Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story

Synopsis

This film follows the life of basketball legend Eric "Hank" Gathers, from his growing up in the ghettos of Philadelphia to his freshman year at USC through his brief career playing basketball for Loyola Marymount University, where he collapsed during a game and died of a heart ailment.

Partial cast

Production

Casting began in late 1991, with a television debut slated for March 1992. The project was filmed in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; as well as in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly wrote that the film "does a decent job of showing us the person inside the uniform," but felt that the film is overall "too sketchily told to be truly satisfying."

Dallas Morning News felt that the film went beyond disappointing to become "an insult -- not for what it focuses on, but for what it leaves out." The reviewer felt that the film fell "in line with many TV projects based on real-life people by reducing its subject to sterotypes."

Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that film suffered in its dwelling less on the formative events of Gathers' life to concentrate too much upon his basketball career.

Conversely, San Diego Union-Tribune felt the film was a fitting tribute to Hank Gathers' memory.

Variety wrote that while some of the scenes were awkward, the film "sets a fine example of what a youth under pressure in North Philly can accomplish." They wrote that it is the growing relation of Hank Gathers with his college teammate Bo Kimble as friends and players that holds the viewer's interest, while making note that Gathers' off-court life remains "shadowy and vague".