Muggsy Bogues, Reggie Williams, Reggie Lewis and David Wingate. The Baltimore Boys were entitled, in 2017, to an exceptional documentary on their life and their journey. A 30 for 30 which is among the best to date. They all had different destinies. Muggsy Bogues, 57 years old today and his incredible size to play at the highest level, and Lewis, who died of cardiac arrest in 1993 a year after being All-Star, are bound to be remembered more.
But all have in common the place where they made their scales and from where they left where so many others were damaged: Baltimore and the high school of Dunbar.
Baltimore in the 1980s was a city plagued by drug trafficking and consumption, unemployment and everyday violence. It is in this context that the four “heroes” of the story managed to concentrate on basketball thanks to the help of their coach Bob Wade. With them and after them, the latter managed to sign 59 wins and no losses in two seasons, sending no less than 11 players to the NCAA.
Come to think of it, Muggsy Bogues got shot at the age of 5 in the streets. David Wingate saw his older brother destroy himself with heroin and had to deal with his paralyzed mother on a daily basis. Reggie Lewis himself fell into the drug deal in his brother’s footsteps before being rescued by Dunbar High School and Coach Wade. Reggie Williams grew up in the same neighborhood where Bogues was shot as a child.
None of them basically had the slightest chance of getting out of this mess in one piece.
Playing for the Dunbar Poets and putting on the team jersey was an honor and a great responsibility for these kids, who know how important their success is to their plans to leave Baltimore. Bob Wade was aiming for nothing more or less than excellence and the city’s best young basketball players have all passed through Dunbar. Not all of them have had the same success as Bogues, Lewis, Williams and Wingate.
We advise you, if you have the possibility, to jump on this exceptional doc, strong testimony of a terrible social context from which something good has nevertheless emerged.
ESPN Films Presents High School Basketball Documentary Double Feature: “Baltimore Boys” and “Morningside 5”!
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— 30 for 30 (@30for30) July 21, 2017