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This was Netflix’s first time using a basketball team instead of football for their critically acclaimed documentary series “Last Chance U.” By using basketball, instead of football, the attachments formed with the players felt stronger than ever before because of the smaller roster size. Each player’s story sparked more curiosity of how and why they ended up at East Los Angeles College (ELAC), their “last chance” of fulfilling their dream of earning a scholarship to a Division One school.
Each episode of the show details the week leading up to a game. This week is filled with intense practices and players dealing with their often tumultuous lives off the court.
The series highlights a few specific players, sharing their often highly emotional story.
The team is led by head coach John Mosley. Mosley, a former ELAC guard and man of high faith who takes his job of developing basketball players, but more importantly men of high character, very seriously.
The coaches of ELAC, John Mosley and Assistant Coaches Robert Robinson and Ken Hunter, often see their responsibilities stretching beyond coaching to personal therapist and academic tutor as well.
One of the players on the team who gets some of the most attention, from the cameras and the coaching staff, is sophomore forward Joe Hampton. Hampton, who spent a year at Penn State before leaving because of personal reasons due to injury, is especially struggling to cope with his fall from grace. Hampton, who spent a year away from college and basketball after leaving Penn State, went through “the lowest period of his life”, “wanting to die” and coming “this” close to quitting basketball, period.
Although considered by all who speak of him to be one of the most talented players on the team, Hampton, largely in part to his out-of-control behavior, doesn’t earn a starting spot on Mosley’s team.
It is this struggle to accept his current situation, attending a junior college, combined with his impossible expectations of himself, that result in Hampton losing control of his emotions and expressing his rage in negative ways, destroying pieces of furniture in the locker room and not showing up to practices for days at a time.
The littlest of things trigger Hampton, a referee making a call that doesn’t go his way, or the coach giving him an earful for something he felt like he wasn’t to blame for. Perhaps easy to dislike and write off because of his temperament, Hampton is one of the easiest players to feel for because of his deep level of vulnerability.
The coaches could easily lose faith in Hampton because of his behavior, but they never do. As Robinson plainly tells it, “We can’t give up on Joe because Joe has nowhere else to go.”
Instead of Mosley reacting to Hampton’s outbursts in a negative way, Mosley has unwavering patience and belief in him, praying for him and giving him a shoulder to cry on when needed. Joe has some shining moments as well. On Hampton’s good days he is an undeniable leader and one of the funniest personalities on the squad, sporting a contagious laugh and finding ways to poke fun at his teammates and coaches too.
It is always one of the best moments as a viewer seeing Joe succeed during a game, knowing what he had gone through just to get to that point during the week.
Another player who gets a spotlight is team captain Deshaun Highler. Never given a division one offer out of high school, Highler took a leap of faith following a coach who said he could give Highler a walk-on scholarship to division one University of Texas-El Paso. Highler went there only to realize once the season began that the coach had taken another job. Frustrated by the amount of time and especially money spent for this dead-end, Highler came to ELAC desperate to fulfill his dream of earning a division one scholarship.
On top of his need to be playing his best basketball, Highler, the competitive leader of this Huskies basketball team, is dealing with the recent loss of his mother, the second parent he has lost in a short time. It would be impossible to tell that “Shaun”, as his teammates call him, is going through, as he puts it, “the hardest part of his life.” Carrying the demeanor of the ultimate alpha male, Highler portrays a fearless image on the court, letting basketball be his outlet for his trauma.In his personal interviews, however, Highler talks of how lonely it has been for him, feeling like he is worlds away from the kid he once was. The show also depicts him in moments of normal young adulthood with friends beyond his sport.
Another player who gets a lot of attention, not because of any heart-wrenching stories, but because of his silly personality and elite basketball talent is forward KJ Allen. “We don’t deserve KJ, KJ was a gift from the basketball gods plopped right into our laps. They said here is this truly amazing kid, now don’t f*ck this up,” Robinson says about the documentary star.
Allen, who lives like he never had a bad day in his life, is at ELAC because of his academic ineligibility. Struggling as a student in high school, Allen received many D1 offers but needed to graduate from a two-year Associate’s degree program, like many others at ELAC, to gain D1 academic eligibility.
It isn’t from any lack of effort that Allen struggles. “He is one of the hardest workers,” says Robinson, who spends the most on-screen time with Allen, “because he needs it.” On the court, Allen is a beast. Finishing alley-oops slams and anchoring the defense, Allen is a pleasure to watch, earning transfer offers from top programs like the University of Southern California.
An intense but other times funny show thanks to the time spent getting to know the many different personalities that the show introduces, this Last Chance U series is a reminder of what makes past productions of “Last Chance U” so special. The narrative motivates and inspires all, sparking deep levels of sympathy and compassion for the individuals that make the show so great.
