[Big Boy] Real 92.3 iHeartRadio.
Voice of Los Angeles. Hello.
I think L.A. basketball, right now, is bigger than we've seen it
- in years past. - [crowd cheers]
There's an excitement, of course, with the Lakers.
The city feels good on all levels of sports,
not just on a professional level.
- [crowd cheers] - [players cheer]
[Big Boy] I haven't seen high school basketball
this exciting in years in Los Angeles.
[cheers]
High school basketball has always been important in Southern California,
but it's really changed.
It's only in recent years that Southern California rising up
because of the growth of the Internet and social media.
And then, you have this recent year of just great talent.
And people moving to Southern California from out of state.
[crowds cheering]
[sportscaster] Everybody's talking about the Trailblazers.
[man] This is no ordinary high school basketball team.
[man 2] You got the Lakers, you got the Clippers
and you got Sierra Canyon High School.
[players shouting]
[players mutter indistinctly]
So, if I were you, and I were coming into a new situation,
where the team has won back-to-back state titles,
seems to me that you guys would be trying to do
everything that we ask you to do,
if it's very important for you to win.
Our legacy is to win championship after championship after championship.
We don't settle for anything else.
I don't like losing at all. Not one game.
And you guys have the ability to go undefeated
in every game we play and crush everybody's spirit from the beginning.
It is going to be my goal to get you to that level.
You might hate me this year, but when you leave here,
one day you're going to thank me,
because I promise you, you ain't leaving this... without getting better.
It is my promise to you.
So, you will get better or you will quit.
[birds chirping]
[indistinct chatter]
[weights clang]
[Eric Sondheimer] Sierra Canyon hasn't lost a playoff game since 2018.
[Chris Madden] Last year they played well together,
they loved each other.
We had Scottie Pippen Jr.,
Kenyon Martin Jr., Cassius Stanley.
We actually had that group for some years, so, we were able to kinda mold them.
I think we went 24 and 3.
the way he allowed those guys to grow.
Won back-to-back state champions the last two years.
[man] The difference between last year's team and this year's team
is this team is rock stars.
[sportscaster] It's a circus-like atmosphere every place they go play.
[crowd cheering]
They are a national treasure this year.
Staples Center is the place to be.
Maybe even Sierra Canyon can go there and play a game.
[female newscaster] More than 5,000 tickets
were purchased in just nine hours.
[man 3] I'm thinkin' that this team probably three-peats
for the state championship, what do you guys think?
[cheering]
[Eric Sondheimer] There were so many rumors about
who was coming to Sierra Canyon and how would they perform together.
[♪ YoungBoy NBA: "Make No Sense"]
[man 4] Who's inside, who's on center court.
And you think about it, we're talking about a high school game here.
Amari's a beast. No matter what, he's coming at you.
I'm Chicago to the death of me, it's written all over me.
There isn't any wall that you can put in front of me
that I'm not gonna be willing to break through.
When I heard the news that BJ, Z-Will and Z-Wade
were all comin' to Sierra...
BJ DM'd me.
[Coach Dre] BJ's a special talent.
He is definitely NBA material.
My bag is deep. A lot of people, they got a bag, but my bag is deep.
Now I might just do a Santa bag, 'cause, you know, my bag is so big.
[laughs]
[Amari] Not even a week later,
Z-Will posted the same day that they were both comin'.
[Coach Dre] Ziaire Williams, he aspires to be in the NBA.
He might have a great career as a politician, as well,
because he definitely has a way of communicating with people
and making them feel good.
I wanna learn from any and everything, you know, I'm more than an athlete.
Z-Wade DM'd me, he was like, "Should I come?" I said, "For sure."
[Chris Madden] He's known as Dwyane Wade's son.
And he wants to be known as Zaire Wade.
[Zaire] When people would call me Dwyane Wade's son,
I would tell 'em, I have a name, respectfully, Zaire.
[Amari] Shy gave up a lot, moving from Boston to L.A.
[Ed] Just as a hooper, man, Shy is very talented.
A lot of people probably got a little glimpse
of what kind of player Shy could be.
But, in the future, man, he's 'bout to be a problem.
[Shy Odom] I wanna set my family up for success,
lead the way and give everybody the opportunity
to be what they wanna be and do what they wanna do.
[Amari] I was already waitin' on Bronny to come.
For real, for real, I wanted to play with him, so...
[Sandy] Bronny is on, like, a whole 'nother universe.
Basketball-wise, he's just got gifts that just are God given.
I'm just Bronny. I don't really get called LeBron anymore.
You come here... to win,
like, you don't come to Sierra Canyon for any other reason.
[Coach Dre] I've been coaching for about 20 years now.
I don't think there's no pressure greater than the pressure that I put on myself.
As a coach, sometimes you have to endure the hatred of your players,
or allow them to use you as their rallying cry...
[player] Yay!
[Coach Dre] ...in order to help them to be great.
[indistinct chatter]
[Coach Dre] It doesn't faze me, at all.
[indistinct chatter]
My way of mentoring, having conversations,
I think that's somethin' that you have to get used to.
I come from the projects, so, people can, you know, say what they want.
For me, you know, as a player, I definitely felt the pressure.
You know, I was fighting the battle of dealing with, you know, a disability
and proving to the world that I was good enough to play.
So, I think that pressure was a little bit greater than,
you know, what I'm doing now.
We, every day, try to reach perfection, knowing that we can't get there,
but you know, hopefully,
we'll hit excellence and continue to move forward
and accomplish great things as a group.
He has his own demeanor in the way he coaches,
and obviously he wins games, wins championships, so, it works.
[Coach Dre] I'm a truth teller and I'm gonna tell you the blatant truth.
I'm not gonna be abrasive about it,
but I am gonna tell you the truth so that you can make an adjustment,
get better.
You can take my information and use it
or you can throw it away.
But I am gonna give you the truth from my perspective.
[piano intro plays]
[teacher] I don't believe that. Okay.
[girl] Oh.
-Here? -Yeah. Here we go.
[chatter]
Coming out to L.A., it's just, honestly,
like, I feel like once I came into the school, like...
I don't know.
[teacher singing music exercise]
[clapping rhythmically]
[piano music playing]
[students] ♪ Amazing grace ♪
♪ How sweet the sound ♪
Going to Sierra Canyon's like I'm watching a school in a movie,
but, like, I'm actually in the school.
It was just different, comin' out here, it's like a movie.
I still say it's crazy to this day.
[indistinct]
[BJ] The teachers, the students, everything, like...
'cause I--like, where I come from, it's not like that.
It was a public school of 4,000 kids.
It was just different to me comin' out here.
[Ziaire] Growin' up in the small city of Lancaster,
in a middle class family, I'm like, I'm kinda new to it.
[Sandy] This is not a normal high school.
This is a very elite academic school,
for as much as the basketball team gets its props.
[Ryan] Everyone here is related to somebody.
They can just seem like a normal person, but not, like,
they're related to an actor or a comedian or a rapper.
[Sandy] When you see Harold walk anywhere,
everyone stares, everyone points.
It's just human instinct. You see someone seven foot three, you're gonna look.
And he doesn't like being pointed at, he's been stared at his whole life.
So, all of these kids that are celebrities,
they're kinda used to dealing with it.
And now he's not just a stand-out, now you're a part of this group.
And it's like, "Tall kid. Oh, but that's Bronny.
Oh, that's Zaire Wade."
Like, he's not just being singled out, and that makes me happy.
When I first heard we were going to China, I'm like, "Ain't no way."
[indistinct chatter]
[Coach Dre] I thought the China experience was important for Harold
and for the team to understand what Harold had to deal with and endure
being a foreigner, eatin' foreign food,
trying to get used to a foreign culture.
So, I thought it was very important that our kids saw how he lived
and saw, you know, what he had to deal with on a daily basis.
[Chris Johnson] They're flying commercial,
with a guy like Harold that's seven-three,
I hope they bought him two seats
so he can either stretch to the left or stretch to the right.
We have a middle seat in an exit row. So, I don't know if that would...
[woman 2] It's more leg room.
[woman] Probably a little better than a window, huh?
[woman] All right, thank you, sir.
[indistinct chatter]
[all] Hello!
[Coach Dre] China gave them an opportunity to see
what we were going to have to be dealing with throughout the year.
It allowed us to bond.
I didn't really know everyone before that trip.
But we all came together a lot.
[crowd cheering]
To be like rock stars in China feels amazing.
[cheering]
[BJ] China was crazy. I loved it out there, actually.
The people, they loved us, so had to put on a show for 'em.
Well, I know I put on a show for 'em.
[cheers]
I couldn't imagine being 15 years of age,
and everybody knows your name.
Three-peat, boy!
[Big Boy] I couldn't imagine, you know, walkin' in
and people chanting your name.
People know exactly who you are.
[all cheering]
[Coach Dre] The reason why we traveled so much was,
we wanted to try to win a national championship.
The only way that we were gonna be able to do that
was play a national schedule, travel to these other people's homes,
and put together a record that could put us in the argument
for the number one team in the nation.
- [woman] Just like this. - [beeping]
We're not afraid to play anybody anywhere, you know, we'll come to your state
and play in front of your home crowd, wherever.
You know, let's get it on.
- [thunder booms] - [rain pattering]
[female newscaster] Sierra Canyon against the John Marshall Justices.
If you're looking to get tickets, good luck.
That event, yeah, it's sold out.
Coach Andre, he told us we were gonna be the most hated team in the country.
I mean, he definitely wasn't lyin', man.
[sirens blaring]
[Travelle Gaines] Every super team was hated.
The Celtics, the "Heatles," the Golden State Warriors.
So, any time you have a team of people with kids that come together,
people are gonna naturally hate 'em.
Will Call and reporters are already on their way.
[Travelle Gaines] It's just, it is what it is.
[distant chant] Overrated! Overrated!
[man] When you're number one, everybody's gonna come after you.
In the beginning of the game, they try to get at them, like nag them,
poke at 'em, throw things at people.
A lot of people wanna be SC.
[fans] Bronny! Bronny!
[crowd chanting] Overrated! Overrated!
Their games sell out in, like, 30 minutes.
They can sell out arenas and fill arenas that even pro teams can't fill in.
[crowd chanting] Overrated! Overrated!
[player] 'Cause it's hot.
People gonna be standin'.
Everybody's comin' for us, every game. We're gonna get everybody's best shot.
[Amari] It's just a hostile environment that you can either take it, or you can't.
[announcer] Harold Yu standing at mid-court,
all set to take the tip.
[hip hop music plays]
[Big Boy] History shows you that people hate the great.
They wanna see you get knocked off your so-called high horse.
They wanna be the ones that give you the L.
[announcer] Another aggressive take and a foul.
[fan] Oh!
Z, watch your back!
[Big Boy] People treat Sierra Canyon as the villains
because they're a super team.
Let's go! Don't let up! SC! Finish this!
[announcer] This is high intensity, high play.
[Coach Dre] Wait! Amari, wait!
[Ziaire] Amari is fearless,
like, he be wantin' to fight in the game.
I'm, like, bro, c'mon, relax, like, you don't gotta go that hard on 'em.
I play basketball, so, like,
you know, like, after you play me, you don't wanna play basketball anymore.
Let's go.
[indistinct chatter]
-Pick it up, on three. One, two, three. -Pick it up!
[announcer] Let's see what Andre Chevalier said to his men.
[♪ Sheck Wes: "Live Sheck Wes"]
[announcer] And here comes Sierra Canyon!
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Just like that from Bailey.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] And, oh, it's a strong finish by Boston!
[buzzer sounds]
[crowd jeering]
[indistinct chatter]
Pull one of those cops.
[Zaire] That was crazy. All that intensity.
You could tell that they was mad.
I'm trying to get outta here, too, hell.
[Shy Odom] That game was really the beginning of everything.