Hoops For Hope Premiers New Documentary, 'Hoops Africa: Ubuntu Matters'

Going into the 2007-2008 NBA season, the Boston Celtics had high hopes.

They had signed All-Stars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in the summer of 2007, after a dismal season where they’d finished with a 24-58 record, second-worst in the league. The team knew it had the potential to make a big turnaround with Garnett and Allen joining Celtics star Paul Pierce.

But with three bona fide superstars sharing the spotlight and needing time to get to know each other, nothing was guaranteed. Winning more games was certainly an expectation, but learning to jell enough as a team to win a championship? Surely that would take more time.

But on June 16 , 2008, the Celtics were standing on their homecourt in a downpour of confetti, celebrating the franchise’s 17th NBA championship.

How they pulled off the biggest single-season turnaround in league history is a story of three superstars and the rest of the supporting cast finding a way to build the kind of chemistry teams dream of. And their ability to do that is summed up in one word, carved onto the sides of their championship rings: Ubuntu.

The term comes from the Nguni Bantu, a group of dialects spoken in southern Africa, that has several rough translations centering on the concept of human kindness. The spirit of the word is often expressed as “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

Ubuntu is the concept around which the nonprofit Hoops 4 Hope rotates, and the way the organization incorporates Ubuntu into everything it does is the subject of a new documentary film, “Hoops Africa: Ubuntu Matters.”

The movie is a collaboration between filmmakers Dan Hedges and Taylor Sharpe, who met in 2013 while seated next to each other on a flight back to the states from South Africa. Mr. Sharpe, a student at the University of North Carolina, was on his way home after three months spent volunteering with Hoops 4 Hope in Zimbabwe. Two years later, they were back in Africa together to make the film.

The product of the work will be available to the public, for free, on December 5 and 6, as the Amagansett Library will “virtually” premiere the film for a 48-hour window, free of charge. The premiere will include an expert panel discussion on how basketball is changing the world, and students who watch the film will be eligible to use the time toward their school’s community service hours.

Hoops 4 Hope was founded by lifelong Amagansett resident and 1986 graduate of East Hampton High School Mark Crandall in 1995, as a way to use the sport of basketball to promote social development, youth leadership skills, and life skills for children and teens from disadvantaged communities in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Mr. Crandall was inspired to start the charity after traveling to Zimbabwe during his teen years in the 1980s as a Rotary exchange student and seeing the need for sports and educational programming for children there and in South Africa. The organization really took off in 2004, when NBA coaches like Doc Rivers, who led the Celtics to the 2008 title, and Larry Brown took part in the charity’s annual fundraiser in the Hamptons, helping to raise its profile and sparking a longstanding relationship with the NBA. Hoops 4 Hope partnered with the NBA’s annual Basketball Without Borders Camp in Africa in 2006, and has continued that relationship to this day. The charity has expanded to include other sports, such as soccer, and has a presence in other countries as well, including in Brazil and Canada, and continues to grow today.

The film focuses specifically on the organization’s growth in Africa, telling the story of how Hoops 4 Hope benefited Zimbabwean Watida Mukukula, who came up through the program and had dreams of playing in the United States, while also chronicling the rise of the sport on the continent, and the increased presence of the NBA in Africa, which led to the NBA’s historic Africa Game in 2018, featuring NBA luminaries of African descent.

The film is premiering at a time when the concept of Ubuntu is more resonant than ever, an interesting bit of timing that does not escape Mr. Crandall, who spoke with The Press earlier this month. School has been “fully canceled,” in Zimbabwe and South Africa this year due to the coronavirus, he said, pointing out that many of the children in communities Hoops 4 Hope serves do not have access to the tools they need to do schooling remotely. The main vehicle the organization uses to reach those children — sports — is off the table due to the virus as well, creating challenges in terms of outreach, although Mr. Crandall said the team on the ground in Africa has found ways to stay connected, most notably through the messaging app WhatsApp.

Mr. Crandall said he was hopeful that the children and coaches could meet soon for their outdoor “circle time” meetings, where they typically deliver much of their life skills training and curriculum, with COVID safety protocols in place, even if a return to basketball is still not an option for awhile.

“Basketball has always been our tool to get kids together,” Mr. Crandall said. “It’s one of those rites of passage for kids to be able to play and be in a safe place around mentors, and we use that time to tackle some of their challenges and give kids the tools to make the right decisions.”

Making the right decisions not just for individual purposes but for the good of everyone else is crucial right now, and Mr. Crandall said that is essentially the message of Ubuntu.

“We all have to work together in the community to help each other and keep each other safe,” he said. “It’s a philosophy in Africa that when times are rough, they’re resilient and they get through it because they know every day isn’t going to be smooth. I think it’s time from a value sense that we re-evaluate some of our priorities about how we share and care for our neighbors.”

Showing the wider world what Ubuntu looks like in action was Mr. Sharpe’s mission when he paired with Mr. Hedges to make the film. Mr. Sharpe had gone to Africa on the prestigious Morehead-Cain Fellowship, and was moved by what he saw. When he completed the film, he put the Ubuntu principle into action in his own life, directing money made from showings of the movie to help build a new basketball court and fund the purchase of solar lights for the court, which Mr. Crandall said gives the coaches an extra four hours of time to work with kids.

The film brings the light the personal story of Mr. Mukukula, to show the kind of impact the program can have on individuals. Mr. Mukukula had dreams of one day playing in the NBA, and participation in Hoops 4 Hope gave him license to chase that dream. He was invited to the NBA’s inaugural Basketball Without Borders camp, where he was able to meet and learn from NBA stars. Ultimately, he earned a spot on the men’s hoops team at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, although he is currently not playing because of an injury.

Hoops 4 Hope has the power to create lifelong impacts for young players like Mr. Mukukula, but the lessons it imparts, and the way the organization spreads the message of Ubuntu has resonated with teams, coaches and players at the highest level of the sport and across the world. Most fans of the NBA are familiar with the record-breaking single-season turnaround the Celtics pulled off to win their 2008 title, but the film brings to light just how much the team bought into the concept of Ubuntu, which was brought to them by Mr. Rivers because of his involvement with Hoops 4 Hope.

The partnership between the NBA and Hoops 4 Hope has only grown over the years, with the league relying on the organization to provide life skills and coaching development for its Basketball Without Borders program. The film shines a light on the synergy between the nonprofit and one of the world’s biggest professional sports leagues.

“The great thing about the movie internally for Hoops 4 Hope was validation,” said Anthony Allison of Amagansett, a consultant for Hoops 4 Hope who has been invovled in the organization since its inception. “They knew we could deliver training for them in new countries and for what they were attempting to do. Hoops 4 Hope has a proven track record and has what the NBA needed.”

Mr. Crandall said that while the film is a great showcase for the kind of staying power the organization has had in its quarter-century of existence, the work still continues and the nonprofit needs support more than ever. Hoops 4 Hope’s main summer fundraiser was canceled due to the virus, and to keep vital programming going, pay coaches, and continue with new initiatives and outreach, community support remains vital.

Mr. Crandall said they’re also planning to start Ubuntu Alliance in East Hampton, where the organization identifies out of school programs doing good work for children in the area that may be struggling to get funding right now to deliver those programs.

“We’re there on the frontlines for these kids who are not returning to school, and we need the support of people who have been with us for all these years so we can continue to do this programming into the next 25 years,” Mr. Crandall said. “We’re using the film as a way to commemorate some of our history, but also to say that going forward, we’re going to do lots of great things for those communities.

“We’re bringing that Ubuntu spirit here to the Hamptons, to share the philosophy that works for the Celtics and in Africa,” Mr. Crandall said. “But we need to sit down together and see what is out there for kids, and activate young people to help other young people.”