New Jersey-born Lenny Cooke was a high-school basketball phenom in the early years of the 21st century, a heady period that saw the NBA and basketball-driven colleges combing through largely inexperienced urban kids for the next potential Kobe or Shaq. Sibling filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie follow Cooke's participation in corporate-sponsored basketball camps, Vegas trips, and scouting events—a dizzying milieu of potential big money and fame (sports broadcaster Mike Fratello states that a player spends $300,000 or more just taking care of his entourage, family, and baby-mama drama). Cooke is even seen at one point as a rival to the rising LeBron James. But after making some poor professional choices, Cooke winds up being passed over entirely for the 2002 NBA draft. Six years later, Cooke, approaching 30, is out of the game. With no money saved, he works as a short-order chef in Virginia, putting on a brave face for a reporter doing a where-are-they-now piece. Privately, Cooke rues his treatment by the pro-sports machine, saying he was packaged as a commodity called "Lenny Cooke" (he actually prefers “Leonard”) and offered the world, but was then abandoned by cohorts and sponsors. In an interview, former college coach Mike Jarvis compares the scouting system to the economics of slavery, characterized by the buying and exploiting of human beings (by implication, mostly black) for the most profitable deal. Even though NBA reforms in 2006 curtailed the practice of catapulting high schoolers straight into the pros without completing their secondary education, Cooke is still telling basketball-minded young people his personal story—a cautionary tale of Hoop Dreams gone sour. Aired on Showtime, this sobering documentary is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)
Lenny Cooke
(2013) 90 min. DVD: $300. Lenny Cooke Movie (avail. from www.lennycookemovie.com). PPR. Volume 30, Issue 2
Lenny Cooke
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