David Greene [Gabe Kaplan] is a basketball fanatic living in Brooklyn, balancing neighborhood pickup games with his deli job, and he shares the streets with a young Street Kid [Laurence Fishburne]. A former junior high coach, he dreams of earning a living coaching basketball and has sent countless letters to colleges in the hope of turning that dream into reality, much to the chagrin of his wife Jan [Randee Heller], who simply wants to buy a home and start a family.
When a dubious opportunity finally appears, David is offered a job coaching the men’s basketball team at Cadwallader University, a fictional Nevada college. The position pays only $60 for each win, but it promises a lucrative contract if he can guide Cadwallader to victory over Nevada State, one of the top programs in the country. He accepts, even though his wife cannot join him on this cross‑country pursuit, and their marriage begins to feel the strain as the dream pulls him away.
David sets about building a new squad with Hustler [Bernard King], a gifted baller and pool ace whose own fortunes have soured after a harsh sting by his “pigeons.” The duo recruits Preacher [Michael Warren], who desperately needs to escape his own danger—there is a contract out on him for having impregnated a powerful cult leader’s 15‑year‑old daughter. Next comes D.C. [Harold Sylvester], a former high‑school star who now runs numbers, and Swish [Mavis Washington], a finesse player with a remarkable jump shot. To get Swish onto the team, David persuades her to pose as a male, a ruse that adds another layer of tension to their unlikely foursome.
With the addition of a fifth man, Sam Newton, nicknamed “Bull” [Reb Brown], Cadwallader starts to resemble a real contender. Bull’s size and power fill gaps that the others lack, and the team begins to cohere despite their mismatched backgrounds. Their rapid improvement catches the attention of Bo Winnegar [Bert Remsen], the head coach of the elite program they must challenge to make David’s coaching dream viable. Bo’s stubborn pride makes securing a game feel nearly impossible, but a plan comes together when Hustler taps into Bo’s fondness for billiards and engineers a setup that nudges him toward agreeing to the showdown.
As the late‑season drama builds, the stakes keep rising. A hitman Shadowing Preacher travels to Nevada, forcing Preacher to contend with real danger even as he steps onto the court. David makes a risky arrangement with a police officer to permit D.C. to play in the big game before facing the consequences for his border‑line activities. On tip‑off night, the arena swells with anticipation as the basketball dream and the personal one converge: David’s wife and his mother show up to witness the culmination of a lifetime’s effort, underscoring the film’s themes of family, loyalty, and perseverance.
Throughout the story, the team’s disparate personalities collide and cooperate under pressure, revealing how belief in a shared goal can bridge gaps of class, gender, and background. It’s a tale about chasing a long shot, balancing ambition with responsibility, and discovering that sometimes the road to a dream runs through doubt, danger, and the unwavering support of loved ones.
