It’s always a shame to see a promising documentary setup fumbled in the execution, and unfortunately, Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot is a shining example of fumbled execution. Director Adam Yauch (better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys) divides the running time of his hoops doc into three interweaving parts: the back stories of eight talented young basketball players vying for a shot at the big time, exposing the seedy underbelly of professional basketball’s scouting process, and footage of the aforementioned hoopsters battling it out at the Elite 24 Hoops Classic in Rucker Park. While each of these parts is compelling in its own right, Gunnin’s problem lies in its inability to explore each with sufficient depth or complexity.

The film opens with numerous talking heads relating the history of Rucker Park and its famous basketball tournaments (for those not in the know, Rucker is a legendary court in Harlem on which a lot of big name basketball talent has played in hosted tournaments). The audience is assured, endlessly, that playing at Rucker Park is a very big deal. If you didn’t already know about Rucker Park, you will after Gunnin’s first ten minutes.

The film then dives into the stories of the film’s eight star subjects. But only a brief amount of time is spent with each, and thus, the audience never gets a chance to truly connect with any of them. It might have been a better decision to narrow the film’s focus to three or four of the kids with the most compelling stories. As it stands now, the audience is essentially forced to pick a favorite or two, and attempt to follow them when game time comes in the third act (for those keeping track, my favorite is the humble prankster Michael Beasley). But disappointment is inevitable, as each gets only minimal screen time with so many players battling for the camera’s attention.

Yauch creates collages of highlights from each player’s high school career, using rapid-fire editing to amalgamate sports news website snippets, internet search tidbits, and YouTube clips. The internet search cut ‘n’ paste vibe works for the news stories and player facts, but using YouTube clips for highlight footage comes off as sloppy and lazy. These clips serve as the film’s chance to show what each player accomplished during his high school career and they are barely watchable. Seriously, Yauch, you didn’t have the resources to track down some original footage of these players and post-process it a bit to look like online video? As one can imagine, YouTube clips that look washed-out and pixilated on a computer screen look even worse when blown up on the big screen; some are nearly unwatchable.

But the meat and potatoes of Gunnin’ is the Elite 24 Hoops Classic at the end of the film, right? The third act doesn’t quite deliver on the hype, either. One can’t deny that there is some incredibly impressive b-ball playing going on. But, as the film’s subjects remind us numerous times, it’s all for fun and love of the game, and there’s really nothing at stake. There’s just no tension or human drama. The film also makes the mistake of trying too hard to be inspirational. While some of the ‘rags-to-riches’ and ‘for love of the game’ stories border on inspirational, we’re yanked back into reality with tales of endless free sneakers and promises of multi-million dollar contracts.

The film’s bigger problem, though, is that it lacks focus. It feels like there might be three solid films in here that were all shaved down to be rolled into one. Personally, I would have loved to see Yauch spend more time revealing the shady experiences these kids go through as they transition to pro ball (i.e., free sneakers from shoe companies, being thrown onto magazine covers to be made into stars before they’re ready, the complete subjectivity of player rankings, etc). That’s a compelling documentary setup.

As it stands, Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot is not a bad documentary; it’s just not a particularly good one. There is some great basketball footage contained within, but you’ll have to decide if that’s worth your $12. I’d probably wait for DVD and let it gun for your #1 Netflix spot. Ba-dum-chich.

Grade: C

Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot is rated PG-13 and currently showing in NY and LA with an expanding release to follow in the coming weeks.