"Ballin'" is the 8th episode of the 2nd season of The Boondocks, and the 23rd episode overall. It originally aired on December 3, 2007.
Riley has been literally dreaming of becoming an NBA superstar, so he signs up to join a youth basketball team with Tom as their coach. However, Riley's combination of arrogance and inexperience causes significant problems when he tries to play.
Tropes
- Break the Cutie: Riley defeats Cindy McPhearson through some very personal taunting; he claims that Cindy's father wants to divorce her mother after she was caught giving a blowjob to another man in the country club bathroom, and they were planning to wait until after her birthday to tell her. This breaks her down to tears.
- Call-Back: The sports announcer in Riley's dream kicks off the episode asking "What's good? What's really good?", referencing Stinkmeaner (as Tom)'s famous "WUZ GOOD, NYUKKA?! WHAT'S REALLY GOOD?!" line from "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back".
- Cluster F-Bomb: When his team loses once again at the end and, most of all, sees the opposing team get the "miracle moment" he longed for, Tom angrily yells "shit" multiple times. Sarah blocks Jazmine's ears when this happens.
- Crippling Overspecialization: In his first game, Riley shows off his dribbling skills, but that's all he could do. He stood dribbling in place like an idiot for four minutes straight like he had absolutely no idea what to do next while the crowds angrily shout at him to do something other than dribbling. While Riley can dribble, he absolutely sucks at everything else.Announcer: Riley sure can dribble, but he shoots like shit and nothing! Absolute pure air, folks!
- Dream Intro: It starts with Riley having a dream of being a super-successful NBA player, whose mad skills put all the other basketball stars to shame at the All-Star Game, as the hosts of Inside The NBA laud him heavily. Riley is enjoying all his fame and glory, until Robert (who's his manager for some reason) argues with Riley and then gives him another beating.
- The Dog Bites Back: Riley gets back at Cindy through taunting after the latter did the same to him in the first half.
- Downer Ending: The Ballaholics lose once again, Tom misses out on the "miracle moment" he wanted, and Billy Matthews gets all the fame and glory Riley dreamt about. And as one last "screw you" to Riley, the last shot of the episode is a poster for a movie about Billy, with Haley Joel Osment playing him and Riley depicted as an overweight klutz.
- Epic Fail: Riley's premeire at the pee-wee basketball game. He was able to dribble circles around the opposing team's players, but then stops and awkwardly dribbles in place for four minutes straight as he had no idea what to do next. When everyone shouts at him to hurry up and do something, Riley finally takes a shot at the basket, only for the ball to completely overshoot the backboard and over the fence causing everyone to laugh at him.Announcer: That was... pretty embarrassing after that buildup...
- Groin Attack: A fat white boy on Riley's team is accidentally hit with a basketball.
- Hollywood Autism: Billy Matthews, the last opponent that Riley faces in the basketball match. Billy is outright shown to be an autistic nerd, but he makes up for it with with his savant-like talent at basketball, using math calculations to shoot some perfect hoops and defeat Riley.
- It's All About Me: Riley is so much of a glory hog, he ruins his team’s actual chance of winning a game due to his need to show off. When Riley makes the last shot of the game, he cheers at his success, but then it is brought to his attention that they still lost since his team was behind by two points. He was too preoccupied with trying to make himself look cool to notice the other team had scored past him.Announcer: Riley takes the last shot of the game... up and in!Riley: YEAH! SEE? I TOLD YOU I COULD DO IT!Announcer: And Riley's happy... but for apparently... no good reason...Riley: Huh?Announcer: Yes everyone, the scoreboard tells the tale.(Riley finally looks up and sees that his team still lost 18 - 20, then cringed in embarrassment)
- Insane Troll Logic: Riley thinks that being black will automatically make him the best basketball player in the world.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Tom talks to Riley about how his college team won a basketball game by working together, but Riley soon remembers a highlight of how Tom accidentally got an opposing player's crotch on his face while blocking and mocks him for it. Riley may have missed the point about winning through teamwork, but he may not be wrong that a victory is worth celebrating if the biggest moment featured in the game is something so embarrassing.
- Meaningful Name: Cindy "Fearsome" McPhearson gets her nickname because of her basketball skills, and her ability to annoy Riley through some taunting, which throws him off his game.
- Out-of-Character Moment: This episode has few of (very obscure) moments of Huey smiling. Seeing how it's rare for him to smile, even in moment of victory, it is interesting that this takes place during something as trivial as Riley scoring during the game. As some fans counted Huey smiled of total five times in entre series and two examples come from this episode.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Pyrrhic personal victory in Riley's case. After screwing up so many shots in his attempt to show off, Riley cheers at his success of getting a shot at the buzzer. However, it didn't matter since his team still lost.
- Serious Business: The chance to live out his dreams of a Might Ducks-esque "miracle moment" causes the normally Nice Guy Tom to become much more callous and willing to use dirty tactics. This ends up foreshadowing that he's the coach of the "villain" team.
- Shout-Out: Tom mentions The Mighty Ducks when explaining to Riley why he decided to coach basketball.
- The entire episode itself may be a spoof of Like Mike, as evidenced by the opening scene depicting Riley in the NBA.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Riley arrogantly believes himself to be an expert basketball player just because he’s black and can dribble. He also demands payment for his “services”, demanding to change the team name to suit him, and ditches practice as he arrogantly believes he doesn’t need it (and out of sheer laziness). Come his first game, he proves to be an incompetent player with no concept of teamwork, can’t pass, can't block, and more importantly, can’t shoot.
- In the second game, he improves very well with shooting and passing but he ruins the team's chances of winning the game by showboating and hogging the ball while doing layups and shooting.
- Straw Misogynist: Riley, as usual.
- Where da White Women At?: Uncle Ruckus, who is acting as a referee, wants to discourage Riley from getting close to Cindy by invoking some racist rules.Uncle Ruckus: Looking at the white girl is a foul, speaking to the white girl is a technical foul, and touching the white girl? Now that's a lynching!
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Tom wants to experience a "Miracle Moment", as if his team is in a sports movie about the underdogs rising up to become champions. In the end, it does happen... for the opposing team. Riley's willingness to use cruel insults and Tom's more demeaning, stern coaching versus the more compassionate rival coach are also reminiscent of typical sports movie antagonists, reinforcing Tom's mistake of which role they're in.
