Q: How do you start a screenplay?

JB: Personally, I find it’s best to have a strong visual image to kick things off. My first image? A beat-up, drunken old guy passed out at night under a busted basketball backboard in a city playground. Some kids kick him awake, telling him to “get off my court.”

Q: How long did it take you to write the screenplay?

JB: A year and a half. Then Sidney Mackenzie, my partner on my first feature film, introduced me to a young talent who’d been war counselor to a notorious street gang, been a heroin addict, and knew the streets of Harlem inside and out (all recounted in detail in Gail Sheehy’s bestselling book Passages). Dennis Watlington came on board to help get Champions sold, and over time, our relationship moved from mentor-protégé to best friends. “D” is now a highly successful, award-winning director and author (Chasing America).

Q: How did you go about getting the film made?

JB: I already made one film and knew the drill. First, Dennis and I held auditions for the five leading parts. Then we did a series of screen tests—one-third of the movie!—that we could show to financers.

Q: How hard was it to cast Lonnie?

JB: A lot of kids were interviewed before screen-testing, including the great Ronnie Clanton (star of one of only two street-gang films ever made, the little-known Education of Sonny Carson, which, like The Cool World a decade before it, was shot on a shoestring budget using Harlem gang kids). Then Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs came down to the film set with his buddy John Travolta in tow—both were co-starring in the hit TV show Welcome Back, Kotter. Larry blew the roof off with three dramatic scenes.

Q: Who from the NBA could play the pro superstar?

JB: The captain of the New York Knicks himself—the legendary Hall of Famer and four-time NBA All-Star great, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe—one of the most creative point guards to ever play the game. He scored 56 points against the Lakers in his rookie year—still the third highest for any NBA rookie in history. Before there was Magic Johnson, there was dazzling “Black Magic” Monroe, as the press dubbed him for his Houdini-like moves and silky-smooth play. Earl is a commanding presence, to say the least. I still have the screen test of him, in a scene with “D” playing Lonnie.

Q: How about casting Cal and Aggie?

JB: It’s sad. There was a slew of outstanding black actors looking for film work in New York who, had they been white, would’ve had huge film careers, maybe their own TV series, too. We had the best: Sheila Frazier (Super Fly, The Last Stand), Emmy Award–nominee Rosalind Cash, three-time Emmy Award–winner Debbie Allen (Fame)—literally a who’s who of black talent—most who’d end up in Spike’s films years later.

Q: These are talents who paved the way for today’s megastars.

JB: Exactly. Without their guts and perseverance, there would be no Beyoncé, no Halle Berry, no Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx. For Cal, I’d seen the brilliant actor James Earl Jones play heavyweight boxing champ Jack Johnson on stage. (Later, James Earl would become a worldwide film icon in Field of Dreams, Patriot Games, Conan, and the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars.) I screen-tested his own father, Robert Earl Jones, for the role of Cal’s father.