13-year-old Calvin Cambridge and his two best friends, Murph and Reg Stevens, live in an
orphanage in
Los Angeles. At night, they all have to sell chocolate for the troublesome orphanage director, Stan Bittleman, at the
STAPLES Center, after each home game of the
NBA team, the Los Angeles Knights (a parody of the
Los Angeles Clippers). Calvin meets the team's coach, who is impressed by Calvin's knowledge of basketball and honesty about the chocolates, and offers Calvin tickets for the next game. Inside a
thrift store donation box, Calvin finds a pair of old sneakers with the initials "MJ" written on them; once worn by
Michael Jordan. A jealous bully named Ox steals the sneakers and throws them onto an overhead power line. When Calvin tries to retrieve them that night during a rainstorm, he is shocked by a lightning bolt. The next day, Calvin and his friends attend the game between the Knights and the
Minnesota Timberwolves. During a halftime contest, Calvin's ticket number is called and he goes one-on-one with the Knights' star player, Tracy Reynolds. He ends the contest with a
slam dunk after bouncing the ball off the backboard. After a long moment of stunned silence, Calvin receives a standing ovation from his friends and the crowd, gets signed to a one-day contract by the Knights, and prepares for his first game with them, but discovers that he is not there to play. When the Knights play the
San Antonio Spurs they start losing badly and Coach Wagner decides to let Calvin play in the fourth quarter. Calvin leads a comeback against the Spurs and they win, leading to Calvin getting a season contract. Calvin brings teamwork to the Knights and makes them one of the best teams in the league. Because Calvin is still a minor, Coach Wagner appoints Tracy to be his roommate and mentor, much to Tracy's displeasure. Late one night, Tracy falls asleep behind the wheel after mistakenly taking sleeping medication, so Calvin is forced to drive the car back to the hotel to keep Tracy from being suspended for violating curfew. While Calvin gets benched for the incident as punishment for "joyriding", Tracy starts warming up to him and the two begin to form a bond. Bittleman eventually signs a contract with the Knights stating that all of Calvin's money will go to him until Calvin
comes of age, or is adopted. When the second option is about to become true, a desperate Bittleman steals Calvin's sneakers and bets $100,000 on the
Toronto Raptors to beat the Knights. After the kids convince Ox and his cohorts that Bittleman is selfish, Ox takes the shoes out of Bittleman's safe. The kids head to the arena with Calvin's sneakers. Bittleman escapes and sends goons after Calvin in a failed attempt to retrieve the shoes. After the third quarter ends with
Vince Carter and the Raptors routing the Knights, 80–59, Calvin makes it back to the arena with the shoes. Calvin nearly gets benched for arriving late, but Tracy and the rest of the team convince Coach Wagner to let Calvin play, and the Knights start to make a comeback. After a pile-on towards the end of the game, Calvin's shoes are ruined with the Knights trailing the Raptors, 103–102. Without the shoes, and wanting to go back to being a normal kid again, Calvin tells the team that, regardless of whether or not the Knights make the playoffs, this will be his last game. In the final play, Calvin manages to
pump fake to get Carter to jump and pass the ball to Tracy. Tracy makes the game-winning shot at the final buzzer, and the Knights defeat the Raptors, 104–103, clinching the Knights' first playoff appearance. After going back to the orphanage, Calvin and Murph are adopted by Tracy, and Reg by a different family, though they stay in touch. Bittleman, not having the money to pay the bet he made, goes missing (likely to avoid getting killed by the loan sharks for failing to pay, or to avoid imprisonment for his treatment towards Calvin and the other orphans), and the orphanage is now sponsored by the Knights. == Cast ==