When basketball coach John Mosley got an offer to appear on television, his first thought was: No way. Bad idea.
It was 2019. John, 46 at the time, was head coach of the East Los Angeles College Huskies. East L.A. College educates a diverse student body in a working-class community far from the glitz of Hollywood.
Perennial losers, the Huskies had won just half their games the season before John’s 2012 arrival. Seven years later, they were conference leaders, vying for a regional championship.
The TV offer was for a hit Netflix documentary. Last Chance U spotlights scrappy college sports teams that never get to bask in the glow (or financial windfall) of NCAA glory.
“It was a cold call,” John says. Maybe another coach looking for his big break would have jumped at the chance to star in a television series watched around the world.
John had the opposite reaction. “I was scared,” he says. Over decades in an up-and-down basketball career,
