By Kathy Williams, Features Editor
“ Last Chance U: Basketball,” an installment in the Netflix docuseries “Last Chance U,” arrived just in time for basketball fans looking for more entertainment outside of March Madness. Released on March 10, this show pulled the heartstrings of viewers, fans of basketball alike and college athletes.
Netflix released the first episode of the original docuseries “Last Chance U” on July 29, 2016. This Netflix original series premiered with a six-episode first season that followed the football program at East Mississippi Community College.
The goal of the docuseries was to highlight junior college, commonly known as JUCO, football teams that do not get featured on national pedestals in order to give a platform for athletes facing similar adversities.
Directed by Greg Whiteley, Adam Ridley and Luke Lorentzen, “Last Chance U” ended with five seasons and 40 episodes on July 28, 2020. The series was nominated for Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best Ongoing Documentary Series.
Now almost eight months later, a spin-off to the football-oriented show premiered. Like the original docuseries, “Last Chance U: Basketball” centers around a community college team and the talented athletes seeking more in the world of hoops.
East Los Angeles College, or ELAC for short, is the home of this docuseries.
Led by Coach John Mosley, the ELAC Huskies men’s basketball program hosts talented players looking to secure a state championship, an associate degree and, for some, a path to scholarships at larger or Division I universities to pursue a higher education and further their basketball careers.
The docuseries comprises eight episodes each about an hour long. Each episode showcased the lives of the players and coaches, hardships they faced in life on and off the basketball court and how basketball has affected each of their lives.
Some standout players highlighted in the series were ex-criminal Joe Hampton, team captain Deshaun Highler, ambitious forward Malik Muhammad and quiet-yet-aggressive forward KJ Allen. Although other players were featured throughout the series, the audience was able to receive the most insight to these players’ lives and hardships.
The brains behind the operations, Mosley, was also heavily presented in the series.
Mosley, a basketball-crazed minister taking on coaching college athletes, believes his position as a basketball head coach is more than winning games. It is evident that he genuinely cares about his players and staff. He especially emphasizes how he wants to establish strong futures for his players in whatever avenues of life they want to pursue.
“Last Chance U: Basketball’’ is moving, motivating and insightful on the lives of collegiate athletes, however, the show is also deeply unique because of the time period it was filmed in.
The series was filmed for the ELAC Huskies’ 2019-2020 basketball season. As many are aware, this was when the COVID-19 pandemic initially impacted the world.
The beginning of the series appears business as usual because it was when the normalcy of life was in full effect. Athletes practiced as usual, social distancing was non-existent and masks were nowhere to be found. The end of the series, specifically the last episode, shows how the virus impacted the athletes, their environment and their futures.
Although it is not the purpose of the docuseries, this show will serve as a timestamp for athletes and viewers wanting a look into how the world of sports was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the final episode, it shows where the athletes are now, especially in their basketball careers despite the pandemic creating a roadblock on their paths.
The ELAC Huskies 2019-2020 team ended with a record of 29-1, the best in the school’s history. The 2020- 2021 season was suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions, but that has not stopped Mosley. He continues to be the head coach and is working with a new group of players.
williakp18@bonaventure.edu
