Jesus is a promising high school basketball player who is about to go to college. His decision about which school to choose could cause totally different outcomes. Jesus’s father Jake is a prisoner who is guilty of accidentally killing his wife. The governor is a basketball fan who wants Jake to convince Jesus to go to the state university, which for Jesus is also a perfect idea. Jake has to face many difficulties because his son can’t forgive him for what he did to his wife and son. But finally Jake persuades his son to make the right choice, which is to go to the state university.
This movie is all about an immature boy becoming a man. How he changes is by learning how to make right choices. Although this movie’s plot focuses on portraying basketball, all this does is to support the story about choice-making. In this movie, Jesus’ choice affects not only his father’s life, but also changes his life forever. Jake has been pushing so hard on his son for all of Jesus’ life, all because Jake wants his son to make the right choice in his life and not to waste his talent. There are many temptations on one’s way to success. For Jesus, what Big Time and the manager offer money, and the party school offers sex and drugs which could eventually ruin his career and life. However, Jesus has a good father knows what is right, and the most important thing his father has taught him is how to make the right choice. Finally Jesus overcomes those temptations and chooses the state university. By doing this, Jesus proves that he is a mature man.
Another theme of this movie is redemption. This theme is expressed metaphorically in this movie. Jake names his son Jesus, who later becomes his savior spiritually, although the governor doesn’t set Jake free at last. However, the last scene in this movie, in which Jake through the ball over the wall and it ends up at the gym where Jesus is playing, is absolutely symbolizing that Jake is spiritually free from his sins. Going back to the name Jesus, I see more in it than just Jake’s redemption. I see a spiritual guidance of African Americans in this movie. This movie shows the dark side of African Americans’ lives in lower classes. For example at the last Jake is still in prison, and the governor’s promise hasn’t come true. In addition, when some African Americans are reading the newspaper about Jake, one of them is clearly illiterate; and Big Time makes his racist speech, African Americans in this scene are doing all kinds of drugs. All these scenes are showing that African Americans need a savior, who in this movie is Jesus. This is extremely obvious when so many people are saying his name “Jesus”. He suddenly becomes a religious symbol. How Jesus saves them is by doing his work decently and ignoring temptation. This is a metaphor for the redemption of African Americans.
In conclusion, this movie is really not about basketball. Although this movie begins with many people from different races and places all over the country playing basketball, it still is a movie about growing up and race issues. On the other hand, basketball only plays a supporting role in this movie.
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