Shooting Stars is a coming-of-age film and basketball biopic about the comeuppance of a real-life group of friends including the NBA’s all-team leading scorer and four-time NBA Champion, LeBron James. Affectionately known as “The Fab Five,” the team included Sian Cotton, Willie McGee, and Romeo Travis, played for St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.

At the core of this history-making group is also an unlikely, but mighty, pair – a coach and a determined player — whose teaming up is what tipped it all off. There’s no major life crisis and there aren’t any dark racial innuendos as a catalyst to the film’s plot. Instead, we have a story that exudes pure feel-goodness and is born from a positive place of friendship. It could have been spun slightly different, however, had one true-to life element been emphasized. Race.
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Coach Dambrot and Lil Dru

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Coach Keith Dambrot (portrayed by Dermot Mulroney) and the fifth, and arguably most determined, member of the starting crew, “Lil Dru” Joyce III (Caleb McLaughlin from Stranger Things), were at similar crossroads in their lives and shared a ‘nothing to lose and everything to gain’ mindset. Together, they ignited history.

Dambrot had just been fired — though the movie wisely overlooks the reason why — from his job coaching college basketball at Central Michigan University. In what is a kiss of fate in parallel timing, Dru, a soon-to-be freshman, had just discovered that another coach at his ‘feeder’ high-school was planning to put him on the junior varsity team due to his lack of height. This had never been a factor in all the years he had played basketball with his core group of friends and Dru wasn’t having it.

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In a pivotal decision, Dru approached the new coach, Dambrot, at the predominantly white high school, St. Vincent-St. Mary, and pitched a deal. If Dambrot would let him and his friends come and play varsity, they would win a state trophy. As history goes, Dambrot drummed up scholarship funds for the students, and they proceeded to win back-to-back state titles and even one national championship.

It’s a real-life sports fairy tale that, one safely imagines, may have gone differently in today’s unforgiving “cancel culture.” Such a redeeming opportunity may not have ever happened for Dambrot considering the real reason for his firing.

According to Yahoo Sports, Dambrot, who is Caucasian, was let go by the university in 1993 due to his usage of the “n-word,” a racial slur, though he countered that he had gotten permission to use it from his Black players. In today’s cultural climate, Dambrot would have likely been “canceled” and ostracized from ever coaching again. Instead, he was allowed what mistakes should usually still yield, a shot at ethical redemption.

Dermot Mulroney Redeems Coach Dambrot

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In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, Dermot Mulroney (Gone in the Night), who portrayed Dambrot in the film, explained why he was drawn to the production. “I’m a sports fan, and the opportunity to play this part was just a thrill. An astounding group of people came together to make this movie, and it was an amazing accomplishment. I’m so blessed to be involved.”

Though he never met the real Coach Dambrot, Mulroney said he sent word back to him that it was an honor to depict him. “The script was beautifully written, so I had a lot of access to the character that way, just through the text.”

Related: Shooting Stars Review: A Slam Dunk for Lebron James and Friends

In another nod toward positive race relations, Mulroney noted additional gratitude for his casting, “I can go even further to say what an honor it is to be, really, the main white character in a primarily Black American story, that is an amazing story. I’m touched and privileged to be in the cast.”

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Though the main theme of the film is friendship and how it survived the tests of competition and endured over time — James and his four childhood best friends remain close friends today – what is also remarkable is the life-long and restorative bond, regardless of racial differences, between Lil Dru and Coach Dambrot. To this day, after Dru played for Dambrot at the University of Akron, they remain coaching peers and Dambrot even still advises James. Dambrot has had a full coaching career and recently celebrated his 500th win as a coach.

Mulroney, who complimented McLaughlin in his role as Lil Dru, noted the power of the full-circle element of the duo’s bond which was sparked because of the student’s initial ambition. He said, “Dambrot comes back to Lil Dru at the end and says, ‘Will you come play for me in college?’ The two of them are just beautifully framed in the movie. They even kind of stand alone as their own little story line. They’re two men of totally different ages standing up for themselves, and I was so touched.”

Produced by James’ The SpringHill Company, Tangerine Productions, and Cold Front Productions, you can find Universal Pictures’ Shooting Stars streaming now on Peacock.