I haven't watched it.

Would it make any prospective players want to come to the NBL to play

Of course the message would be all positive, the touchy bits left out. It was made by, or at least greatly funded by, the owner of the subject of the doco. It's a promo-doco. What did you expect?

This is not a criticism, on my part. Just saying that it is what it is.

Yeah I don't know why someone would pay money to go watch a self promotion for the league.

It's on at Hoyts.

I watched it and the term 'documentary ' is misleading as it has no unbiased opinion or vocal opposition like a documentary should. It's a promo piece that never wants to dive into the negatives.

Like KobeRulz said, the never delved into Hamptons/Shamir coaching. They didn't go into Illawarras horrible record. They didn't say what the criteria is and why Didi is a next star.

They also didn't go into the league as a whole and talk about how it is growing and how competitive it can be (could of put in about United and Perth pushing the NBA teams in the preseason games).

They also played a heap of didn't semi finals games...then cut to Liam Santa saying ' oh and they lost the final" no clips of finals games or thoughts from Didi on the disappointment.

It was a puff piece that I think NBL fans will roll their eyes at and non fans won't bother with.

There's a reason you don't see docos funded by Rio Tinto on the mining industry. They make videos, sure, but nobody tries to pretend they're an actual docos. Its marketing. And getting people to go to a cinema to pay for it is laughable.

Produced by "LK Documentary"...

It was pretty much what I expected. I got to see the NBL on the big screen and it made the league look pretty good. It was a puff piece. There were no dissenting view points raised. I didn't necessarily learn anything I didn't already know. But did I enjoy it? Yes. It was the so-called "documentary" equivalent of a mindless pop-corn flick. Expect to see a highlights video that's a bit light on the facts. I've spent $15 in worse ways...

This struck me as a very strange idea. Who is the audience? Hardcore NBL fans itching to see the league on the big screen?

No different here, this would be the NBL's subjective view of Next Stars and would have no negatives due to increasing the chance that more players choose this format to jumpstart their careers.

Three of the four Next Stars were failures. Four of four if you take LaMelo's desire to be the top pick seriously.

Hampton started in the top ten, and went well outside the lottery.
Louzada got stashed for another year.
Armstrong...seriously, has anyone heard from this guy since round five last year?

There is zero analysis of this. No acknowledgement of Armstrong at all - frankly I don't think anyone would have noticed if they'd cut him from the documentary entirely and it would have made for a far better film - and no looking at what factors led Hampton to slide so far. Issues with coaching? Fit on the roster? Expectations of scouts? Was he overrated out of high school? Did he need to adjust to being a completely different type of player in order to make it to the NBA, or is that just want NZ wanted of him? If the former, would he have struggled just as much had he stayed in the States?

Who's on the Pelicans roster? Is it just a matter of the opportunities not being there due to existing players? Does Louzada need to work on something specific? What did the Pelicans think of his first NBL season?

None of this is discussed, at all. If I'm a player thinking about the Next Stars program, this film tells me nothing about it except that it's unlikely to help me.

I know the rules have been a bit shady, and we were unlikely to get any clarity on that, but there wasn't even a quick "so this is what the Next Stars program is" section. They never went into the league paying salaries, or the process of team selection. They never covered anything the clubs or league might be doing to help with recruitment and drafting, any off-court preparation for the NBA or networking with NBA clubs. They played up the Kupchak thing so much it comes across as "the NBA had one representative here for one game once and that happened to be a good game so LaMelo got drafted", as though Hampton and Armstrong were never seen by scouts at all, and LaMelo wasn't seen outside that one game.

There are any of a number of goals this documentary could have had, but it achieves none of them.

I love the NBL, I spend more time watching / following the NBL than I do NBA.

I would pay to watch NBL in a cinema if it were a novel thing like a Grand Final live game.

I would even pay to watch an NBL documentary in a cinema if the documentary were interesting like the history of the NBL covering the meteoric rise of the late 80's and 90's followed by the dark ages where teams were going bust almost yearly and most teams are making losses on losses, to the LK 'golden' era.

I would not pay to watch Next Stars, this is even before Kobe's review.

The topic of the doco is Next Stars which is a small part of NBL.

NONE of the features Next Stars made a significant impact on the league during their tenure.

Ball was ROTY and put up some incredible performances / highlights and is now likely for NBA ROTY. That alone does not cover the fact he played half the season and the Hawks were just as bad whether he played or not.

Hampton is similar playing half the season and so-so performances.

Louzada made the Grand Finals but didn't feature highly in the games and was probably one of the guys who voted for forfeiting the remainder GF games.

Armstrong - He and SEM are such an indictment of the program that I would have structured the whole doco around the 'three' Next Stars of 2019/20.

Teams are losing just as much today as they were in the dark ages.

People have to remember that LaMelo wasn't a first round prospect before he came to the NBL and his main draw was just his social media following. He went from second round prospect to top three in the NBL.

But yes, the program failed Terry Armstrong, may have hamstrung RJ Hampton, and Diddi Louzada is basically an import for all intents and purposes with nothing suggesting he's going to the NBA any time soon.

Two of the four next stars last year ended up in the NBA, and of this year's crop, Giddey will and there are question marks for Jessup and Mojave King.

So Next Stars is a mixed bag. LaMelo and RJ could have easily picked the wrong college team and slipped out of the draft also. RJ could have easily picked a different NBL team and have ranked higher. But some of this also comes down to the players too. The NBL gives these kids an opportunity, and it is up to them to take it and make the most of it. LaMelo did, but scouts weren't quite as sold on RJ.

At least RJ got minutes and the opportunity. That's all you can really ask for. Terry Armstrong didn't even play garbage minutes. Next Stars absolutely was a waste of time for that kid. Phoenix should never have taken him on if they didn't think they could put him on the court.

They could have either completely ignored him, or acknowledged whatever the hell went on even if they didn't dive into it. They did neither, which just looks weird. He's featured as prominently as the other three in the first 20 minutes and is then suddenly never mentioned again, until the "where are they now" thing where it mentions he went undrafted.

At one point early on, it shows a newspaper headline about the NBL signing a deal with Facebook. This is not explained, at all. It's never mentioned by anyone in the interviews, and the clipping shown on the screen doesn't allow any of the text of the article to be read. It's not even mentioned in the segment on the Ball-vs-Hampton game, which thanks to that deal was watched by millions of Americans. That fact goes completely ignored, so even as a promotional puff piece it's a horrible failure.

I think maybe you went in expecting too much, Kobe. I didn't expect much at all and walked away reasonably satisfied. As I said, it's mindless pop corn movie equivalent of a documentary.

Who were previous Next Stars? Ferguson and Bowen? Ferguson has carved out a small role, but I haven't seen anything from Bowen, I'm assuming they don't even touch on these previous guys?

Ferguson skipped college to go pro straight out of high school.