Not Your Champions: Disabled People aren’t Redemptive Plot Devices
By Evan Froiland
Isn’t it a little exploitative to have disabled characters serve as the backdrop for a movie that is ultimately a (failed attempt at a) redemptive arc for an abled, fallen-from-grace basketball coach? ‘Champions’ (2023) stars Woody Harrelson as coach Marcus Marokovich who, as mandated community service after a DUI arrest, coaches a team of adults with intellectual disabilities. The film seems to know that it’s walking a line of exploitation, and attempts to absolve itself with lazy gestures at self-awareness. The movie’s tagline, ‘Their best shot is his last shot’, is transparent in framing Marcus as the center of the movie, and the community center basketball team called “The Friends” as the backdrop.
The film’s opening scenes paint Marcus as a person solely focused on winning basketball games, unfocused on relationships with his players or people in his life. After being fired from his coaching job and arrested for drunk driving, he uses the R slur during a court appearance, only accepting his community service sentence after learning the alternative is 18 months in jail. The use of this slur feels like it’s supposed to get laughs, and is an unnecessary way to show Marcus’ ableist beliefs. It’s an early signal that this is a film for abled people.
When Marcus meets “The Friends,” laughs and jokes with the team are shared during the first practice, but nonetheless, his attitude is that “it’s impossible to coach these guys”. That begins to change only when Julio, an employee of the community center, tells Marcus that “these guys are capable of more than you think”, explaining a bit about the spectrum of disabilities that players on the team have, and sharing some personal anecdotes about who some of the players are, what they do for work, what they’re interested in, etc. Marcus has a pondering look on his face that seems to convey, “Wow, it turns out these people are people”.
And if you had to give credit to a film for simply acknowledging intellectually disabled characters as people with jobs, hobbies, partners and senses of humor, you could give Champions some credit here. However, this acknowledgement feels like just that: merely an acknowledgement during a small moment in the film, while the whole of the film treats these characters with little depth, most being defined by a singular personality trait or quirk. The traits and quirks that the film relies on include common tropes of intellectually disabled characters, like hypersexualization and rigidity. Attempts at progressive understandings of the lives of the characters fall flat in relationship with Marcus, who ignores boundaries and relational power.
The moments in this film where the lives of “The Friends” are at the forefront are simply side notes to the real story of the film; Marcus’ personal growth (which I would argue there’s very little of in the film, but that’s clearly what it’s trying to show), his romantic relationship with one of the player’s sisters, and his career aspirations.
The element of the story that is supposed to be most “feel good” is Marcus’ warming up to “The Friends” and re-prioritizing success to be defined by the team, not just by him. However, even midway through the film, after a rapport and fondness has been established between Marcus and The Friends, it seems that the audience is supposed to laugh when Marcus, hearing a story about player almost drowning, asks if that’s how they got Down Syndrome. It’s a needlessly ignorant moment that again feels like it’s supposed to get a laugh.
A moment that is meant to define Marcus’ ‘redemptive’ arc is when he visits the home of Darius, a former player on “The Friends” who has refused to play during his time coaching. Marcus learns from Phil, his former colleague who he was fired for pushing in an angry outburst, that Darius was in an accident involving a drunk driver when he was younger, resulting in his disability. Marcus, now understanding why Darius has refused to play for him, visits Darius to apologize for his own drunk driving and assure Darius that it won’t happen again. Darius quickly accepts his apology and decides to play for the team.
This quick acceptance of Marcus’ apology feels incredibly unearned, and supposed to represent a change in Marcus’ character that simply does not happen. This scene puts the onus on Darius to redeem Marcus in a way that rushes right past the actual trauma that Darius’ character is assumed to have. The two characters here playing a role in Marcus’ ‘redemption’, Phil and Darius, are the film’s only two Black characters, adding another layer of marginalized characters in the film who exist to serve Marcus’ redemptive arc. It’s worth noting here that Phil also bailed Marcus out of jail after his DUI.
Shortly before “The Friends” season ends, the question of exploitation comes into question directly in the text of the film. Marcus is (absurdly) offered a job with a Seattle expansion NBA franchise facing a PR crisis. Alex, his love interest, asks him if he feels it’s exploitative to use the public goodwill that coaching “The Friends” has found him to further his career aspirations. His response is drenched in irony, saying, “Apparently Seattle’s getting roughed up in the press and needed a feel good story. Look at me, Mr. Feel Good Story.”
This gesture at self-awareness feels like a contrived afterthought, like the film attempting to put a band-aid on its exploitative nature by simply asking and making light of a question. In a very odd twist at the end of the movie, Marcus predictably decides not to take the NBA job after all, staying in Iowa where “The Friends” play, but he still leaves his role as coach of “The Friends," instead taking a local college basketball coaching job. It felt as though the film was saying, “Yes, this would be an exploitative movie, if Marcus just left in the end, but he didn’t, so we can wash our hands”. This ignores that however the movie ended, its entire premise relied upon treating disabled characters as plot devices for the growth of its abled protagonist. And even if this was a legitimate argument, it doesn’t really apply when Marcus still leaves “The Friends” for a more “prestigious”, better paying job that he was able to get because of his newfound and unearned goodwill.
‘Champions’ is a lazy and bad movie. The writing stinks and its main character is extremely unlikeable even as the film wants you to grow to like him. Disabled people deserve to be portrayed with more depth and to author their own stories. Do not recommend!
Evan Froiland (he/they) is a chronically ill artist, friend, and lover of learning. He likes baseball, soda, childlike wonder, and dreaming of a more liberated, fun future. He values collectivity, transparency, gentleness, silliness, curiosity and creativity. He thinks he could probably win Survivor if not for the physical demands of the game. He’s currently based in Chicago, Illinois.
