MY LIFE AS AN NBA ROOKIE
Friendly Rating: All ages
Safety Rating: Squeaky clean
Quality Rating: A little too clean to be real
Special airs tonight (Monday, Oct. 29) on Disney XD at 7 p.m.
I’m sure it wasn’t intentional on the part of the producers, but the one thing My Life as an NBA Rookie did exceptionally well is remind me of just how good Linda Ellerbee’s Nick News really is.
The doc, narrated and hosted by Lab Rats start Billy Unger, looks at several NBA players as they talk about the days leading up to the NBA draft, playing in the Summer League and those first few weeks up to their first game as a member of a team.
Safety-wise, it is squeaky clean. No language issues. No violence. Some mild hazing incidents. Well, there is the almost complete absence of women. On the other hand, this is the NBA, even if they could have included the WNBA players.
But it’s that squeaky cleanness that actually makes the whole thing fell, well, a little bit forced and unreal. We all know rookies (and basketball players, in general) face enormous pressure to perform, plus the major enticement of having bundles of money thrown at them. The special doesn’t mention either. The worst thing that’s mentioned is the difficulty of moving to a new city and getting settled in – and one scene in which a young man is trying to get his electricity turned on.
Other than that, it’s a okay doc. The players are fun to hear, even Kobe Bryant. There is a great deal of emphasis on the hard work players do to get in shape for basketball season and for the pre-draft exhibition, and that’s interesting. But overall, not much substance here.
