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Sep 19, 2016 By David Kordosh Web Exclusive

More than twenty years have passed since Hoop Dreams – likely the greatest sports documentary ever – told the story of two Chicago high schoolers and their aspirations of playing professional basketball. In the years since, the path to scholarships and NBA stardom for the nation’s best players has undergone a dramatic shift. It’s a path that now runs solely through the tournaments of the Amateur Athletic Union, commonly known as the AAU.

This changed landscape is the subject of At All Costs, the new documentary from director Mike Nicoll. The truth the film makes abundantly clear is that amateur basketball in America is now a big money game, and anything but amateur. The influx of money brings new influences into the players’ lives: their AAU coaches, the competing shoe companies that fund the teams, and the agents (and less-than-reputable hangers-on) hoping to cozy up to the next LeBron James.

Nicoll’s film includes the usual suspects: a blue chip prospect with a determined and overzealous parent, a ‘super team’ of players from a top AAU program in Compton, and that team’s founder – an outspoken man as interested in developing his team’s brand as he is in developing his players. The film follow the teams as they crisscross the country, playing in tournament after tournament, hoping to catch the eye of college coaches and recruiters. The AAU schedule is unforgiving, and it’s difficult to not be sympathetic to the young men caught up in the grind (even if a few of them are potential future millionaires).

At All Costs is neither a promotion nor an indictment of AAU, and allows its subjects to provide the commentary. Unfortunately, this plays less as a balanced portrayal of the system and more of a lack of point-of-view on the filmmaker’s part. The film touches upon the downsides for the players, but it does so with a light hand and never for long. A short interview with a former AAU player whose college career was over before it began, due to accepting “impermissible benefits”, is as close as the film comes to providing a cautionary tale.

There’s been a spate of excellent sports documentaries over the past five years, films unafraid to ask tough questions and draw connections from the playing fields and courts to the social, racial and economic issues of the day. More explanative than investigative, At All Costs draws attention to just how much amateur basketball has changed, but would benefit from a deeper examination of the consequences it has had on the players and their families.

www.atallcostsmovie.com

Author rating: 5.5/10