What is behind the scrupulous process that leads an NBA team to bet on a player for its project? What is the level of psychological demand that a participant in the best basketball league in the world must face? What balances of power are brewing behind the scenes in American franchises?
Here are some questions that viewers who watch hustle (Claw, in its Spanish translation) Starting this Friday June 3 in theaters, from next Wednesday 8 on the Netflix platform, they will be able to make a composition of the place to know part of the operation of the American competition. The film, co-produced by Adam Sandler Y Lebron James and directed by Jeremiah Zagarmarks the film debut of the Spanish player Juancho Hernangomezworld champion with Spain in China in 2019 and currently a member of the Utah Jazz. The Madrid power forward plays ‘Bo’ Cruz in the film, a talented street basketball player with a troubled past, and shares a cast with Adam Sandler himself and other well-known actors such as Queen Latifah, Ben Foster or Maria Botto, in addition to a multitude of characters linked to the NBA and basketball in general who appear in cameos, mostly playing themselves. names like Shaquille O’Neal, Julius Ervin -the mythical ‘Doctor J’-, Luka Doncić, Sergio Scariolo, Jose Manuel Calderon either Mark Cubanthe powerful owner of the Dallas Mavericks, are some of those who act throughout the almost two hours of footage.
hustle somewhat reminiscent of the famous ‘A Tribe on the Court’, directed by Paul Michael Glaser in 1994 with Kevin Bacon in the leading role. However, the new Netflix tape gives a much more realistic approximation to the NBA world. What in Saleh’s recruitment is little more than science fiction and a lot of comedy, in the case of ‘Bo’ Cruz it does allow us to discover some of the interiorities of the process through which a young talent makes the leap to American competition or becomes stands in the way of an eternal promise. However, the parallels exist: the characters played by Bacon and Sandler need to strengthen their position and end up doing so with a totally unexpected discovery far from the United States that ends up changing the lives of both players and themselves. In hustle, Sandler plays Stanley Sugerman, a scout for the Philadelphia 76ers frustrated with traveling the world looking for talent, which makes him far from his family, and with aspirations to find a stable position as an assistant coach in the team from the city of the United States. brotherly love His fortuitous encounter with ‘Bo’ Cruz will lead him to make one of the most risky decisions of his professional career… and of his personal life.
It should be noted that in the new Netflix movie, the treatment of basketball is done from the perspective of professionalism. There is little that is artificial in the training sessions or matches that are told, in their demands and in the observation of every detail due to the attitude of the players, both on the field and in life. From the a priori reprehensible attitude of the ambitious and unpleasant ‘villain’lover of trash-talking (junk language), which embodies Minnesota Timberwolves player Anthony Edwards to the emotional and many other doubts that ‘Bo’ Cruz goes through.
hustle it’s real life in the NBA, with its opulence of course, but with all its rawness at times. Stark competition. You can see the hand of LeBron James and Adam Sandler, a great basketball fan.
