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Basketball Wed Nov 19 2008
The 'Dream' Team
In 1994, the lives of two pretty ordinary kids from the innercity of Chicago became the subject of one of the most talked-about documentaries of all time. The story of Arthur Agee and Williams Gates, the stars of "Hoop Dreams" was "reality TV" without the gimmicks of manufactured island intrigue or the chance to date Flava Flav. This was real life stuff, an unflinching look at two 14 year olds forced to look at basketball as their only way out of poverty. And like real life, their lives didn't end in a nice, neat package when the camers were finally turned off.
Flash forward to 2008, and those two hopeful kids are now in their mid-30s, long past their dreams of professional basketball fame and glory. The Tribune's Sara Olken caught up with Agee and Gates and them at two very different positions in life, but still bound together by the experiences of making the ground-breaking documentary.
Yeah, they still have dreams, but facing the real world, hoops aren't a part of them.
