More Than A Game

By the time LeBron James was a senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary's high school in Akron, Ohio he was already considered the world's most praised 17 year old ever. He was playing games in front of thousands of fans at sold out arenas, traveling to games via plane and driving brand-new luxury cars to class. He was already living as a NBA player; some may argue that he was being given too much praise while others believed this process was just preparing for his future lifestyle.

 More Than a Game is a documentary which follows the high school careers of James and four of his teammates. Director Kristopher Belman began filming this documentary as a class project but after devoting the a decade of his life to successfully completing it, he realized his documentary would interest many of Lebron's fans that wanted to know about his life before the NBA.

The plot of the film follows James and his teammates as they battle for state and national basketball championships. Each of them are interviewed and given the opportunity to explain their upbringings and how they all met. This can cause a little frustration to LeBron James fans as they may want to see a film where LeBron is the consistent speaker. I believe the way in which the director equally divided air time between the team will give fans a perspective into realizing why LeBron is such the great leader he is today.

   

The documentary also highlights the little difficulties the team experienced when they lost to Roger Bacon high school in the 2002 Ohio High School State Championship game. A Roger Bacon team that was less talented upset James' team because at times they seemed imprudent and didn't always play together. This feature of the film was interesting because it expressed the message that although a team can have elite stars on it, that does not mean they are immortal and exempt from making mistakes. 

With this film, director Belman was able to excite fans by exhibiting LeBron's development into the NBA's best player from a young age. The film also does a great job at highlighting his shortcomings on and off the basketball court. More Than a Game is rated PG, so moviegoers of all ages can enjoy it. After I watched the film, I was amazed at how it showed everything there is to know about LeBron James and I recommend that everyone take a little time out to watch it. And hopefully the brief trailer will help in convincing you all to go watch it. Enjoy!