This is an interesting but too brief documentary about the AND1 clothing brand and, particularly their Mix Tape Tour. All I knew about this whole thing was Rafer Alston came from it, so I was definitely the intended audience.

The film does a good job of giving us some context of how much of a whim this was originally, and how much of an accident the tape promotion thing was. You might be able to criticize these guys for how they treated the players, but you can’t criticize them for self-aggrandizement – there’s very little mythmaking here on the side of the founders, and that’s appreciated.

As I mentioned off the top, the only streetballer I have any familiarity with is Rafer Alston, because he played for the Raptors. Whatever streetball culture there is in Canada, I’m not familiar with. I’ve always sort of been mystified by how much New Yorkers in particular care about streetball. This film helps a little bit.

But the film is way too brief. It’s too brief in covering the company’s rise. It’s too brief in covering the actual games that were on the tour. And it’s too brief when covering the company’s fall.

It does do a decent job of addressing some of the issues with the compensation for the players. But even that is briefer than it could be.

I still found it illuminating and I’d be curious in learning more about the whole story. It’s part of basketball history that was too early for me – I didn’t care yet – and which I had heard a lot about but didn’t know anything about.

6/10