This movie is based on the diaries of Jim Carroll while he was a teenager. Jim had completed "The Basketball Diaries" by the age of seventeen, and by the age of twenty-two he had published three renowned volumes of poetry, and later recorded four albums. But that is getting past the topic of the movie. In the beginning of the movie Jim (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is a star basketball player in a private high school with a basketball team which was almost unbeatable. His best friend was once the best player on the team, but by this time is in the hospital dying of leukemia. The three remaining good friends with whom he hangs out include two other players from the team, and Pedro, who apparently helps the coach (a manager or something). Pedro also slips away during the games and go through the opposing team's locks stealing their valuables. The boys are also experimenting with drugs, and during the course of the movie Jim gets hooked on heroin, gets kicked out of school, kicked out of his home, and finally winds up in jail. The other three boys follow similar courses of actions with their lives. Jim, however, does manage to pull his live together and by the end of the movie has started the life which leads to his later becoming a famous poet, musician, novelist and performer.
 I did not really consider this to be that great of a movie, and probably would not have watched it except for the fact that it is based on a true story. This movie does contain one very controversial scene which is similar to the shooting at Columnbine High a few years after the release of this movie. In the movie it is a dream sequence.

There are a couple of nude scenes in this movie. At one point the four main boys "moon" a passing riverboat, and later one of the boys is hanging from a basketball hoop with his shorts pulled low enough for his buttock to be seen.