Love and Basketball: An Overview

Here’s the run-down. Love & Basketball is deceivingly simple in its structure. The movie is divided into the quarters of a basketball game and tells the story of a boy and a girl. Meeting at about the age 11, the film traces their lives as they run parallel and run apart from childhood, to high school, to college, and just after. Monica and Quincy each have their hopes and their dreams. They both want to play basketball on a professional level. For Quincy, it is easier and expected since he is the son of a professional player. It is harder for Monica, both being a woman and as a daughter whose mother cannot understand why she does not want to grow up to be a pretty stay at home wife. Through the whole film the constant between the two is their love for each other and for the game of basketball. The movie is full of honest moments, laughs, tears and some awesome basketball scenes. There are a lot of positives to this movie. This movie shows that no matter what race, gender, or where you came from you can be a successful athlete. Monica is a black female basketball player with an attitude of a male who makes it to the pros. Going into her senior year of high school, Monica was afraid she wasn’t getting any looks by colleges and at the games she was getting looked at she was riding the bench because of her attitude, but the movie showed that it is important to have a strong support system at home. Her parents recognized it and put her in her place! A good athlete has to be all around good. They have to be focused in the classroom and respectable on and off the court! The movie showed how important a healthy home life is needed in more ways than just at Monica’s home. Quincy’s father was a professional athlete that was cheating on his mother. This unhealthy home life affected Quincy and his athletics. Quincy didn’t finish college because of it and entered the draft. After he entered the draft he hurt his knee; consequently he thought his basketball career was over. That was also another positive aspect of the movie, showing the importance of education! If Quincy had finished college and received a college degree he would have had something to fall back on. The main plot line of the movie is very positive in and of itself! A story based on two individuals whom are childhood sweethearts trying to balance following their dreams while trying to keep their love alive is ultimately the hardest thing to do in the eyes of a student athlete of any age! Watching this movie gives you hope that it can actually happen. I know people who try to live this life. Truth be told, it can only happen in a fairy tale though! I don’t believe it. A little girl finds herself in a new neighborhood and having to make new friends. She stumbles upon some boys playing basketball. Being the tomboy she is, she assumes they will let her play. She ends up in a fight with one boy, Quincy. She goes home only to hear her mom go on and on about how she needs to be more girly and quit trying to be one of the boys. Monica has heard this bit her whole life. The young boy is fascinated by Monica; he has probably never had a girl ever stand up to him in that way. He asks her to be his girlfriend and they share their first kiss together. Throughout the years they maintain their strong friendship, living so close together they comfort each other during family problems. They live window to window. They get to high school and Quincy is, of course, quite the ladies’ man; being the best basketball player in the state, they tend to have that effect. Monica plays too, but in high school her anger problems are out of control on the court. Little did they know their romantic lives were about to cross paths again at their very last hooray of high school; senior prom. Quincy of course took one of his random hoes to the prom; whereas Monica just to please her mom. She went with a college guy who her sister set her up with.