$30K bail for ‘Hoop Dreams’ star charged with aggravated battery

Arthur Agee, one of the two subjects of the critically acclaimed documentary “Hoop Dreams,” was ordered held on $30,000 bail Saturday after he was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm.

Agee, 45, was arrested for allegedly punching a woman in west suburban Forest Park on Nov. 19, according to the Chicago Tribune. She suffered three fractured ribs.

Court records show that Judge Michael R. Clancy ordered Agee held on $30,000 bail. He was also placed on electronic monitoring. The Tribune reported he was also ordered not to have contact with the woman and surrender his firearm owner’s identification card and any guns he owned.

He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday in Maywood, records show.

“Hoop Dreams,” directed by Steve James and released in 1994, followed Agee and fellow high school basketball player William Gates for six years as they pursued their goal to play in the NBA.

Despite the film being snubbed at the 1994 Academy Awards, the late Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert wrote of the documentary: “A film like ‘Hoop Dreams’ is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and make us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself.”