Woody Harrelson had high praise for costar Madison Tevlin after working with her on the film. He was quoted as saying: "She's not a great basketball player, but she is a movie star."
Just as the credits start rolling, Woody Harrelson is playing the piano and singing a song which he composed. (The song is named Phoenix.)
Before this, John Larroquette did this basic story in his NBC movie One Special Victory (1991), where his insensitive character was sentenced by a judge to coach a basketball team of disabled people and is then transformed during the process. That film was inspired by the true story in the 1990 book "B-Ball: The Team That Never Lost a Game" by Ron Jones (who was that real-life coach, in San Francisco).
The players of the basketball team are disabled actors. This is Ernie Hudson's second movie about basketball after Ritorno dal nulla (1995).