Welcome back to Fox recaps today, I’m going to explain the movie Uncle Drew released in the year 2018. The opening scene shows us a short documentary on the legendary basketball player Uncle Drew Drew, who used to play in the Rucker Classic. Several famous players like Steve Nash, Joe Hammond, and December Mutumbo talk about how good of a player Uncle Drew was. Jerry west even says that Uncle Drew deserved to be the NBA logo instead of him. Because of his talent, Uncle Drew and his childhood friends shot to the top of the first Rucker Classic in 1968.
However, it was not long before everything came crashing down. The rumor was that he slept with the girlfriend of one of his teammates the night before the finals. Because of the incident, he couldn’t do well in the Finals. Following the game, Uncle Drew mysteriously disappeared and has been missing in action ever since. In the present, a basketball coach named DAX Winslow is building up a team in hopes of winning the Rucker Classic.
His team has many good players, but they all depend on the star player, Casper. Dax has a lot of hope for Casper and does everything he can to keep him satisfied as they are practicing. One day, Dax’s childhood enemy Mookie arrives at the court and mocks him for even thinking about winning. He has won seven of the nine Rucker Championships and doesn’t fail to mention it to DAX every time they meet. Dax is confident about his team this year.
However, Mookie mentions that since he has a history of winning the competition, star players like Casper gravitate towards him. His comment worries DAX because if the players want to join Mookie’s team, he cannot stop them. After Mookie leaves, DAX tries to appeal to Casper and ask him if he needs anything. Knowing DAX works at a shoe store, he requests a new pair of expensive Jordans. Dax tries to avoid the topic, claiming that he will buy him one once the shoes arrive at the store.
That night, DAX dreams about his childhood and how he wasn’t selected by any adopting parents in an orphanage because he was so lonely. He took interest in basketball and eventually became very good at it. Until middle school, he didn’t lose any matches, but that changed when in one of the matches, Mookie blocked the shot that cost him a game. Because of the incident, he lost everyone’s respect and has still not been able to get over it. He is so traumatized by the event that he gets recurring dreams about the match.
Dax lives with his girlfriend Jess, who hopes one day he will grow rich and buy her a Tesla, but currently, she covers all the expenses for him. That day, Casper and his friends come to the shoe store that DAX works in, hoping that he will buy them shoes as promised to keep them from going to Mookie. Dax agrees to get them all a pair, even though it costs him almost $1,000, Dax’s card declines, so Jess has to help him pay for them. The next day, he happily goes to the court to distribute the team’s Jersey. To his utmost surprise, Casper, along with the rest of the team, has decided to join Mookie’s team betraying him.
An angered DAX asks for the shoes, but they refuse to return them. The next day, a video of him trying to take the shoes away from the players goes viral. Embarrassed by the incident, Jess breaks up with him and kicks him out of the house. Dax is left with a trash bag full of his clothes and nowhere to go. Even when homeless, he goes to several basketball courts around New York, trying to recruit talented players for his team.
However, since he has no wins, no one wants to play for him in one of such courts. He hears an elderly man comment about the youngster’s poor way of playing. The players overhear his comments and challenge him to a match. At first, no one believes that the old man can beat the energetic youngsters, but they are soon proved wrong. When the man scores several baskets and teaches the young guy what he was doing wrong.
Dax is impressed by the man’s skill. He soon finds out that he is the legendary player, Uncle Drew. The man is about to leave when DAX asks him to join his team. Uncle Drew is skeptical at first, but he agrees to be in his team if he can bring his boys as well. He is determined to get his old team together, this time to win the competition.
Following that, the two get in Uncle Drew’s van and start a road trip to DC to find the guys. On their way, they bicker when Uncle Drew chooses to play old jazz music instead of hip hop. In the morning, they stop in front of a Church because one of the players named Preacher has changed their career path to an actual Preacher. They catch him in the middle of baptizing an infant handling the baby like a basketball. Dax calls him out for his carelessness and is baptized in the baby’s place because of it.
Uncle Drew then tells Preacher that they are trying to get the team back together. Preacher is more than happy to join again, but his wife, Betty Lou, refuses to let him play. Dax and Drew almost leave until Preacher sneaks with them onto Drew’s van. They drive away quickly, but Betty Lou catches wind of this and chases after them in her van. She almost catches them before Uncle Drew runs a red light and escapes.
A while later, the guys stop at a gas station to freshen up. Dax asks them why they stopped playing in 1968, but gets no answer. Preacher asks Uncle Drew if the problem between him and their teammate, Big Fella has been settled. Drew dismisses his concerns, saying that a game of basketball will solve all problems. After that, they go to an arcade where another old teammate, Light, is playing Basketball.
Light has weak eyesight and misses every shot he takes. It is clear to DAX that they can never win the game with players like that, but Uncle Drew has only agreed to play with his team. Light immediately agrees to join them, even though he can barely see their faces. For their other member named Boots, they go to a nearby retirement home and find out that he has catatonic schizophrenia and hasn’t walked in years. Dax cannot believe it when Uncle Drew insists they bring Boots to the game as well.
Boots’caretaker is his granddaughter, Maya, who has to come with them to make sure he is fine. The last guy on their team is also the guy who has a problem with Uncle Drew named Big Fella. He hasn’t spoken to Uncle Drew in years after their team broke up and now works as the Sensei of a karate dojo. When Uncle Drew first approaches Big Fella, he is punched in the face. Big Fella still doesn’t want to do anything that includes Drew but agrees to join the team for the others.
After the team has assembled, they make their way back to Harlem. They are chased by Preacher’s wife, Betty Liu on the way, but they lose her in a car chase. On stopping for a break, DAX sees that he has no money for gas. He spots a team of girl basketball players and bets $100 to see whose team wins. To his disappointment, the group of oldies and his team are shamefully beaten by the girls.
During halftime, DAX tells Drew and his friends that he needs them to be good because he has no money left. Still, the team loses, but Uncle Drew and the guys pull their money together to pay off Dax’s bet. When they reach Harlem, the guys visit the basketball court where they used to practice back in the day. Drew has brought gifts for everyone on the team that he thinks will help them. For Light, he has a pair of glasses that makes him see clearly.
For Boots, he has kept his favorite pair of Converse. Using those shoes, Boots is finally able to stand up for Preacher. He gets across the necklace. And lastly, he hands their first kid’s tournament trophy to Big Fella. The guy, however, crushes the trophy with his feet.
Still do not forgive Drew for what he did years ago. Meanwhile, DAX goes to Jess’s house, where he sees that she has moved on from him and is dating his rival, Mookie. Now he returns to the game, determined to make them regret it. In the first game of the tournament, they play great for the first few minutes, but because of the unresolved conflict between Big Fella and Uncle Drew, they lose the match. After the game, the two go to Bigfella’s wife, Jennifer’s grave, and finally talk about their problems.
It turns out that back in the day, Drew slept with Jennifer, knowing that BigFella loved her. He never apologized for it, so the matter has been bothering Big Fella ever since. Drew admits that he fell in love with Jennifer, too, but the night was a mistake. He apologizes at last, and Big Fella forgives him. Following the settlement, the team wins all the games it plays.
They go to a nightclub and celebrate the win, but the youngsters laugh at them. To prove their youthfulness, they win a dance-off against them. A while later, Boots’granddaughter Maya is about to kiss DAX, but he gets nervous and retreats. The older guys watch him back away and ask him to take a chance. Once in a while, their team wins several games and reaches the semifinals.