona!
Hey, we the last ones standin'
across the country.
And, uh...
We the only ones standin'.
- Seriously.
- Hey, that's...
- Literally, around the country.
- For real.
C... CIF. Hey, we might be...
We might be... Yeah, everybody canceled.
All the conferences, ACC, Big West,
everybody canceled.
- They gonna be watchin' our game.
- Are we finna play?
- As of now, we're playin'.
- Cool.
- The girls...
- They ain't say no yet.
- No, they ain't...
- They tell us for sure it's canceled?
No, no, no. They've met...
So don't, like, be sad about that,
but I know, in terms of
what's goin' on across everything else,
it's just unavoidable
to not be thinkin' about it.
The good part is
everybody else is thinkin' about it,
everybody is feelin'
some kind of the same way,
but ain't nothin'
we can really do about it.
But I... Y'all know where I'm goin'.
Yeah, you...
No, I'm not going to church,
the church is in here.
But, here's the thing. When it...
when it seems uncontrollable, it's...
it's under control.
I mean, he's got a plan, I mean, it's...
it's kind of good and bad.
We get all these distractions.
We get television,
we get entertainment,
we get all that,
and our minds forget that,
ultimately, God has the last say-so...
...because he is God and he is the Creator.
Lord, we thank you for our opportunity.
Father God, we pray that you keep us safe,
and we pray we get an opportunity to play.
Father, I thank you
for this group of guys.
Father, we've known from the beginning,
Father, you told us
that this is a special group, and...
somethin' special
is gonna happen, Father.
Special things will come here
as we go up north.
Lord, we pray for protection as we go.
We thank you, we ask that you keep us
safe, in your son Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Love all y'all, we gonna have fun anyway,
even if we drivin' up and
they tell us to turn around, all right?
- On the bus in 15 minutes, everybody good?
- Yeah.
All right.
- We got snacks on the bus.
- We got snacks on the bus.
- Fifteen minutes.
- No problem. Can I get...
- Yes, nigga!
- Crazy.
- Goddamn, shoot, nigga!
- Nigga, you gonna shoot...
- No, school's shut down tomorrow.
- It is?
- Yeah.
- Oh!
Everything's goin' online, dawg.
Yeah.
Malik?
Where'd he go?
Sorry, fellas, man,
they canceled it.
That's it?
That's a wrap.
You want us to get off?
- Hey, fellas!
- Sorry, man.
We off.
They canceled?
That's a wrap.
- They canceled it?
- Yeah, we canceled. We out.
- Fuck, nigga!
- Let's go.
What the fuck?
Fuck the coronavirus and all this smoke.
Corona-k, bitch.
That's some bullshit, nigga.
They canceled it.
- We out.
- Man, fuck.
- We out. Let's go.
- Are we ever gonna play again?
- Let's just get off.
- Ohh!
- Go in the locker room, man.
- Just got on the bus, literally.
Are we ever... are we ever
gonna play a state tournament?
Rob said they're not gonna
reschedule that shit.
- Rob said they're not gonna reschedule.
- No, this thing is over, bruh.
Fuck.
The only thing is, we...
everybody's goin' through it,
so it's not just, like, us as a team.
So, how you feelin',
everybody's feelin' that way.
You know, there are some people
finna miss out on workin', jobs,
there are some people that's gonna
struggle with that, their families.
We... we all are gonna have
some level of suffering, all right?
Um, I'm not just sayin' this,
man, you know...
I had my little moment of tears,
but I'm not just sayin' this. This is...
It's the best team I ever had, man.
Uh... It's the best team I ever had.
Y'all was gonna win it, dude, but...
You know what I'm sayin'?
That's how it goes. Best team.
I appreciate each and every one of y'all.
Work you put in.
And... hell, yeah, I was gonna keep yellin'
at you all the way to the end.
Y'all, you know...
I was hoping y'all got a chance
to see me smile at the end.
These are the type of teams that...
they're like...
y'all like brothers for life.
Y'all just be, like,
"What's up, bro? What you doin'?"
You know,
"I need you to be at my weddin',"
"I need you...
Hey, man, come and help me move."
Ten years from now, "Oh, I need a job,"
"I got you, come on. I got you.
Come work for me at my company."
That's the type of dudes
y'all are, man.
I was really wantin' to see...
Want y'all to see it, man.
To see how it feels,
just to see what it's like.
To be recognized as one of the best.
It... it makes you want more.
It makes you want more.
Hopefully, we've done enough, man,
that y'all want more, man.
You gotta want more.
Uh, this is painful,
but how you respond
is gonna be key because...
there's gonna be some more
painful moments in life.
More painful moments in life. So...
just as we talk about our response
on the court, respondin' to this,
the right response is to
do what we need to do to lock in,
because there's an opportunity
for all of us still.
Um... I'm...
I'm grateful for all of you.
It was a heck of a ride.
Thanks.
Have any... Has anybody ever been through
some crazy shit like this ever?
Not talkin' about today,
I'm talking about,
like, August 26th to today.
It's been wild, exhilarating, frustrating.
Today is sad, and, man, it's been fun.
It's all... The whole gamut of emotions
and, uh, I tell you,
we're better coaches 'cause of you guys.
Y'all... y'all did it. You did it.
If this is... If this is the end,
then y'all... y'all won.
I'm not talking about the game, y'all won.
All right?
You won.
You won.
Everybody's here, 15 dudes still here.
Y'all won.
I'll drop you off at the crib,
you know what I mean?
- Too real.
- Yeah.
Y'all wanna eat?
- Too real.
- Yeah, fuck this.
We'll do somethin'.
You wanna go down the street?
Where do you wanna go?
- K! Stay up, bro.
- Come on.
For real.
Good.
Jay.
Y'all niggas stay the same, man.
All right, boy.
I'm too emotional for this shit.
I gotta get outta here, bro.
- Love you, Coach.
- Love you.
Appreciate you, man. You too, Coach.
Joe.
Big Lik.
Stay solid, brother.
We only got one left,
this the last one.
Come on.
- "Family" on three. One, two, three.
- Family.
When did you know that this was
probably going to be a fait accompli?
- Right when the NBA canceled their season.
- Last night.
Yeah, Steve Donahue,
the coach at Penn, called me to say...
I promised these kids that
you come here,
you're gonna get a scholarship.
I've always been able to have
a little control over a situation
where I can say, "Okay,
if this doesn't work out, we can do this."
"Okay, if this doesn't work out,
we can do this."
"You're struggling academically,
let's do this."
My players is, like, next week
it ain't gonna be nothin',
ain't gonna have nothin' to do.
They can't even go hoop.
Everything'll be shut down where
I don't have contact with these young men.
What happens
when the kids are away from me?
That's what worries me the most.
Almost like, back when I was
sittin' on the couch not doing nothin',
like, a year ago, I felt that same, like...
feeling of not knowin'
what was next, like, you know?
Like...
It just sucks that we don't have that
satisfaction to say that we're winners.
Yeah.
We'll always have that "What if?"
Like, no one had it like us, like...
like, no one put in
the sacrifices like us, like...
Like, we was just different.
If there was any, like, year to win,
like, this was the year.
That's gonna be
on my mind for a long time.
What you're talking about,
postpone instead of cancellation,
is this sense which is, I think,
a lot of it's real, in many instances,
we're pressing pause
on the world we know, not stop...
It's bittersweet. At least forever we'll
have somethin' to talk about, like,
"Oh, man, we would've did this and that,
and I know you would've
did this and that, and..."
I wish we would've gotten to go further,
but to be a part of it
and to have the role that I've had on it
has been really special to me.
This Husky basketball team
that we had this year,
ah, rest of my life, man, we're...
we're joined... we're joined at the hip.
No way that you can duplicate what...
what happened this year.
They had a unique love for each other
that I've never had,
and it's uncommon.
They've all made sacrifices to be
on the winning program
so that they can...
they can get to this stage.
My heart is broken because
they made a commitment,
and they said,
"Okay, Coach, I'mma trust you."
I don't... I don't know
how it's gonna turn out.
I... I'm in uncharted territory,
I... I don't know.
Normally, I... "Oh, I've done this before."
"I can find opportunities
for these young men."
But now,
I... I don't know what I'mma do.
The Y was open for a minute,
then it closed down again,
so it's just been outside courts all day.
I mean, they're not technically "open."
But, I mean,
you gotta do what you gotta do.
You gotta hop over a fence...
...or just...
Just try to get it in any way you can.
Not everything works out
the way you think it could.
Like, Central Michigan University,
that's where I signed to,
I asked how cold it is.
They say, "Yeah, you want winter boots."
I didn't know there was
a specific season for boots.
When are you going to Michigan?
The 10th, like, at midnight, though.
To me, I'm just imagining what I could do
at that level, you know?
Like, I know I'm not done
developin' as a player,
so first thing I wanna do
is try to get better, try to be...
I wanna be the best I could possibly be.
I'm saying, with psychology,
you can't just have a four-year degree.
- You gotta go to grad school.
- No, sometimes...
- You know that, right?
- I heard you the first five times.
Or, if you wanna
be surrounded by the NBA,
you wanna have
that action and everything.
- Sports psychology.
- Pick... pick something... Yeah.
You know what I mean?
In this day and age,
just learning about things,
- your major has to make sense.
- Mm-hm.
But, you know, hard work now is hard work,
'cause everyone's
at your level at this point,
so, you get there early,
you get there and you stay late.
- The work ethic will make the difference.
- Mmm.
- Right.
- Right?
- Absolutely.
- Seriously.
- Mmm.
- Gotta be sharp.
Yeah, 'cause he's 20.
- You gotta know your shit.
- Okay.
Him goin' far away, that's...
that's what he needs. I'm excited.
As long as he does what he has to do, uh...
I like the coaches.
Coach Mosley and Coach Ken,
they had great things to say about him.
I'm happy that he picked something
that was... It was like a mature decision.
And he's gonna experience a lot out there.
So... I'm excited.
Getting a D1 offer, that means...
that means everything,
'cause I put literal blood,
sweat and tears into this game.
That's all I wanted, since I...
since I was a youngin'.
Like, forget the NBA. I mean, if it comes,
it comes, that's cool with me.
But, just gettin' that D1 offer,
less stress for my parents
to set myself up for the future, that's...
that mean... that means everything to me.
Okay, so we're so proud of Malik,
we're so proud of you,
we wish you all the best.
- It's about goddamn time.
- We wish you all the best.
- Central Michigan!
- Okay, group hug!
- Group hug!
- Yeah!
- And I want... Come on.
- No!
- Hey!
- Be quiet, be quiet.
- Group hug, yay! I love my family!
- On three, "Malik!"
On three, "Malik."
- One, two, three. Malik!
- Malik...
- Oh, my gosh.
- Okay.
There you go.
That's what I wanna see
this season comin' up.
We can't have no more seasons of only
two three-point attempts in your life.
I was looking at the attempts,
like, "I ain't shoot none?"
That's why I say,
"Hey, man, shoot it more, man."
You shootin' it more ain't a bad thing.
When you start scorin' easy points,
that's ten more points on your average.
Yeah. Easy.
I can't find a highlight where you just
shootin' an open jumper, just relaxed,
it's always going by somebody, dunkin'.
That's a good problem to fix, though.
A lot of the out-of-state JUCOs,
I get hit up with...
They've kinda...
they've finally got the hint,
they finally stopped callin',
but they've been hittin' us up.
Only thing about that is,
not that I'm opposed to them,
it's just, if it ain't broke, why fix it?
We got a few schools that's nice,
USC right now, full ride, full everything.
Rutgers University.
Uh, Western Kentucky, LMU, Fresno State,
San Diego State,
anybody else I'm missin' out?
Oregon State, Washington State.
A lot of schools, still.
I feel like he can be a...
a big fish in a big pond,
but it's gotta be the right situation.
Um... bein' a big fish in a small pond,
that... that can also work, that's been
his M.O. his... his whole career.
He's always been that under-the-radar guy
that's been beatin' the big schools.
- I just wish we could go on some trips.
- Yeah.
They said as soon as... as soon as
they, um... able to, that we goin'.
Okay.
See, that's what this...
It sucks for, like, just...
Even, I feel bad for Anthony Davis,
for making that shot,
but he made it in the bubble,
so he missin' out on that type of stuff.
Okay, well, uh... Coaches, we start
our... our meetings this week.
So I'm just... just really excited.
I just... I don't remember ever being
this amped up to get back to it and coach,
uh, A, 'cause I really think our group's
got a chance to be really good...
To be a part of a family like ELAC is...
And to move on from it, the people
I met and the connections I made and...
the things I was able to learn,
because of those things,
yeah, it was pretty special.
You know, we never avoided competition,
we don't run from it,
we like it, we like you to be tested...
Coach Mosley,
yeah, he was on my ass, but...
he wouldn't have been
if he didn't really care like that.
Probably the most
impactful coach that I've had.
You guys know our philosophy here,
we're not gonna duck anybody,
we know we gettin' better,
and we also... we can beat anybody
if we stick to our core values.
When Sac called, I didn't know
what would happen with the virus,
and transfers
and what the rules were gonna be like,
and how that was gonna
affect me personally,
like my recruiting, I didn't know.
So, I just wanted
to hurry up and get it done.
What I've always wanted to do
is get a full scholarship to a D1 school.
Took the long route to do it,
but it finally paid off and I've been...
uh... waiting for this day for a long time.
Gettin' ready for the next chapter.
So, when... To jump ahead,
are you in the process of getting up here?
- Yeah.
- Got your stuff?
Yeah, I'm movin' today.
I've lived here since I was two,
so I don't remember any other house.
It's kind of sad, um... I, like...
Sometimes just kinda like, sittin' there
and just kind of like,
look around and, like...
It's kind of bittersweet.
I'm just excited to be movin' on, though.
Any time I find myself
gettin' sad about movin' out,
I just, like, think about,
like, where I'm headed and...
it all goes away.
It's exciting to have Kiera with me
on this journey,
and just learnin' and growin' together.
That part of it is really cool.
It's gonna be new for her, new for me.
I've never even been to Sacramento.
so, it'll be somethin' brand-new.
Moving's hard. Oh, my God.
I'm, like, winded right now.
To be able to do it together
with somebody who I click with so well,
it's just... just really awesome.
Thank you, babe.
- Let's get outta here, man.
- Let's go.
Bye, home!
- Look back. And we're good?
- Um...
- Here we go.
- Let's go.
Grab the painting too, all that shit.
Step in.
Hold this for me one second.
I found out I was movin' here
last... Sunday.
Everything happened so soon.
I kinda was still, um... at home,
just chillin', waitin' on the call,
and, uh, once I got that call to move in,
I was ready to go.
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ I don't have my shoes ♪
♪ To wear ♪
After the tournament got canceled,
went home
and literally was thinkin',
like, "What next?"
Mosley called me and he said,
"It's a done deal. Uh, they want you."
He put Long Beach back in the picture
for me, Long Beach State.
That was the only school
that I wanted to go to.
Like, I had on my list, like, a couple
of schools, and they were, like, D2s,
but that was just a backup plan if...
if I didn't get the school I wanted, but...
I think I jumped up off the couch
and screamed, like, legit.
I had... I think I had my girl's mom
come out and...
Like, "What's wrong?"
And I'm, like, "I'm goin' to Long Beach!"
That... that... that foot,
shorty, what's up?
Oh!
Oh!
This is my... my right-hand man,
my best friend, Alani. Alani Moore.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Uh...
Came up with me since we was tots,
since we was eight years old,
playin' basketball.
He was crazy, man.
Ate up all the snacks in the house.
My man, he used to come in that joint,
eat all the honey buns, Tootsie Rolls,
- crush everything.
- Cool it!
- Hey, you did, though.
- Chill, spare me a little bit.
He been through a lotta,
you know, hard times,
so I was just, you know, glad
seein' him gettin' back on track,
gettin' everything situated
with his life, you know, man.
He been through a lot.
He's doin' his thing,
gettin' back to business,
about to have a great year this year and
then go get to that money professionally.
I watched a lot of people go
straight past me,
and I mean, my blessings are fallin' now.
Just full circle, like,
I went from literally, at the bottom
the top, to the bottom,
now I'm back again,
so, like, now I just gotta stay here.
I also have that thought
that I can't get complacent,
I can't get too comfortable,
I still have to work hard.
Still have to do
what I'm supposed to do, but...
no, I... I'm never gettin'...
No, I'm never goin',
you know, back to that ever.
I'm here to stay. It's only up from here.
Remember, keep that ball close to
your body, right here. Here we go, ready?
Go.
One. Good.
Go.
Two, here we go.
Give me two at each spot,
two form... form shots at each spot.
Moriah, stop airball...
Moriah, stop airballing it.
One...
...two...
Come on.
What?
Family time has... has really been
the benefit of the COVID, you know?
Um, there's nothin'... nothin'
I can do about the... the weight,
man, I gained some weight.
Uh, if... If you ask what's goin' on
durin' COVID, you know, I done gain some...
I gain... I got fat.
I got the COVID beard, man, uh...
I think I'm about to cut it,
though, it's...
I'm... I'm outta COVID mode.
Uh, I'm about to cut it.
It's time to get goin'.
I still can't hear you. Can you hear me?
I can't hear you.
You know what? Let me... let me log off.
Hold on, let me make...
I... Oh, my bad.
My bad!
My... my bad! I didn't have my sound up.
Hey!
Okay, it's the elbow action.
- Yeah, that's that post...
- KJ, oh, that's perfect.
It was pretty stressful,
all the way down through August,
and I just felt like the...
the burden was on me,
the weight was on me,
like, "Dude, I have to..."
"This kid has to get outta here and..."
Which they did this year, you know?
We had eight African-American males
get their AA degree and transfer.
Our kids were done early,
and they graduated.
That gave these colleges...
That made 'em comfortable,
said, "Let's sign these kids,
they're done, they're okay,
we know they played in a good program."
"We just gonna have to take a chance."
And the kids,
you know, it's not just the...
the schools that was takin' a risk,
our kids were takin' a risk.
They were goin' places
where they'd never visited.
None of our kids took an official visit,
and they're goin' places where
they're meetin' coaches over the phone.
You gotta come in here workin',
when you walk through the door here,
you know,
expect you're gonna be bleedin'
on the first day
when you walk in the door.
If you don't come in shape in January
or whenever we start,
before that, then I'mma...
that's on my list,
I'mma check that mark off.
I'mma say, "He's not a...
he's not a real baller. He's not real..."
The kids that... that I love to be around
and help, I can't see 'em.
Can't spend time with 'em
and look 'em in the eye and...
you know, uh, share with 'em
what they're goin' through
so that we can kinda
take 'em step by step.
I want you to watch our point guard
come over here and fill.
Nine out of ten of you
right here wanna take this shot.
Our... our kids, our players,
man, they're strugglin' as well.
As we recruit 'em, we're tryin'
to keep them in the mix,
keep them in the fold,
we're trying to keep it positive
and keep it as real as... as normal.
When we tell you to do somethin',
when Coach Ken ask you to pick your
phone up or respond to a text message,
it's the setup for somethin' else,
the future, or whatever,
you have to follow through.
When the kids see me, they talk to me,
it's not doomsday,
it's all hope and it's all joy,
we're excited, we're ready,
we're gettin' started,
but, you know, I'm worried.
There is a budget crisis, um...
and I think immediately, uh,
we were hearin' whispers that...
you know, athletics would be
canceled for the year.
If the pandemic is at a high
and we can't participate,
we can't be in contact, that's one thing,
and we understand that,
but this is the only way
that some of these...
You know, in wake of what
we're goin' through right now,
these African-American young men,
this is the only way out.
And we're crying to our administration,
we're crying to the State of California
and just everyone else to say,
"Hey, this is..."
"This is something... we have to find
a solution to help these young men."
If you just take a basketball,
and you remove the basketball of it,
this is a program that matriculates kids
and are transferring kids.
And you wanna cut from it,
it just, uh...
It's, uh... it's unfortunate.
My biggest thing is not lettin'
these kids down,
I don't want these kids to feel like,
"I did everything I was supposed to do,
and it didn't work."
We're already looked upon
as damaged goods.
You're from the hood,
you're stereotyped this way,
this is how they see you.
There's no doors open.
Let's bust open a door,
and then let's surprise everybody.
Let's let 'em know, like, "You closed
the door, and I had somethin' left."
"And that's why I'm here."
I can count at least four times
I stayed at home thinkin' about quittin'.
But I just kept thinkin' about,
it's somethin' good comin' out of this.
I learned... don't give up, man,
do not give up,
ultimately, do not give up.
Do not give up on yourself ever.
Those experiences
made me who I am,
and I love who I am.
Fallin' up short,
like, disappointing yourself,
that's, like, the worst thing
you could possibly do.
Like, not reaching your potential.
I feel like everybody
has a possibility to be great,
it's just, whether you want to or not.
A lot of people
don't understand just how much
everything that's happened to me
has really affected me,
and, like, what I've become.
You can't fight a storm.
I couldn't fight the storm of anything
that happened in my life, there's no way.
But...
I don't know, I've come to...
come to... come to think
that it's all possible.
When I see lost people,
when I see people struggling,
when I see young men havin' a hard time
with discipline and with frustration
and with disappointment...
You assume the kid comes in with earrings,
and headphones and a hoodie on.
There's a stereotype.
You don't understand the diamond
that's under all that.
You don't understand that...
what's in there.
We see the outer.
We see he... he made one bad mistake,
and we condemn him.
One mistake.
And nobody's willin' to give him
a chance for one mistake.
So, anybody who walks through the door,
I have to give him a chance,
and that's why I'm here.
And so that... that's... that's my purpose.
That's my mission.
♪ Mass hallucination, baby ♪
♪ Ill education, baby ♪
♪ Wanna reconnect with your elations ♪
♪ This is your station, baby ♪
♪ Look inside these walls
And you see I'm havin' withdrawals ♪
♪ Of a prisoner on his way ♪
♪ Trapped inside your desire
To fire bullets that stray ♪
♪ Track attire just tell you
I'm tired and ran away ♪
♪ I should ask a choir
"What do you require ♪
♪ To sing a song that acquire me
To have faith?" ♪
♪ As the record spin I should pray ♪
♪ For the record
I recognize that I'm easily prey ♪
♪ I got ate alive yesterday
I got h'animosity buildin' ♪
♪ It's probably big as a buildin' ♪
♪ Me jumpin' off of the roof
Is me just playin' it safe ♪
♪ But what am I 'posed to do
When the topic is red or blue ♪
♪ And you understand that I ain't? ♪
♪ But know I'm accustomed to
Just a couple that look for trouble ♪
♪ And live in the street with rank ♪
♪ No better picture to paint
Than me walkin' from Bible study ♪
♪ And called his homies because
He had said he noticed my face ♪
♪ From a function that tooken place
They was wondering if I bang ♪
♪ Step on my neck
And get blood on your Nike checks ♪
♪ I don't mind, 'cause one day, you'll
Respect the good kid, m.A.A.d city ♪
♪ Mass hallucination, baby ♪
♪ Ill education, baby ♪
♪ Wanna reconnect with your elations ♪
♪ This is your station, baby ♪
♪ All I see is strobe lights
Blindin' me in my hindsight ♪
♪ Findin' me by myself
Promise me you can help ♪
♪ In all honesty, I got time
To be copacetic until ♪
♪ You had finally made decision
To hold me against my will ♪
♪ It was like a head-on collision
That folded me standin' still ♪
♪ I can never pick out the difference
And grade a cop on the bill ♪
♪ Every time you clock in the mornin' ♪
♪ I feel you just want to kill
All my h'innocence ♪
♪ While ignorin' my purpose
To persevere as a better person ♪
♪ I know you heard this
And probably in fear ♪
♪ But what am I 'posed to do
With the blinkin' of red and blue ♪
♪ Flash from the top of your roof
And your dog has to say woof ♪
♪ And you ask, "Lift up your shirt"
'Cause you wonder if a tattoo ♪
♪ Of affiliation can make it
A pleasure to put me through ♪
♪ Gang files, but that don't matter
Because the matter is racial profile ♪
♪ I heard them chatter, "He's probably
Young but I know that he's down" ♪
♪ Step on his neck as hard
As your bulletproof vest ♪
♪ He don't mind, he know we'll never
Respect the good kid, m.A.A.d. city ♪
♪ Mass hallucination, baby ♪
♪ Ill education, baby ♪
♪ Wanna reconnect with your elations ♪
♪ This is your station, baby ♪
♪ All I see in this room
20s, Xannies, and these 'shrooms ♪
♪ Grown-up candy for pain
Can we live in a sane society? ♪
♪ It's entirely stressful upon my brain ♪
♪ You hired me as a victim
I quietly hope for change ♪
♪ When violence is the rhythm
Inspired me to obtain ♪
♪ The silence in this room
With 20s, Xannies, and 'shrooms ♪
♪ Some grown-up candy, I lost it
I feel it's nothin' to lose ♪
♪ The streets sure to release
The worst side of my best ♪
Akinsanya for the Bulldogs...
Hey. They're callin' a timeout
'cause they don't know what to do.
They're gonna crack.
They're gonna crack. They ain't felt this.
Four... Listen, listen! Four is the shooter.
Four is the shooter.
So if he's in the corner,
remember when you're chasin' it down,
we not lettin' 'em back.
Opposite or back.
Move!
Foul is called on number 12, Will Silmon.
- Yeah, I'm good now. I'm good now.
- Smooth?
Yeah, I'm smooth, I'm smooth.
Deshaun Highler is ready
to get back in it, I think.
Highler is such a alpha personality.
Refuses to lose.
There's no way Highler
will step off the floor
as an upset is brewing here.
Hey! Motion. Come on, come on! Go!
Go! Motion!
Go, K! Go!
Highler to Zeigler.
To Allen on the elbow, yes!
Yeah! Let's go, son!
Let's go, son!
Searcy gets ripped. Smith now, to Hampton.
Hampton gets fouled.
- Hampton falls on his bottom.
- Hey. Let's go!
- Go. Let's go.
- Go! Go! Go, go, Shaun!
Back the other way. Left to right,
Zeigler to a cutting Highler.
Finishes with a scooped layup
- off the glass.
- Sweep! Sweep!
Defense!
- Help, help, help!
- Defense! Defense!
Defense! Defense!
A steal by Highler.
Highler to KJ. Wide-open lane.
The two-hand flush.
Let's go, let's go!
East LA trails by one.
- Defense! Defense!
- LJ!
Ten, ten, ten!
Ten, K. Ten!
East LA will apply a full-court press now.
Come on, man. Let's go!
- Go, go, go, go!
- Pick it up, bruh!
- Yeah!
- Hey!
- Go, go, go, go, go!
- Harding.
Another steal by Hampton.
Go, L. Go! Corner! Corner!
Highler attacks.
Straight to the cup! Finishes!
- Let's fucking go!
- Let's go!
- Let's fucking go.
- Timeout!
- Timeout!
- This is our pace, right?
This is our pace, okay?
Let's go. Press break. Press break.
Johnson stops at the elbow,
wide open underneath.
- Left all alone was Silmon.
- LJ, swap.
Motion. Go! Motion.
- Hey!
- And a steal.
- Back the other way, a steal for East LA.
- LJ!
No-look pass.
Hampton finishes left side.
- Harding will drive inside.
- Open!
- It's Akinsanya who is fouled by Hampton.
- Hey, hey, hey! Hey, hey, hey!
- Good foul.
- That's a foul, man.
- No, that wasn't a foul.
- Good foul, good foul.
- That was not a foul.
- You got the foul.
Back and forth they go, punch for punch.
This is the tightest game
East LA has been in in quite a while.
Highler.
Right-wing angle. Well-defended.
The Allan Hancock Bulldogs
will not go away here tonight.
Harding drives to the cup!
Lays it up, lays it in.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Let's pick this shit up!
Come on! Let's pick it up!
Highler puts it on the floor
with his left hand. Right hand!
East LA cannot afford a slip.
Allan Hancock looking
to shock the Huskies.
It's Hampton, he fakes. He'll drive. Good!
And a tense game
here at East Los Angeles College,
both teams fighting
for the right to move on.
Akinsanya will get it across.
And a steal by Highler!
Picked up by Muhammad.
Zeigler into the front court.
Zeigler spins.
Zeigler inside, can't finish.
But he'll get two at the free throw line.
63-58. State championships waiting at
West Hills College in Lemoore, California.
Three-day tournament on the line.
Listen. If they're in zone,
we wanna run double again.
If they're in zone,
we run double again, you got that?
All right, here we go. "Finish" on three.
- One, two, three.
- Finish.
We're good, gentlemen.
We are good. We are in this!
We are winnin' this game, gentlemen.
We are winnin' this game.
- Let's go. "Family" one, two, three.
- Family!
It's a must-win situation.
High-pressure situation tonight.
Johnson, around the corner.
Stops in the paint.
Kicks out to Harding. For three, yes!
Plenty of time.
Defense! Defense!
Akinsanya. Akinsanya to Mensah.
Mensah for the tie!
Short.
Loose ball. Muhammad with the rebound.
- Thirty-six seconds to go.
- Yes, sir, Lik!
Yes, sir, Lik!
So, this instantly has
turned into a free throw game.
As Muhammad misses the first one.
Second attempt.
Rims out. Akinsanya with the board.
Thirty-three seconds to go,
and a chance to possibly tie
for Allan Hancock.
Well-defended by Highler.
KJ comes up with it.
He's pushed to the floor.
He'll go to the line.
All we gotta do is make one.
All we have to do is make one.
KJ rims out on the first one.
Hey, just one, bro. Just make one.
High tension.
KJ gets it to fall!
Come on! Come on!
Crossover move.
He'll drive.
He's in the corner. He's stuck!
Throws it up!
And it's last touched by East LA
- with 8.0 to go.
- Hey, we're almost done. Almost done!
Fighting hard for East LA.
Hey, do not foul.
If he shoots the three,
listen, we wanna contest it,
but we don't wanna...
He makes the three, we have four!
But we can't foul him while he's shooting.
Grant, you're throwin' it in.
Whoever catches it,
you have to take it up.
You got me? You gotta take it up.
Now, K!
30... 24!
Switch it all. Switch everything.
Johnson the trigger.
Surveys. Akinsanya left wide open.
I think that was too risky there,
if I'm East LA.
Highler to Zeigler. He's instantly
fouled from behind by Johnson.
LJ will get two shots.
- Oh, fuck!
- Come on. There you go.
There it is.
Sit down.
Oh, man, this is coming down
to the last possession.
LJ needs this one.
Allan Hancock will have
a chance to send it to OT.
LJ, yes.
Three-point lead.
6.1 to go.
- Harding.
- No foul!
- No foul! Hands up!
- Four seconds to go.
Harding left wing.
Throws it up!
East LA punches their ticket
to the state tournament.
The road to state continues.
East LA with a 25-game win streak.
They move to 29 and one.
Threes! Threes!
- Hey, three more!
- We got three more!
- Three more! Three more!
- We got three more! We got three more!
East LA 68, Allan Hancock 65.
This one is a final. What a game.
Man, it's great. Going to state.
Uh, that's the goal, so...
the guys did what it took to get it done,
and it was just knucklin' it up
and... and playing, so...
Uh, good job by these guys, just fightin'.
State! State!
Let's go! Let's go!
Whoo!
- Hey... Whoo!
- Everybody squeeze! Squeeze!
- Squeeze!
- Yes, sir, coach.
- Squeeze.
- Three more left! Three more left!
- Three more!
- Three more!
Let's take a trip, man!
Let's take a trip! Let's take a trip!
- It wasn't good. It was enough.
- It was there, nigga.
- It was there.
- It was enough. It wasn't good.
- But it was enough.
- All right, hey, listen...
Hey, good job, men. Um...
That's some heart
right there, fellas.
Wasn't nothin' great. But great winning.
All right? We fought.
We, like, fought, we found a way.
We found a way.
It was ugly, and we found a way.
Make sure you all get it straight.
Y'all go on and check
and pick out your rings tonight.
- Here we go.
- Hell, yeah!
- Yeah!
- Still need everybody to... Hey!
- Everybody eatin', yeah?
- It took everything.
It took everything,
and we still ain't there.
What that tell you? What that tell you?
All right, let's go. "Family" on three.
One, two, three.
- Fam!
- Good job.
- Hey, where Dez at?
- Phone.
- Hey, yeah, where...
- Where Dez at?
Hey! My boy. My boy.
My boy!
Coach said after the game,
it was really late,
we were sittin' here chillin',
it was, like, midnight,
and Coach walked right out this office,
and, Coach, what did you say?
You said, "Thank God these dudes
like each other, 'cause we..."
- "We didn't do nothing."
- We had no chance of winnin' that game.
We had no chance,
we didn't do nothin' right.
- But...
- But they liked each other,
- and that... that won the game for us.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Joe and Shaun had a lot to do with that.
- Yeah.
They had a lot to do with that, to...
To play that bad in the first half
and keep their spirits high, that, uh...
man, that helped us.
I wish we could bring in somebody
to play, like, Wednesday.
Tuesday. We can get in a...
We can get in a scrimmage. Uh...
Get in a scrimmage with...
with someone there.
- ...their spacing offensively...
- Santa Rosa is, um...
Their guards are very good,
they're really good
at driving and kicking.
Size-wise, they... they can't match up.
That game will just be methodical,
and it'll be about focus
and execution and detail,
'cause if we win that game,
the game Saturday is going to be
the most anticipated game
in junior college basketball, Saturday.
I mean, we've been on a collision course
with San Francisco City since September.
I'm not gonna say we're
the two best teams in the state,
but we're the two most
talented teams in the state.
There's gonna be a lot
of talent on that floor on... on Saturday.
It'll look like
a Division I basketball game.
This to win the game,
0.2 seconds left on the clock.
Squeeze. Squeeze.
- Squeeze. Squeeze.
- Yeah, man.
You got one more day of wearing that.
- Maybe two. Maybe two. Maybe two.
- That's crazy, bro.
Hey, that was our last game here, bro,
you thought about that yet?
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
He believes he broke his toe
during the game on Saturday.
When he was running,
the other player, like, kind of, stopped,
and he, like, jammed his foot
against the side of his shoe.
So, he's been in pain, like, since then.
If you pay close attention,
you can see he's kind of limping,
trying to hide it, but, pretty bad, too.
It's not... It doesn't look too good.
Tell you this, man,
and I love y'all for this,
'cause the reason why we won
is 'cause y'all stuck together.
It had nothin' to do with makin' shots.
We 0...
How the hell you gonna be 0 for 12
and win a playoff game? 0 for 12?
- 0 for 12.
- 14 from three.
18 for 35 from the free throw.
18 for 35, but we won
'cause y'all... y'all was together.
I think two things, and I'mma
take credit for the second one.
The first one is y'all stayed together,
the second one is
we was in better shape
than them, all right?
So I'mma take credit for that.
So, y'all know what we doin'
after this, here we go.
- Let's go. Come on. Get a lane!
- It's what the game'll be like.
- This is what the game's going to be like.
- Rebound. Outlet! Go! Go!
- Go! Go! Go!
- It's gonna be just like this Saturday.
Finish that, rebound!
We ain't winnin' no game all sloppy.
We ain't winnin' nothin' sloppy, go again.
- Yeah, we should... What, nigga?
- Get off me, cuz. Get off.
What's up, then? You soft.
Grown... I'm a grown man, get off me.
- Throw that shit!
- Rebound.
Too grown for this.
They gotta foul me, Coach!
They gotta foul me.
Move. Set.
Ball. Get off me, you little...
Oh, shit.
I'm talkin' to you. Oh!
I don't know why. This supposed
to be a detailed chill day.
Or a chill day, I heard.
That was preparing for San Francisco...
It should have been.
- Yeah, I was preparing.
- Yes, because that...
- That's how we have to play.
- I'm like, "That's what it'll be like."
- It'll be like that.
- Mistakes by both, all over the court.
- Yeah, we just gonna be flying.
- Flying.
- Dudes gonna have to hoop.
- Yep.
- Everybody...
- Hey, real quick, so it looks like...
just so everybody gets yourself
mentally prepared,
looks like Thursday morning,
we're gonna leave, we'll shoot somewhere,
and then we'll go probably
check in a hotel
and then we'll relax and then we'll...
The next morning,
we'll have that figured out, breakfast.
We'll go get a fuckin' dub.
- Yeah.
- Huh?
Gonna whup some ass.
Listen, we... It's gonna be four days.
Usually, when I travel, if I'm goin' four,
I take...
- I bring four... five drawers.
- Bringing five.
- I bring five drawers.
- Seven.
- He's bringing one.
- Huh?
You doin' somethin' else
- if you need seven drawers for four days.
- He's bringin' one.
Gary doin' somethin' else.
Whoo, whoo!
Hey, fellas. Hey, fellas...
- Hey...
- Shaun's birthday's today.
So we could either sing
Happy Birthday, or birthday licks?
- Birthday licks! Birthday licks!
- ♪ Happy birthday... ♪
- ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- No, no, no, no, no!
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you ♪
- ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- Bring 'em in!
♪ Happy birthday ♪
♪ Happy ♪
♪ Birthday ♪
- ♪ Happy birthday ♪
- I love y'all, man.
- I love y'all. Come on. Come on.
- ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
I love y'all.
Let's handle business this week.
- "Family" on three. One, two, three.
- Family.
Is Coach in there?
- Don't let that fool leave, Coach.
- Who?
I'm right here, bruh.
- Don't let him leave.
- Oh, he's tryin' to.
- Oh, man, Coach. You know me too well.
- He don't.
Hey, I had a dream about
what we was doin' to San Fran,
- and this ain't in my dream.
- It's not? It wasn't...
Your limpin' around
was not in my dream, dawg.
You messin' up my dream.
- But how you not gonna do this?
- For... Bro, for...
You would've been straight today
if you just did it two days ago.
- For a little toe?
- Yes!
- What the... What the heck you think?
- My whole foot.
Your whole foot.
Have me in here...
And then, you need to do this,
like, four times tonight, bro.
And then you need
to take some inflammatory.
- Shaun, put the whole foot in there.
- What?
- You need to put the whole foot in there.
- Oh, my God, bro!
- You got it, Shaun.
- You gotta swish it around.
It's not even that much ice.
- Stay... Keep it in there.
- No, it's enough. It's enough.
It's enough. It's enough.
But, in all seriousness,
I think we've gotta be very real
with the American people,
I don't like how
we are scaring people, unnecessarily.
- And that is, unless you...
- It literally, within 48 hours,
it... it went from... from it just bein',
it's not somethin' we gotta...
You know, it's... we're not close to it,
until, all of a sudden,
- now everybody's in a panic.
- I think there's, what...
30 cases in the US?
Well, I saw four...
I was just looking it said, 472.
That's crazy.
I was watching ESPN last night
and you had, I think it was in Japan, one
of the baseball games, you have, like, a...
40,000-seat stadium,
completely empty, and them playing,
it looked like practice.
So, that's what this is about to be.
We practice harder than anybody else.
That's true. That's gonna be...
We practice...
we practice harder than we play.
- So we'll just...
- Maybe it'll be like a practice?
The positive is
we get to play our game.
The negative is it's just not going to be
what we thought it was going to be.
Yeah.
Families, friends, spectators, coaches...
Coaches is what kills it, man.
- Fools about to get some deals.
- To get scholarships.
- They was about to get deals.
- You see that level of talent...
- You watch us play City...
- All from local...
You watch us play City and you'll be,
like, "That dude can play at my level."
- Yeah.
- 'Cause they already on the fence...
Nine dudes, there's coaches, like,
ready to offer nine dudes on our team.
- They're there on the fence.
- They're judging...
- They did that against Rio.
- Right there on the fence.
You stressin' me out,
because this junk is hard, dude.
Recruitin', that... that junk is hard,
- gettin' them dudes out, man.
- I know.
- Yeah, and, like...
- It's hard, bro.
You just think about how important
it is for them to see them in person, too.
- Yeah.
- That sucks.
Fifteen.
Make it, LJ, make it.
Throughout the year, man, we've...
All kind of... crazy stuff, whatever,
you guys have done a good job.
29 and... 29 and one, right?
- Yeah!
- Yeah!
We all know we gotta go
finish this thing, all right, so listen.
We got somethin' that's...
is not as encouragin',
but what is encouragin' is we still...
we goin' to play for a state championship.
Are we not playing this weekend?
- We playin'. That's the good news.
- Oh, no...
- No fans?
- The bad news is they shut it down.
No fans?
- I said it.
- Oh, shit.
- I said that shit.
- What?
That shit about to be a scrimmage.
- Listen.
- Wait...
- Listen. Yeah.
- All weekend?
- Oh!
- Yeah.
- That's bad.
- But listen,
But, listen, the most important thing,
how it's being caught.
Yeah, it's a... it's a respiratory disease,
but we talkin' about the germs
that you carryin' in on your body,
and then we takin' it to our face,
- and, of course, direct...
- ...and all that.
But we takin' it to our face.
Make sure those hands... Look at Coach.
2020 off to a bad start.
Rob, you sanitizing right when I said it.
I actually think we good,
and they have a cure for it,
but who knows how long they...
- when they release it.
- It'll get to rich white people first.
- Yeah, we... Hey, our pract...
- This'll be practice.
- Hey, we play harder in practice anyway.
- So fuck it.
- So, here we go. All right?
- Fuck it. Hands up.
- Hey, "Family" on three. One, two, three.
- Family!
Dude, you goin' to Carolina.
Hey, we gotta win this shit.
Why wouldn't we?
Why wouldn't we?
I don't know, I guess
I'm stating the obvious but, like...
I'm pretty...
Well, it's up to you two over there.
- It is.
- That's all I'm saying, it's up to y'all.
If we don't win, it's up to y'all.
Hell, y'all won us a game
just with your attitude.
- Yeah. Coach told me the same thing.
- Just think if you balled.
- Coach told me the same.
- Just think if you was hoopin'.
You know what I mean?
Think if y'all was hoopin'.
No, I feel good.
I especially feel good about
the opportunity to play
- hopefully, the top two seeds.
- Right.
That's what we gotta hope for, because you
don't wanna leave anything unquestioned.
- Yeah.
- Nothin'.
- Nothin'.
- So if we can...
So if we can play City,
and then we can play Santiago Canyon,
- then there's absolutely no question.
- Mm-hm.
- It's like, this is the coldest team.
- Mm-hm.
This is one of the best years ever
for JC at the top, and we won it.
- Look at this shit. Empty drawers.
- This...
It's Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, all right.
Uh...
Yeah, these.
I had a lot of family that was
gonna go to the game,
but everybody cancelin' they stuff,
because they can't go inside the game
'cause of the coronavirus.
Uh... Everybody's pretty bummed out.
So, yeah, that sucks.
My Pa be... He'd be drivin'
from Timbuktu to see me play.
- Timbuktu.
- Like, for real.
I already heard, champ.
You know I know everything.
Okay.
- Tell your mom?
- No, I'm about to... about to tell her.
White people, homie.
White folks.
They got the power.
Can't never forget that.
It's like, "Now I got a bunch of niggers
coming to play some basketball..."
"Shut it down, Jimmy."
I'm goin' anyway. I'm gonna stand outside.
Doctor Fauci said this morning,
if you stand next to somebody
who tested positive,
you should self-isolate and get a test.
You say your White House doctor
is telling you something different.
Did you see they just canceled Pac-12
and the WAC?
- Yeah?
- Right, today, it was today, too.
They just canceled both of 'em.
I mean, we the only ones left.
CIF canceled.
Yeah, everybody's canceled.
It's only gonna get... There's...
there's no chance it gets any better, so...
'Cause you're talkin'... This is just...
This is, like, first quarter of a game.
I mean, it's gonna be a minute.
It'll be, like, May before
they get any handle on any of this.
Let's go in there,
let's be ready to get on the court.
- All right.
- They don't need to know nothin'.
Oh, they've been readin' it too.
They just said, like, Pac-12 ain't
going down. Everybody... everybody know.
We haven't, though.
- What y'all tryin'...
- But the NCAA is not canceled.
- What y'all trying to do?
- Yeah.
- That's what all the...
- What y'all tryin' to do?
What? No, no, no.
I mean,
but everything else is canceled,
like, we're literally the only thing
going on, right?
- The only...
- It'll be just like October again.
ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC
and Big Ten, all canceled.
Y'all want to play?
Yeah, I want to play.
- I wanna get this over with.
- He all ready...
So no more practice.
I wanna... I wanna play.
Man, we worked all this year
- just for it to stop like this?
- Yeah.
Hey, we... we only got 'til Sunday.
Shaun the most eating-ist
at practice person I know.
- I know. Always eating at practice.
- How this fool gonna...
- They gonna say...
- Look. It's your fault.
- How you gonna let this dude...
- And don't eat it all.
- He never eats it all.
- ...eat chicken sandwiches
while we doin' shootaround?
- Who?
- Then Shaun walk
with the chicken sandwiches
in the middle of the shootaround.
- You know what I'm sayin'?
- Hey, man, I get shit done, though.
- As long as we 29 and one.
- Oh, it's when I brought you Popeyes.
I get shit done, Coach.
I need to go buy
some water and stuff.
I was clowning around two... last week,
these fools is panicking,
- I was like, "Dude, I'm about to..."
- Man, I...
I finna go buy me some water now.
I did something kind of close, man.
I bought two cases of beer last night.
Threat!
Coach,
we the only ones left playin'.
- Nobody in the country...
- In the world.
In the whole entire country,
we the only ones...
Feel sad for dudes like Joe, man.
Joe, like...
He done worked hard for this moment.
- Shit, Taj.
- Taj.
All these dudes work hard for this moment.
This didn't happen before.
- Ah, yeah, man. There's been many...
- I was readin' the Bible.
Israelites and all that,
this happened before.
Every now and then, God gotta
get people attention, and I get it.
He got
the whole world's attention now, so...
Yeah.
First cases were in November.
- I didn't know.
- But we just didn't know
how serious it was until recent.
So, it went from Corona, to China? Then?
- No. Corona, like, California?
- No, it started in...
It started in China, dawg.
Nothing to do with Corona!
Hey, we the last ones standin'
across the country.
And, uh...
We the only ones standin'.
- Seriously.
- Hey, that's...
- Literally, around the country.
- For real.
C... CIF. Hey, we might be...
We might be... Yeah, everybody canceled.
All the conferences, ACC, Big West,
everybody canceled.
- They gonna be watchin' our game.
- Are we finna play?
- As of now, we're playin'.
- Cool.
- The girls...
- They ain't say no yet.
- No, they ain't...
- They tell us for sure it's canceled?
No, no, no. They've met...
So don't, like, be sad about that,
but I know, in terms of
what's goin' on across everything else,
it's just unavoidable
to not be thinkin' about it.
The good part is
everybody else is thinkin' about it,
everybody is feelin'
some kind of the same way,
but ain't nothin'
we can really do about it.
But I... Y'all know where I'm goin'.
Yeah, you...
No, I'm not going to church,
the church is in here.
But, here's the thing. When it...
when it seems uncontrollable, it's...
it's under control.
I mean, he's got a plan, I mean, it's...
it's kind of good and bad.
We get all these distractions.
We get television,
we get entertainment,
we get all that,
and our minds forget that,
ultimately, God has the last say-so...
...because he is God and he is the Creator.
Lord, we thank you for our opportunity.
Father God, we pray that you keep us safe,
and we pray we get an opportunity to play.
Father, I thank you
for this group of guys.
Father, we've known from the beginning,
Father, you told us
that this is a special group, and...
somethin' special
is gonna happen, Father.
Special things will come here
as we go up north.
Lord, we pray for protection as we go.
We thank you, we ask that you keep us
safe, in your son Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Love all y'all, we gonna have fun anyway,
even if we drivin' up and
they tell us to turn around, all right?
- On the bus in 15 minutes, everybody good?
- Yeah.
All right.
- We got snacks on the bus.
- We got snacks on the bus.
- Fifteen minutes.
- No problem. Can I get...
- Yes, nigga!
- Crazy.
- Goddamn, shoot, nigga!
- Nigga, you gonna shoot...
- No, school's shut down tomorrow.
- It is?
- Yeah.
- Oh!
Everything's goin' online, dawg.
Yeah.
Malik?
Where'd he go?
Sorry, fellas, man,
they canceled it.
That's it?
That's a wrap.
You want us to get off?
- Hey, fellas!
- Sorry, man.
We off.
They canceled?
That's a wrap.
- They canceled it?
- Yeah, we canceled. We out.
- Fuck, nigga!
- Let's go.
What the fuck?
Fuck the coronavirus and all this smoke.
Corona-k, bitch.
That's some bullshit, nigga.
They canceled it.
- We out.
- Man, fuck.
- We out. Let's go.
- Are we ever gonna play again?
- Let's just get off.
- Ohh!
- Go in the locker room, man.
- Just got on the bus, literally.
Are we ever... are we ever
gonna play a state tournament?
Rob said they're not gonna
reschedule that shit.
- Rob said they're not gonna reschedule.
- No, this thing is over, bruh.
Fuck.
The only thing is, we...
everybody's goin' through it,
so it's not just, like, us as a team.
So, how you feelin',
everybody's feelin' that way.
You know, there are some people
finna miss out on workin', jobs,
there are some people that's gonna
struggle with that, their families.
We... we all are gonna have
some level of suffering, all right?
Um, I'm not just sayin' this,
man, you know...
I had my little moment of tears,
but I'm not just sayin' this. This is...
It's the best team I ever had, man.
Uh... It's the best team I ever had.
Y'all was gonna win it, dude, but...
You know what I'm sayin'?
That's how it goes. Best team.
I appreciate each and every one of y'all.
Work you put in.
And... hell, yeah, I was gonna keep yellin'
at you all the way to the end.
Y'all, you know...
I was hoping y'all got a chance
to see me smile at the end.
These are the type of teams that...
they're like...
y'all like brothers for life.
Y'all just be, like,
"What's up, bro? What you doin'?"
You know,
"I need you to be at my weddin',"
"I need you...
Hey, man, come and help me move."
Ten years from now, "Oh, I need a job,"
"I got you, come on. I got you.
Come work for me at my company."
That's the type of dudes
y'all are, man.
I was really wantin' to see...
Want y'all to see it, man.
To see how it feels,
just to see what it's like.
To be recognized as one of the best.
It... it makes you want more.
It makes you want more.
Hopefully, we've done enough, man,
that y'all want more, man.
You gotta want more.
Uh, this is painful,
but how you respond
is gonna be key because...
there's gonna be some more
painful moments in life.
More painful moments in life. So...
just as we talk about our response
on the court, respondin' to this,
the right response is to
do what we need to do to lock in,
because there's an opportunity
for all of us still.
Um... I'm...
I'm grateful for all of you.
It was a heck of a ride.
Thanks.
Have any... Has anybody ever been through
some crazy shit like this ever?
Not talkin' about today,
I'm talking about,
like, August 26th to today.
It's been wild, exhilarating, frustrating.
Today is sad, and, man, it's been fun.
It's all... The whole gamut of emotions
and, uh, I tell you,
we're better coaches 'cause of you guys.
Y'all... y'all did it. You did it.
If this is... If this is the end,
then y'all... y'all won.
I'm not talking about the game, y'all won.
All right?
You won.
You won.
Everybody's here, 15 dudes still here.
Y'all won.
I'll drop you off at the crib,
you know what I mean?
- Too real.
- Yeah.
Y'all wanna eat?
- Too real.
- Yeah, fuck this.
We'll do somethin'.
You wanna go down the street?
Where do you wanna go?
- K! Stay up, bro.
- Come on.
For real.
Good.
Jay.
Y'all niggas stay the same, man.
All right, boy.
I'm too emotional for this shit.
I gotta get outta here, bro.
- Love you, Coach.
- Love you.
Appreciate you, man. You too, Coach.
Joe.
Big Lik.
Stay solid, brother.
We only got one left,
this the last one.
Come on.
- "Family" on three. One, two, three.
- Family.
When did you know that this was
probably going to be a fait accompli?
- Right when the NBA canceled their season.
- Last night.
Yeah, Steve Donahue,
the coach at Penn, called me to say...
I promised these kids that
you come here,
you're gonna get a scholarship.
I've always been able to have
a little control over a situation
where I can say, "Okay,
if this doesn't work out, we can do this."
"Okay, if this doesn't work out,
we can do this."
"You're struggling academically,
let's do this."
My players is, like, next week
it ain't gonna be nothin',
ain't gonna have nothin' to do.
They can't even go hoop.
Everything'll be shut down where
I don't have contact with these young men.
What happens
when the kids are away from me?
That's what worries me the most.
Almost like, back when I was
sittin' on the couch not doing nothin',
like, a year ago, I felt that same, like...
feeling of not knowin'
what was next, like, you know?
Like...
It just sucks that we don't have that
satisfaction to say that we're winners.
Yeah.
We'll always have that "What if?"
Like, no one had it like us, like...
like, no one put in
the sacrifices like us, like...
Like, we was just different.
If there was any, like, year to win,
like, this was the year.
That's gonna be
on my mind for a long time.
What you're talking about,
postpone instead of cancellation,
is this sense which is, I think,
a lot of it's real, in many instances,
we're pressing pause
on the world we know, not stop...
It's bittersweet. At least forever we'll
have somethin' to talk about, like,
"Oh, man, we would've did this and that,
and I know you would've
did this and that, and..."
I wish we would've gotten to go further,
but to be a part of it
and to have the role that I've had on it
has been really special to me.
This Husky basketball team
that we had this year,
ah, rest of my life, man, we're...
we're joined... we're joined at the hip.
No way that you can duplicate what...
what happened this year.
They had a unique love for each other
that I've never had,
and it's uncommon.
They've all made sacrifices to be
on the winning program
so that they can...
they can get to this stage.
My heart is broken because
they made a commitment,
and they said,
"Okay, Coach, I'mma trust you."
I don't... I don't know
how it's gonna turn out.
I... I'm in uncharted territory,
I... I don't know.
Normally, I... "Oh, I've done this before."
"I can find opportunities
for these young men."
But now,
I... I don't know what I'mma do.
The Y was open for a minute,
then it closed down again,
so it's just been outside courts all day.
I mean, they're not technically "open."
But, I mean,
you gotta do what you gotta do.
You gotta hop over a fence...
...or just...
Just try to get it in any way you can.
Not everything works out
the way you think it could.
Like, Central Michigan University,
that's where I signed to,
I asked how cold it is.
They say, "Yeah, you want winter boots."
I didn't know there was
a specific season for boots.
When are you going to Michigan?
The 10th, like, at midnight, though.
To me, I'm just imagining what I could do
at that level, you know?
Like, I know I'm not done
developin' as a player,
so first thing I wanna do
is try to get better, try to be...
I wanna be the best I could possibly be.
I'm saying, with psychology,
you can't just have a four-year degree.
- You gotta go to grad school.
- No, sometimes...
- You know that, right?
- I heard you the first five times.
Or, if you wanna
be surrounded by the NBA,
you wanna have
that action and everything.
- Sports psychology.
- Pick... pick something... Yeah.
You know what I mean?
In this day and age,
just learning about things,
- your major has to make sense.
- Mm-hm.
But, you know, hard work now is hard work,
'cause everyone's
at your level at this point,
so, you get there early,
you get there and you stay late.
- The work ethic will make the difference.
- Mmm.
- Right.
- Right?
- Absolutely.
- Seriously.
- Mmm.
- Gotta be sharp.
Yeah, 'cause he's 20.
- You gotta know your shit.
- Okay.
Him goin' far away, that's...
that's what he needs. I'm excited.
As long as he does what he has to do, uh...
I like the coaches.
Coach Mosley and Coach Ken,
they had great things to say about him.
I'm happy that he picked something
that was... It was like a mature decision.
And he's gonna experience a lot out there.
So... I'm excited.
Getting a D1 offer, that means...
that means everything,
'cause I put literal blood,
sweat and tears into this game.
That's all I wanted, since I...
since I was a youngin'.
Like, forget the NBA. I mean, if it comes,
it comes, that's cool with me.
But, just gettin' that D1 offer,
less stress for my parents
to set myself up for the future, that's...
that mean... that means everything to me.
Okay, so we're so proud of Malik,
we're so proud of you,
we wish you all the best.
- It's about goddamn time.
- We wish you all the best.
- Central Michigan!
- Okay, group hug!
- Group hug!
- Yeah!
- And I want... Come on.
- No!
- Hey!
- Be quiet, be quiet.
- Group hug, yay! I love my family!
- On three, "Malik!"
On three, "Malik."
- One, two, three. Malik!
- Malik...
- Oh, my gosh.
- Okay.
There you go.
That's what I wanna see
this season comin' up.
We can't have no more seasons of only
two three-point attempts in your life.
I was looking at the attempts,
like, "I ain't shoot none?"
That's why I say,
"Hey, man, shoot it more, man."
You shootin' it more ain't a bad thing.
When you start scorin' easy points,
that's ten more points on your average.
Yeah. Easy.
I can't find a highlight where you just
shootin' an open jumper, just relaxed,
it's always going by somebody, dunkin'.
That's a good problem to fix, though.
A lot of the out-of-state JUCOs,
I get hit up with...
They've kinda...
they've finally got the hint,
they finally stopped callin',
but they've been hittin' us up.
Only thing about that is,
not that I'm opposed to them,
it's just, if it ain't broke, why fix it?
We got a few schools that's nice,
USC right now, full ride, full everything.
Rutgers University.
Uh, Western Kentucky, LMU, Fresno State,
San Diego State,
anybody else I'm missin' out?
Oregon State, Washington State.
A lot of schools, still.
I feel like he can be a...
a big fish in a big pond,
but it's gotta be the right situation.
Um... bein' a big fish in a small pond,
that... that can also work, that's been
his M.O. his... his whole career.
He's always been that under-the-radar guy
that's been beatin' the big schools.
- I just wish we could go on some trips.
- Yeah.
They said as soon as... as soon as
they, um... able to, that we goin'.
Okay.
See, that's what this...
It sucks for, like, just...
Even, I feel bad for Anthony Davis,
for making that shot,
but he made it in the bubble,
so he missin' out on that type of stuff.
Okay, well, uh... Coaches, we start
our... our meetings this week.
So I'm just... just really excited.
I just... I don't remember ever being
this amped up to get back to it and coach,
uh, A, 'cause I really think our group's
got a chance to be really good...
To be a part of a family like ELAC is...
And to move on from it, the people
I met and the connections I made and...
the things I was able to learn,
because of those things,
yeah, it was pretty special.
You know, we never avoided competition,
we don't run from it,
we like it, we like you to be tested...
Coach Mosley,
yeah, he was on my ass, but...
he wouldn't have been
if he didn't really care like that.
Probably the most
impactful coach that I've had.
You guys know our philosophy here,
we're not gonna duck anybody,
we know we gettin' better,
and we also... we can beat anybody
if we stick to our core values.
When Sac called, I didn't know
what would happen with the virus,
and transfers
and what the rules were gonna be like,
and how that was gonna
affect me personally,
like my recruiting, I didn't know.
So, I just wanted
to hurry up and get it done.
What I've always wanted to do
is get a full scholarship to a D1 school.
Took the long route to do it,
but it finally paid off and I've been...
uh... waiting for this day for a long time.
Gettin' ready for the next chapter.
So, when... To jump ahead,
are you in the process of getting up here?
- Yeah.
- Got your stuff?
Yeah, I'm movin' today.
I've lived here since I was two,
so I don't remember any other house.
It's kind of sad, um... I, like...
Sometimes just kinda like, sittin' there
and just kind of like,
look around and, like...
It's kind of bittersweet.
I'm just excited to be movin' on, though.
Any time I find myself
gettin' sad about movin' out,
I just, like, think about,
like, where I'm headed and...
it all goes away.
It's exciting to have Kiera with me
on this journey,
and just learnin' and growin' together.
That part of it is really cool.
It's gonna be new for her, new for me.
I've never even been to Sacramento.
so, it'll be somethin' brand-new.
Moving's hard. Oh, my God.
I'm, like, winded right now.
To be able to do it together
with somebody who I click with so well,
it's just... just really awesome.
Thank you, babe.
- Let's get outta here, man.
- Let's go.
Bye, home!
- Look back. And we're good?
- Um...
- Here we go.
- Let's go.
Grab the painting too, all that shit.
Step in.
Hold this for me one second.
I found out I was movin' here
last... Sunday.
Everything happened so soon.
I kinda was still, um... at home,
just chillin', waitin' on the call,
and, uh, once I got that call to move in,
I was ready to go.
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ I don't have my shoes ♪
♪ To wear ♪
After the tournament got canceled,
went home
and literally was thinkin',
like, "What next?"
Mosley called me and he said,
"It's a done deal. Uh, they want you."
He put Long Beach back in the picture
for me, Long Beach State.
That was the only school
that I wanted to go to.
Like, I had on my list, like, a couple
of schools, and they were, like, D2s,
but that was just a backup plan if...
if I didn't get the school I wanted, but...
I think I jumped up off the couch
and screamed, like, legit.
I had... I think I had my girl's mom
come out and...
Like, "What's wrong?"
And I'm, like, "I'm goin' to Long Beach!"
That... that... that foot,
shorty, what's up?
Oh!
Oh!
This is my... my right-hand man,
my best friend, Alani. Alani Moore.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Uh...
Came up with me since we was tots,
since we was eight years old,
playin' basketball.
He was crazy, man.
Ate up all the snacks in the house.
My man, he used to come in that joint,
eat all the honey buns, Tootsie Rolls,
- crush everything.
- Cool it!
- Hey, you did, though.
- Chill, spare me a little bit.
He been through a lotta,
you know, hard times,
so I was just, you know, glad
seein' him gettin' back on track,
gettin' everything situated
with his life, you know, man.
He been through a lot.
He's doin' his thing,
gettin' back to business,
about to have a great year this year and
then go get to that money professionally.
I watched a lot of people go
straight past me,
and I mean, my blessings are fallin' now.
Just full circle, like,
I went from literally, at the bottom
the top, to the bottom,
now I'm back again,
so, like, now I just gotta stay here.
I also have that thought
that I can't get complacent,
I can't get too comfortable,
I still have to work hard.
Still have to do
what I'm supposed to do, but...
no, I... I'm never gettin'...
No, I'm never goin',
you know, back to that ever.
I'm here to stay. It's only up from here.
Remember, keep that ball close to
your body, right here. Here we go, ready?
Go.
One. Good.
Go.
Two, here we go.
Give me two at each spot,
two form... form shots at each spot.
Moriah, stop airball...
Moriah, stop airballing it.
One...
...two...
Come on.
What?
Family time has... has really been
the benefit of the COVID, you know?
Um, there's nothin'... nothin'
I can do about the... the weight,
man, I gained some weight.
Uh, if... If you ask what's goin' on
durin' COVID, you know, I done gain some...
I gain... I got fat.
I got the COVID beard, man, uh...
I think I'm about to cut it,
though, it's...
I'm... I'm outta COVID mode.
Uh, I'm about to cut it.
It's time to get goin'.
I still can't hear you. Can you hear me?
I can't hear you.
You know what? Let me... let me log off.
Hold on, let me make...
I... Oh, my bad.
My bad!
My... my bad! I didn't have my sound up.
Hey!
Okay, it's the elbow action.
- Yeah, that's that post...
- KJ, oh, that's perfect.
It was pretty stressful,
all the way down through August,
and I just felt like the...
the burden was on me,
the weight was on me,
like, "Dude, I have to..."
"This kid has to get outta here and..."
Which they did this year, you know?
We had eight African-American males
get their AA degree and transfer.
Our kids were done early,
and they graduated.
That gave these colleges...
That made 'em comfortable,
said, "Let's sign these kids,
they're done, they're okay,
we know they played in a good program."
"We just gonna have to take a chance."
And the kids,
you know, it's not just the...
the schools that was takin' a risk,
our kids were takin' a risk.
They were goin' places
where they'd never visited.
None of our kids took an official visit,
and they're goin' places where
they're meetin' coaches over the phone.
You gotta come in here workin',
when you walk through the door here,
you know,
expect you're gonna be bleedin'
on the first day
when you walk in the door.
If you don't come in shape in January
or whenever we start,
before that, then I'mma...
that's on my list,
I'mma check that mark off.
I'mma say, "He's not a...
he's not a real baller. He's not real..."
The kids that... that I love to be around
and help, I can't see 'em.
Can't spend time with 'em
and look 'em in the eye and...
you know, uh, share with 'em
what they're goin' through
so that we can kinda
take 'em step by step.
I want you to watch our point guard
come over here and fill.
Nine out of ten of you
right here wanna take this shot.
Our... our kids, our players,
man, they're strugglin' as well.
As we recruit 'em, we're tryin'
to keep them in the mix,
keep them in the fold,
we're trying to keep it positive
and keep it as real as... as normal.
When we tell you to do somethin',
when Coach Ken ask you to pick your
phone up or respond to a text message,
it's the setup for somethin' else,
the future, or whatever,
you have to follow through.
When the kids see me, they talk to me,
it's not doomsday,
it's all hope and it's all joy,
we're excited, we're ready,
we're gettin' started,
but, you know, I'm worried.
There is a budget crisis, um...
and I think immediately, uh,
we were hearin' whispers that...
you know, athletics would be
canceled for the year.
If the pandemic is at a high
and we can't participate,
we can't be in contact, that's one thing,
and we understand that,
but this is the only way
that some of these...
You know, in wake of what
we're goin' through right now,
these African-American young men,
this is the only way out.
And we're crying to our administration,
we're crying to the State of California
and just everyone else to say,
"Hey, this is..."
"This is something... we have to find
a solution to help these young men."
If you just take a basketball,
and you remove the basketball of it,
this is a program that matriculates kids
and are transferring kids.
And you wanna cut from it,
it just, uh...
It's, uh... it's unfortunate.
My biggest thing is not lettin'
these kids down,
I don't want these kids to feel like,
"I did everything I was supposed to do,
and it didn't work."
We're already looked upon
as damaged goods.
You're from the hood,
you're stereotyped this way,
this is how they see you.
There's no doors open.
Let's bust open a door,
and then let's surprise everybody.
Let's let 'em know, like, "You closed
the door, and I had somethin' left."
"And that's why I'm here."
I can count at least four times
I stayed at home thinkin' about quittin'.
But I just kept thinkin' about,
it's somethin' good comin' out of this.
I learned... don't give up, man,
do not give up,
ultimately, do not give up.
Do not give up on yourself ever.
Those experiences
made me who I am,
and I love who I am.
Fallin' up short,
like, disappointing yourself,
that's, like, the worst thing
you could possibly do.
Like, not reaching your potential.
I feel like everybody
has a possibility to be great,
it's just, whether you want to or not.
A lot of people
don't understand just how much
everything that's happened to me
has really affected me,
and, like, what I've become.
You can't fight a storm.
I couldn't fight the storm of anything
that happened in my life, there's no way.
But...
I don't know, I've come to...
come to... come to think
that it's all possible.
When I see lost people,
when I see people struggling,
when I see young men havin' a hard time
with discipline and with frustration
and with disappointment...
You assume the kid comes in with earrings,
and headphones and a hoodie on.
There's a stereotype.
You don't understand the diamond
that's under all that.
You don't understand that...
what's in there.
We see the outer.
We see he... he made one bad mistake,
and we condemn him.
One mistake.
And nobody's willin' to give him
a chance for one mistake.
So, anybody who walks through the door,
I have to give him a chance,
and that's why I'm here.
And so that... that's... that's my purpose.
That's my mission.
♪ Mass hallucination, baby ♪
♪ Ill education, baby ♪
♪ Wanna reconnect with your elations ♪
♪ This is your station, baby ♪
♪ Look inside these walls
And you see I'm havin' withdrawals ♪
♪ Of a prisoner on his way ♪
♪ Trapped inside your desire
To fire bullets that stray ♪
♪ Track attire just tell you
I'm tired and ran away ♪
♪ I should ask a choir
"What do you require ♪
♪ To sing a song that acquire me
To have faith?" ♪
♪ As the record spin I should pray ♪
♪ For the record
I recognize that I'm easily prey ♪
♪ I got ate alive yesterday
I got h'animosity buildin' ♪
♪ It's probably big as a buildin' ♪
♪ Me jumpin' off of the roof
Is me just playin' it safe ♪
♪ But what am I 'posed to do
When the topic is red or blue ♪
♪ And you understand that I ain't? ♪
♪ But know I'm accustomed to
Just a couple that look for trouble ♪
♪ And live in the street with rank ♪
♪ No better picture to paint
Than me walkin' from Bible study ♪
♪ And called his homies because
He had said he noticed my face ♪
♪ From a function that tooken place
They was wondering if I bang ♪
♪ Step on my neck
And get blood on your Nike checks ♪
♪ I don't mind, 'cause one day, you'll
Respect the good kid, m.A.A.d city ♪
♪ Mass hallucination, baby ♪
♪ Ill education, baby ♪
♪ Wanna reconnect with your elations ♪
♪ This is your station, baby ♪
♪ All I see is strobe lights
Blindin' me in my hindsight ♪
♪ Findin' me by myself
Promise me you can help ♪
♪ In all honesty, I got time
To be copacetic until ♪
♪ You had finally made decision
To hold me against my will ♪
♪ It was like a head-on collision
That folded me standin' still ♪
♪ I can never pick out the difference
And grade a cop on the bill ♪
♪ Every time you clock in the mornin' ♪
♪ I feel you just want to kill
All my h'innocence ♪
♪ While ignorin' my purpose
To persevere as a better person ♪
♪ I know you heard this
And probably in fear ♪
♪ But what am I 'posed to do
With the blinkin' of red and blue ♪
♪ Flash from the top of your roof
And your dog has to say woof ♪
♪ And you ask, "Lift up your shirt"
'Cause you wonder if a tattoo ♪
♪ Of affiliation can make it
A pleasure to put me through ♪
♪ Gang files, but that don't matter
Because the matter is racial profile ♪
♪ I heard them chatter, "He's probably
Young but I know that he's down" ♪
♪ Step on his neck as hard
As your bulletproof vest ♪
♪ He don't mind, he know we'll never
Respect the good kid, m.A.A.d. city ♪
♪ Mass hallucination, baby ♪
♪ Ill education, baby ♪
♪ Wanna reconnect with your elations ♪
♪ This is your station, baby ♪
♪ All I see in this room
20s, Xannies, and these 'shrooms ♪
♪ Grown-up candy for pain
Can we live in a sane society? ♪
♪ It's entirely stressful upon my brain ♪
♪ You hired me as a victim
I quietly hope for change ♪
♪ When violence is the rhythm
Inspired me to obtain ♪
♪ The silence in this room
With 20s, Xannies, and 'shrooms ♪
♪ Some grown-up candy, I lost it
I feel it's nothin' to lose ♪
♪ The streets sure to release
The worst side of my best ♪