The players’ shoes, scuffed but proudly shined, leave the court. The ball flies up from their hands, arcing through the air before swishing down through the net and echoing out as it hits the floor, moments after the player returns to earth. The crowd goes wild. But when the applause goes silent, the squeaking of rubber-soled shoes is gone and the lights begin to fade, what is left to come?
For Kenny Sailors, it was the moments off the court, after the game, that mattered most. In this new documentary, director Jacob Hamilton and his crew have made certain to highlight those moments.
It would be easy to make this story all about basketball. After all, the little-known Sailors had an immeasurable impact on the sport when he introduced the jump shot, first playing against his older brother at home, then for the University of Wyoming and later in the NBA. And with an all-star lineup of basketball greats ranging from Kevin Durant to Nancy Lieberman to Steph Curry and the ever-irascible Bobby Knight are all on hand for interviews . But his intrinsic contribution is not how Sailors defined his life. Likewise, the filmmakers follow suit.
The many facets of who Kenny Sailors was and why he disappeared from the public eye, leaving his ground-breaking contributions largely forgotten, offer a wide range of fascinating content for the doc to dive into. His journey leads from the court to the battlefields of World War 2 and to the mountains of Wyoming, where he returned to the court as a pioneering coach for girls’ basketball, encouraging athleticism when it was still widely looked down upon in women.
Above all, it is a story of loves: Love of the game he played, love of his country, love of the woman he married, love of his neighbors and love of his God shaped every step of Sailors’ journey. And this shines through in the suitably loving fashion that his life has been reformed here on the screen.
The narrative flows smooth and compelling. It is helped along by innovative graphic effects to blend the interviews with archival content, as well as utilizing charming animated interludes to depict pivotal moments in Sailors’ life when the non-specific archive material would not have sufficiently been able to capture the emotions at hand. Because of this snappy style, the story moves like a narrative film, holding your attention throughout and leading you to root for the protagonist along the way.
This is a complex story to tell of a seemingly simple man, and it is told with the care needed to inspire the audience just as the man himself inspired those he encountered and influenced, many of whom have come to reflect upon his legacy here in the interviews. Capped off with footage of Sailors himself in the last years of his life, still picking up a ball from time to time in his 90’s, the story told here leaves behind the comforting feeling of having found a new friend and mentor by the time the credits roll.
The movie may be named “Jump Shot,” after the most renowned mark Kenny Sailors left behind in his time on the Earth. But as he once said, his personal Final Four (God, Husband, Father and Marine) spoke to a man who lived for a far bigger world than one sport. Here, that vision comes to life. And in a trying time, a trip to the court and beyond with Kenny Sailors may be just what we need. (5/5)
(Available to Rent from Amazon, iTunes and YouTube)
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