More Than a Game Follows Akron's Fab Four

More Than a Game follows Akron's Fab Four (later Five) kids on the basketball court, from their "Shooting Stars" traveling youth team into high school and a run of championships. The reason this documentary tells their story — instead of that of the team that miraculously upsets the by-then-nationally recognized...

By Nick Pinkerton

October 15, 2009

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More Than a Game follows Akron's Fab Four (later Five) kids on the basketball court, from their "Shooting Stars" traveling youth team into high school and a run of championships. The reason this documentary tells their story — instead of that of the team that miraculously upsets the by-then-nationally recognized starters in junior-year playoffs — is because one of the Fab was LeBron James. Ignored in the film's discussion of LeBron's transition to premature fame is his attempt to swing early NBA eligibility after the loss, which wouldn't jive with the "All for one" ethic, among the film's many pep talk lessons. The ostensible director here is Kristopher Belman, an Akronite who played court videographer to King James' St. Vincent-St. Mary team, but final cut belongs to LeBron Inc. The recent P.R. flub of Nike henchmen confiscating footage of LeBron getting gently dunked on in a pickup game testifies to the powerful trust authoring James' legacy. The film could be a tie-in to the recent ghostwritten autobiography, Shooting Stars. Most obtrusive, though, is the contribution of Harvey Mason Jr., producer and soundtrack creator. Mason sets Game adrift on an endless sea of crashing crescendos.

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