Think about the sports you love. Are the best movies about those sports about the best players? No, even though I enjoy the hell out of Space Jam. The best movies usually are about the grinders: the people who want more than anything to be a part of the show but are on the outside looking in. The Wrestler, Bull Durham, Hoop Dreams. Destination NBA: A G League Odyssey almost gets there, but gets lost along the way like some of its struggling stars. I hope the premise gets a 2nd shot.
The G League is the league just below the NBA. It’s filled with a hodgepodge of players, from all parts of the basketball world. The documentary follows 5 different players playing in this league. There’s Scoot Henderson, who’s been there right out of high school but is a phenom, ready to jump to the NBA once he hits his age eligibility. Ryan Turell hopes to show the world Orthodox Jews can ball. Denzel Valentine was in the NBA for years and is now trying for a comeback. And finally, Gabe York and Mason Jones are G league journeymen, hoping one day soon their time will come to live out their dream of playing in the league they loved since they were kids.
Unsure of where to start, new directors Bryant Robinson and Liam Hughes go for a player first approach, choosing to highlight a bunch of the types of players that might end up in the G League. They at least picked the player types smartly: Scoot Henderson is gonna be a star, and the way he’s talked about his presence will be the draw of the film on Amazon. But because Scoot knows he’s gonna be a star, he’s already polished and bland, so the filmmakers need the other 4 to carry the load and make some shots. Denzel Valentine and Mason Jones have compelling cases in short spurts, but can’t carry the movie more than a few minutes. In this case, the best story wins, and that’s Gabe York’s. I watch a decent amount of basketball and had never heard of York before, but after watching Destination NBA I can’t stop thinking about him and the cruel twists of fate he’s had to endure.
Unfortunately despite the compelling stories, A G League Odyssey feels like a wasted opportunity, because we’re only told how hard everything is for these guys. Choosing 5 players stories across multiple teams takes the attention away from what the doc should be about: players really trying hard to achieve their dreams. We get no feel for the day-to-day efforts and obstacles outside of some standard gym workouts. What’s the food/living situation? How much are these guys paid? What’s travel like? Are there any hangers on/leeches vying for their time? Are they celebs in their small towns? The audience gets no insight into the life these guys have chosen, making it hard to relate to their plights. Maybe it was too hard, but I would have followed one or two of the teams for an entire season like Hard Knocks in the NFL, and found the stars organically from that, interspersing talking points from other G leaguers or success stories like Seth Curry or Gary Payton II.
I hope A G League Odyssey gets a Part II. There’s plenty of great stories in here, they just need to be told in a tighter narrative. And for Miami Heat fans, if you’re looking for your next big role player, give Gabe York or Mason Jones a look. They’ve busted their *sses and will work as hard as they can for you, a sure sign of Heat Culture as far as I’m concerned.