Basketball Heaven

Kinston, North Carolina, is the single greatest producer of NBA players in the world. Players from their high school’s varsity boys’ team are 63 times more likely to make it to the NBA than anywhere else in the United States, according to ESPN. In Kinston, basketball is more than a game; it is a lifeline, and for some families, their only means of escaping difficult economic circumstances. Basketball Heaven showcases the communal love at the heart of this sports legacy and how community has helped Black people survive and thrive throughout time.

Filmmaker Resita Cox journeys home to Kinston, confronting a childhood marked by absent parents, their drug addictions, and poverty. She revisits the teachers and coaches who supported her, including town matriarch Ms. Felecia Solomon. Ms. Solomon transformed her own childhood trauma into a lifelong career in education, nurturing countless young people. Solomon spent years as the principal of Rochelle Middle School—Kinston High’s feeder school—which enjoyed a 14-year winning stretch in the past and regularly sells out games. Ms. Solomon hired acclaimed coach Jesse Miller to head Rochelle’s boys’ basketball and football teams.

Solomon and Miller demonstrate the commitment it takes to provide in a low-income community, but they are uncertain who will succeed them after retirement. Basketball Heaven is a portrait of a southern Black community that has withstood trials—from devastating flooding to an education system marked by racial inequality—and reigned supreme in basketball.