So I was messing around on Hulu tonight and for whatever reason I clicked on the Documentary section. I stumbled upon what is quite possibly my new favorite basketball movie.

Gunnin’ for the #1 Spot is a basketball documentary that was filmed in 2006.  Camera crews follow around 8 players that range from freshmen to seniors in high school during the first weekend in September.  Michael Beasley, Brandon Jennings, Lance Stephenson, Donte Green, Kevin Love, Kyle Singler, Jerryd Bayless, and Tyreke Evans were all selected to play in the first ever Boost Mobile Elite 24 classic in Rucker park.

The film does a short background story about each of  the 8 players above, provides commentary by different ratings/rankings  gurus and AAU coaches, and follows the 24 players that played in the showcase during their weekend in the Big Apple.

I’m telling you, if you like basketball at all, you’re going to like this documentary. At the very least you’ll enjoy the stories and the classic pics from Beasley’s childhood.

I was actually supposed to be in the documentary.  My family planned a trip to New York so I could look at some schools in the northeast.  I committed to Furman in July and it turned into a family vacation.   I had read about the Elite 24 game in Slam magazine and my dad and I were planning on going. I wanted to see Chris Allen (in this pic he’s actually wearing his Elite 24 hoody), Scenario Hillman and my boy (wink, wink) J.J. Hickson represent for Georgia.  It doesn’t look like Chris Allen used my #20 to its full potential. He missed two dunks in the documentary.

Spoiler alert: They started the game 2 hours early because there was a possibility of rain.  They just finished handing JJ his Co-MVP trophy when we walked up a few minutes before the scheduled start time of 7.  It was pretty disappointing. If they had started it on time I would have definitely been in the movie. It would have been impossible to miss my Dad and I in the crowd at Rucker park.

I might be slightly biased since I’m the same age as a bunch of the guys in the film and I’ve been around them and played with/against some of them. I think what is cool about the documentary is that it takes you back to before they were college and NBA superstars.

Imagine that lame ESPN documentary about Sebastian Telfair. Now imagine it with actual superstars and imagine it being 50 times better than it was and you have Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot: