MovieChat Forums > One on One (1978) Discussion > Ok...I've always wondered about this....

Ok...I've always wondered about this....


The coach personally went to see Henry play in high school (the only time the coach recruited a player on his own I think the movie says) - and obviously liked what he saw.
Then, when Henry has trouble fitting in with the team, we see the coach looking at game films of Henry...and HATING what he sees. He says something like "Turn it off - I've seen enough hotdogging".
Why did he like what he saw in person, and made Henry all the offers (car and scholarship), but then later on, he hated how Henry plays on the game films he was watching???










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I think the idea was that having formed a negative opinion of him he went back to look at the film and either saw it in a new light or looked for evidence of him hot-dogging or ball-hogging to support his newly formed opinion. That actually rang true with me because a truly top level high school player is likely to dominate the game which could easily be interpreted as selfish play. It struck me that he was simply justifying his decision.

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Yeah, that part makes no sense. He's a highly recruited high school player and then after a few practices he's a piece of *beep*

Also, why couldn't Henry just transfer to another college if was a such a highly touted recruit? Why did he have to take all the coaches crap?

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I think that once he made the coach's sh!t list, and wasn't doing all that great on the team, no other colleges would be offering him a scholarship.

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I think it was about proving himself there. He was the local town hero and everyone was proud of him including his parents, so he felt he had to be successful there.

I don't know a thing about basketball coaches, but I know about management in companies. Management makes stupid mistakes like this all the time, they recruit someone they must have, and the second they are there they don't have them do the job they hired them to do and argue or ignore their advice. Which oddly enough, is the reason they went out of their way to hire them to begin with and fill the job. Then they find some way to fire the employee or discredit them to ruin their career. Poor managers like this are control freaks. They don't care how the world operates they want it on their terms only no matter the cost and will continue to churn employees to find what actually doesn't exist. That is, unless they get fired themselves.

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The recent Jason Kidd-Larry Frank episode with the the Nets is an example

Short Cut, Draw Blood

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