Hoop Dreams with Chris Herren has announced it’s line-up of clinics and camps for the Spring and Summer of 2012.

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Spring Group Workouts

“Reaching The Dream” Summer Basketball Camp

Summer Total Player Development Clinics

Sunday Pick-Up Games: NEW! Addition of Pick-Up Game for 4th-6th Grade Players

The Reviews Are In!

Don’t miss the ESPN Films documentary Unguarded. The documentary by award-winning director Jonathan Hock, focuses on former NBA player Chris Herren, a talented basketball player from Fall River, Massachusetts who struggled with addiction throughout his career. Through personal interviews with Herren’s coaches, family and friends, Unguarded documents the past 15 years of Herren’s life and his triumphant journey back to his family and the game of basketball.

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Unguarded: The Reviews

SLAM ONLINE!

The LA TIMES

ESPN BOSTON

The HERALD NEWS

The BOSTON HERALD

The BOSTON GLOBE

The FRESNO BEE

SPORTS OF BOSTON

The BLEACHER REPORT

The HUFFINGTON POST

POP MATTERS

SB NATION

Hall of Fame player, Chris Mullin, in his own words on his relationship with Chris Herren.

FILM SUMMARY:

Award-winning filmmaker Jonathan Hock has mastered the art of telling stories about the struggles and triumphs of American hometown heroes. Chris Herren of Fall River, Mass., was a high school basketball standout who battled the pressures of making it big from an early age. After dropping out of Boston College, Chris landed on Jerry Tarkanian’s notorious Fresno State team, where players were likely to be found on both police blotters and All-American lists. Chris failed drug tests at BC and Fresno State, but he was so talented that he was drafted into the NBA anyway, ending up with the Boston Celtics. But at the moment he was realizing his childhood dream of becoming a star for the home team, Chris was falling in a 10-year-long spiral of addiction. He bounced from team to team, country to country. Ultimately, Chris, the youngest and most talented of three generations of local heroes, has found redemption and personal fulfillment through the game, but only after it led him literally around the world, down a path of alcohol and drug addiction that nearly killed him.

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For more information on the documentary, the director Jonathan Hock or ESPN Films visit: The Hoop Dreams with Chris Herren ESPN “Unguarded” Page or

http://espn.go.com/espn/espnfilms/story/_/id/6961212/unguarded

Fall Total Player Development Clinics:

Designed for the serious basketball player looking to bring their game to the next level, the Fall session of the Total Player Development Clinic will run for 10 weeks at two gym locations and focus on basketball drills, skills, ball handling, strength training and conditioning. For more information on sessions or to register, please visit Hoop Dreams with Chris Herren 2011 Fall Clinics.

Pick-Up Basketball Games Are Back!

Miss pick-up basketball over the summer? The games are back! Players in 5th-9th grade are invited to join Chris Herren and his team on Sundays at the Pennfield School in Portsmouth, RI for pick-up basketball games. The cost to participate is $10 and the games run from 11 – 12:30pm. For more information please visit Hoop Dreams with Chris Herren Pick-Up Games.

Fun Now Integral Part of Herren’s Hoop Dreams

Have fun. That’s the number-one rule in Chris Herren’s basketball camp. The other two rules are no bullying and learn something. But the significance of the first rule is never lost on Herren, the Fall River basketball star who achieved the dream of playing for the Boston Celtics before his life unraveled in a nightmare of drug and alcohol addiction.

Herren and Providence Journal sports columnist Bill Reynolds detail that journey in “Basketball Junkie,” a new book that grabs you by the collar and pulls you along, right from the opening sentences: “I was dead for 30 seconds. That’s what the cop in Fall River told me.”

The book tells you something about Fall River and the NBA. It tells you something about addiction and recovery. It even tells you something about Nanjing, China. But as a father of two boys who love sports, I was struck by what it said about being a kid and an athlete, a parent and a coach.

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To Read More of the Article Visit:

http://www.projo.com/news/efitzpatrick/edward_fitzpatrick_28_07-28-11_LQPCLB6_v31.473b5.html

EPSN Announces Fall Documentary Film Slate

Beginning Tuesday, September 27 at 8 p.m., ESPN Films will air seven documentary films under its “30 for 30″ banner on consecutive Tuesdays, on topics ranging from boxer Chuck Wepner, the inspiration behind the “Rocky” films, to former Boston Celtics player Chris Herren, who spiraled into addiction during his playing career….”Unguarded,” meanwhile, will chronicle Herren’s struggle toward sobriety, after hitting rock-bottom. Though Herren has written a book on the subject, “Basketball Junkie: A Memoir,” the former NBA player says that this project (debuting October 18) will differ in that it will focus on his period of recovery. (Herren noted during the panel that he is approaching his third year of sobriety.)

“When Jon came along and we talked about doing this documentary, I was more interested in shedding light on addiction and shedding light on the recovery process,” Herren noted. “To me, that’s the beauty of it.”

ESPN films’ documentary slate will also include “Catching Hell” (September 27.); “Renee” (October 4); the Morgan Spurlock-directed “The Dotted Line” (October 18); “Charismatic” (November 1); and “Roll Tide/War Eagle” (November 8).

The ESPN panel also unveiled the new original series “Rise Up,” which travels to four cash-strapped schools in order to provide much-needed aid to their athletic programs.

Though NBC aired a similar program, “School Pride,” last year, ESPN executive producer, content development Joan Lynch said that “Rise Up” will take a more multi-faceted approach, focusing on the physical benefits of athletic programs.

“I think the biggest difference between our program and what NBC did is that they were more aligned with the cosmetic,” Lynch said. “ESPN does nutrition, injury prevention — it is very specific to athletic and the physical education side and the movement side.”

The series’ host, ESPN college football analyst Chris Spielman, noted that a robust athletics program also has the ripple effect of boosting morale among the student body.

“School pride still means something,” Spielman said of the students they worked with on the series. When a renovation project is undertaken, the students “sign their names to their school; they all want to do well, they all want the opportunity to participate in sports.”

The four-episode “Rise Up,” which chronicles the renovation campaigns of athletic programs at schools in Boston, Seattle, Wellston, Ohio, and Chicago, premieres on Tuesday, September 13 at 7 p.m., and will continue on Tuesdays at 7 through October 4.

Chris Herren Tells His Story

Former Celtic Chris Herren, a Fall River native who played at Boston College, talks to Comcast SportsNet Central’s Carolyn Manno about being a drug addict during his basketball career . . . the subject of his book, “Basketball Junkie,” written with Bill Reynolds.

ESPN Films Scores Regular Weekend Home on ESPN Classic (Exclusive)

“…..This upcoming fall’s series will feature six films with future years expected to have six to eight. Among the films planned for this fall are Sign Here by Morgan Spurlock about sports agents and the sports business and 2011 Tribeca Film Festival documentaries Catching Hell by Alex Gibney, about the Steve Bartman incident and the broader topic of sports curses and scapegoats, and Renee by Eric Drath about tennis player Renee Richards who underwent sex change surgery to become a woman. They will also include boxing-themed The Bayonne Bleeder by Jeff Feurzig and a yet-to-be-named film about Chris Herren by John Hock….”

To Read the Entire Article Visit: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/espn-films-scores-regular-weekend-200958

Ex-URI Star James Stresses Versatility and Shooting Range in Advance of NBA Draft

When Delroy James looks at the various NBA mock drafts floating around the Internet these days, he chuckles. Then he gets a little mad. The former University of Rhode Island star sees the names of players slotted ahead of him who he knows he can play with. In fact, he feels he’s downright better than many of them. To prove his mettle, James is on a vagabond tour of NBA cities that stopped in Waltham, Mass., Tuesday for a visit with the Celtics. He was in Sacramento last weekend and Washington, D.C. on Monday and will be in New York with the Knicks Wednesday. He’ll spend next week hopping from New Jersey to Atlanta then to Charlotte and Indianapolis. “I know I can play at that level, so it’s just about showing the teams how good you really are,” said James, who led the Rams last season in points (17.9), rebounds (7.9), steals and blocks. “The proof will come out.”…….This is no surprise to Fall River’s Chris Herren, the former NBA guard who now trains basketball players of all levels through his company, Hoop Dreams. James was referred to Herren through his new sports agent, CAA Sports.”

To Read More of This Article Visit:

http://www.projo.com/celtics/content/Delroy_James_URI_Rams_NBA_Celtic_06-08-11_I7O_v2.2960dc6.html

June 24, 2011 – Kristofer Habbas, Dime Magazine

For Delroy James, The NBA Draft Is Bigger Than Basketball

The improbable story of Delroy James has been told before, but not like this, read it to believe it. There is no angle, just the words from a young man who traveled nearly 3,000 miles to a new country to simply have the chance for a better life. The path to that life was lined with obstacles that most only ever see in the movies or read in story books.

To Read More of This Article Visit:

http://dimemag.com/2011/06/for-delroy-james-the-nba-draft-is-bigger-than-basketball/