| Hoop Dreams Essay, Research Paper
HOOP DREAMS
Main Idea
The book Hoop Dreams Paul Robert Walker shows how life can work against you
in every way imagined no matter how hard you work. It shows how all good can turn to
bad in the blink of an eye and how all your dreams can be thrown away after everything
you?ve worked towards completing. The story is based on two men Arthur Agee and
William Gates who?s lives are basically recorded from their freshman year in high school
to their senior year of playing basketball. Their story means something to anyone with a
dream to play basketball at a higher level. The purpose of this book was for Walker to
show all the things that can turn something good for somebody bad and for somebody
who has something bad to work to change it to good.
Information
Arthur Agee and William Gates are two young teenagers ready to jump into
highschool basically not for school but just for basketball. Both of these talented young
players are scouted by a top basketball highschool in the country. They are both given
scholarships for one semester for this school to play basketball. After one semester
William is given a scholarship to go to highschool for the rest of his highschool career at
this school while Arthur isn?t . Arthur?s family cannot afford the school so he has to
change schools in to a sluggish school with little future given to it?s graduates. Arthur
loses all the credit he earned at his former school because he cannot pay the cost for the
days he went to school there.
Question
Their is many problems addressed in the book about money. William has his school
paid for which means he will get the better education and he has the better basketball
highschool for being scouted at by top college teams. Arthur is back tracked in debt and
must pay 1,200 $ before he can get his transcripts and credit for the classes he took. This
is bad for Arthur because at one point in the book the heat and electricity is turned off for
3 months because the Agee family is very poor and in debt. After continuing problems
Arthur?s father leaves the family and barely visits Arthur and stays away from his life. So
basically this puts Arthur in a situation of being poor going to a rough school and not
having a good basketball school that would draw scouts for his future dreams of making it
to the NBA. William has a situation where he starts varsity as a freshman and he is already
being looked at as a sensation and doesn?t have to worry about school tuition and a very
superior education that Arthur. The book takes you through their freshman through senior
years in highschool and shows Arthur?s struggles and shows William?s stardom at his
prestigious highschool know for its top players and teams throughout it?s basketball
history. During their senior years Arthur gets his chance at varsity and William?s school is
favored to win Chicago?s city championship. Along the way everything is on track as
Arthur?s team matures and Arthur starts to play his role on the team to help them win. A
little way through the season William tears knee cartilage and will sit out 16 weeks of the
season and watch his team struggle without him, and his team must learn to win without
him. Arthur?s team makes it to the state tournament and roles through it?s opponents
upsetting some of the biggest school names in the Chicago area. William?s team roles
through its first two opponents as it did when it made it to the state championship semi
finals and finals the past three years. William suffers a knee blow in only the second round
of the state tournament to watch his team exit the state championship the earliest in ten
years while he sits on the bench helpless because of his knee. Arthur?s team is given the
nickname the ?giant killers? after it beats all of its opponents winning a unpredicted state
championship given Arthur media stardom in front of William?s coach which cut his
scholarship because he thought Arthur would never develop into a basketball player to see
Arthur mature and win and lead his team through the state championship showing his
leadership and passion to win. The passion and leadership was what costed William?s team
the game after he reinjured his knee and was unable to play.
Point of View
Arthur Agee was always simulating that he was in the NBA whenever he would
play basketball on the playgrounds in Chicago. His NBA dream was so strong he would
spend hours practicing using this as an escape to his problems of poverty welfare problem.
The pressure was on Arthur by his brother Craig who played basketball at the same
highschool as he did and was a standout star. Craig blew out his knee and his future but he
once was a top prospect as Arthur wants to be given the chance. William is almost
identical to Arthur but not having as many money problems. WIliiam?s dream of making it
to the NBA is as strong as Arthurs. William wants to portrey Isiah Thomas that went to
his highschool and later on to the NBA. I see Arthur and William as having an unstopable
dream because of their talent. Arthur and William don?t realize how good that you have to
be to make it to a big time college or the pro?s. William tore cartilage in his knee which
kept away his chance of any interest by schools while Arthur never was watched by scouts
because of he didn?t start varsity untill is senior year without much experience. Arthurs
family was too over confindent with Arthur because they strived just as he did for him to
make it to the NBA because of their poverty. This came crashing down on Arthur because
it was now harder for him to let go of his dream becaue it was thought by so many people
around Arthur that he could make it that he felt he was throwing his life away by not
making the pro?s. William?s family is not really shown in the book as much as Arthurs but
are always seem to be in the crowd giving encouragement to William. I saw William as
definitally having luck go is way in life. Arthur didn?t grow much untill his later career in
school and William seemed to be filled out his freshman year which got him the start for
his prestigious highschool.
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