History Film / AirBud

** Subtly played in the first film: Whenever the newspaper arrives, Buddy always wakes up early, retrieves the newspaper, and attempts to bury it. The audience knows the reason behind this is because he fears them because his old owner often beat him with it, but the family thought it was simply mischief. It wasn't until the owner fought for the dog that he ended up revealing why.

* BigGood: Coach Chaney has shades of this in the first film, as [[spoiler:putting Buddy into the final game]] and [[spoiler:having Buddy choose who to stay with]] are both his ideas. [[spoiler: He also puts a basketball tryout invitation in Josh's locker against Coach Barker's wishes]].

* {{Jerkass}}: Snively, a sleezy, abusive clown who is implied to be abusive towards Buddy and showed no qualms of even running over Josh with his truck when chasing after him and Buddy in the first film. And to a slightly lesser extent, Coach Barker.

** The first film is more of an UnbuiltTrope. Bud's ability to shoot baskets is not a random thing, but the result of intense training from his previous owner. Bud's first appearance on the field is as a last-minute replacement because the team needs a fifth player to not have to forfeit, and would rather take their chances with four players and a dog. When Bud helps them win the game, he doesn't join the team but becomes a mascot, and, while he is allowed to shoot hoops, he only does so as part of the half-time show.

Twelve-year-old Josh Framm (Kevin Zegers) has to deal with moving to a new town while mourning the [[DisappearedDad death of his father]]. He meets Buddy, a golden retriever who has managed to escape his abusive owner, an alcoholic clown named Norman Snively (Creator/MichaelJeter). The pair become friends and eventually, Josh's mother allows the dog to stay. In the process, Josh discovers that Buddy can play basketball, and the pair end up joining the basketball team, with Buddy as the team's mascot. During a televised game, Snively sees Buddy's talent on the court and manages to get him back from the Framms. Josh, however, manages to rescue the dog, and the pair of them get back to the school, just in time for Buddy to win the game, by means of the AnimalAthleteLoophole.

** After the Timberwolves lose their first game of the season, Coach Barker centers his frustration over it on player Tom Stewart due to his having dropped the ball so many times during the game. He then makes Tom run through catching drills, but rather than take things slow to properly teach Tom, he instead violently pelts the boy with basketballs in his frustration, which not only deprives Tom of being able to catch them, but also hurts him in the process. Fortunately, Buddy, with his enhanced dog senses and own abuse experiences, hears or senses what's going on and leads Josh, Mrs. Framm, and Principal Ms. Pepper to the scene. Barker is immediately stopped and then fired (off-screen).