Netflix’s Last Chance U: Basketball Review: Captivating Enough

Sports documentaries are gaining popularity since the past year. Netflix has made sure in 2021, they release some that will keep the fans intrigued. Last Chance U: Basketball is the latest one that has hit the digital platform. Usually, the series focuses on the game of football. So it the first season focusing on basketball worth watching? Read on…

Last Chance U: Basketball has a total of 8 episodes, each one of the duration of an hour. After giving us detailed insights from the football world with the glory of open grounds, we are now watching a sport that’s played mainly inside the 4 walls. Another big change in the documentary is that the mentor or coach is a Black person. For the first time, the series has a person of colour training and coaching the players.

Often, we talk about sports at a grand level. National or international competitions are given all the attention. But the intensity and dedication are the same even at the community level. In this case, we are talking about college. The latest Netflix documentary takes us to East Los Angeles College where players hustle hard to sustain themselves in the game and the team.

John Mosley is the coach who will be training these ELAC basketball players. He is quite serious about the game and only wants to prepare these aspiring sportsmen for what’s out there in the world. I won’t lie. When I started watching the documentary, I thought it is just going to be a series of episodes showing the boys receiving the training and winning the spot in the team and a happy ending. But there’s so much more.

Last Chance U: Basketball indeed talks about how the ELAC players give their best to remain at the top of their game. But several players have to deal with unexpected situations in their lives that affect their entire game and performance. And truly, some of them have serious issues to deal with. Apart from that, every member of the team does not always get along. So as a coach, John Mosley not only has to train them but also has to make sure they align together. Otherwise, having a bunch of skilled players will be futile if they refuse to play as a team because of differences.

The documentary was shot during the year 2019-2020. In January last year, basketball champion Kobe Bryant lost his life in a helicopter crash in South California. Innumerable kids and teenagers have grown up admiring Kobe, his perfection as a basketball player gave hope that they too can be in his position one day. Last Chance U: Basketball also captures the heartbreak and personal loss these ELAC players felt when he passed away. His death sent shockwaves through people belonging to the basketball community as well as otherwise.

Each episode is of an hour and that’s an issue to hold the grip to watch Last Chance U: Basketball. Binge-watching the sports documentary means you will have to remain patient to learn the fate of these ELAC basketball players and coach John Mosley. Throughout, you go through emotions of excitement, intensity, sadness, and but end up with an ample amount of motivation. The pandemic has made us feel anxious to see anything that’s in a closed room for hours. But the documentary captivates your mind because of its style of narration, editing and most importantly the people featured in it.

Last Chance U: Basketball: Is it worth it or not?

Overall, the latest Netflix documentary is worth watching. In a country like India, it is a sport not played at a big level. But some fans love the sport and people who know how to play it. For such people, this will be a heartfelt and informative watch. For the layman who is curious about the game, they will have to pop the patience pill because of the length of the episodes.

Last Chance U: Basketball is streaming on Netflix.

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