- You may also be looking for the team Hoop Squad.
"Hoop Squad" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Static Shock. It depicts the appearance of a giant robot created by Nanites in Los Angeles. To stop the nanites Static and Gear join up with the Hoop Squad: a team of basketball players, Tracy McGrady, Karl Malone, Yao Ming and Steve Nash outfitted in power suits used to fight crime.
Plot[]
Virgil and Richie are in Los Angeles excitedly riding in a limo heading for an all-star game where they'll have VIP seats. All of this is thanks to Virgil's Father raising money for a charity. As they drive through the city, a T. rex statue atop a building catches their eye. However, just as they pass it, its "skin" dissolves away leaving only its metal "skeleton". This is only the beginning. Rubber masks start to dissolve, as do the wheels on a bus.
Finally making it to the All-Star Stadium, Virgil and Richie stare at a group of basketball stars, Tracy McGrady, Karl Malone, Yao Ming and Steve Nash practicing. They are greeted and given a free basketball. However, before the team can autograph the ball, it dissolves away. Other rubber objects start to dissolve as well. Before Richie and Virgil can think about it, the team disappears, and they decide that it's time that they get to work.
In costume, the duo examines the city and sees that cars everywhere have lost their tires. Back-Pack picks up the signal of nanites and pinpoints their source. Together Static and Gear head off to stop the disaster.
Meanwhile, a freight train carrying several compressors drives along the tracks and but is stopped by a giant robot. The robot snatches up a compressor and Gear and Static arrive. Gear confirms that the robot is composed entirely out of nanites, and it attacks them. They give it their best shots but only succeed in momentarily damaging it. The damage is quickly repaired, and it begins to use its malleable body to fight all the more effectively. Just then, a group of men in mechanical suits fly over. Static heads out to confront them but they pass him claiming that they're on his side. Static is skeptical but the robot hurls a compressor at the new threat and static is forced to catch it before it hits a group of civilians.
While Static deals with the compressor the team goes to deal with the robot. One of them expands his arms and lifts up a train car, which he hurls at the robot. The robot punches the car away, but another man spins fast enough to destroy it. Yet another member of the team stretches his limbs to tie up the robot while another fires missiles at it but it still manages to fight them off and grabs another compressor. Static and Gear try to stop it, but Gear is captured, and Static is downed. The robot then escapes in a silver tornado taking Gear with it. The group checks up on Static and introduce themselves as Karl Malone a.k.a. Pulverizer, Steve Nash a.k.a. Point Man, Yao Ming a.k.a. Center Force, and Tracy McGrady a.k.a. Spin Drive: the Hoop Squad.
The Hoop Squad takes Static to its headquarters and explains that their game training was perfect for the usage of the bio-enhancer suits. They introduce him to doctor Mason Andrews the designer of the suits and the main contact between the Hoop Squad and the NBA (National Biotech Authority). He explains that Static's powers should help them to beat Doctor Odium: a nanotech expert that used to work for the NBA but felt they were holding him back and when his proposal for experimenting on humans was rejected, he was fired, and turned to crime. Dr. Mason shows the team a video in which Dr. Odium demands one hundred million dollars in two hours or he'll release his nanites into ground where they'll create an earthquake and destroy the west coast.
Out in his laboratory, Dr. Odium brags to Gear about his accomplishments and says he sees a lot of himself in him, but he doesn't like himself. Unfortunately, Gear drops his shock box and Dr. Odium decides he'll use it to lure Static and the Hoop Squad to a trap. Static and the Hoop Squad get a fake message from Richie and follow the trail into a sewer tunnel that is filled with nanites. Static decides that he'll destroy the nanites, but he's told there's too many. Fortunately, Spin Drive and Center Force dig their way out of the tunnel. While they are tunneling the nanites approach the group and nearly catch them but are swept away when the escape tunnel reaches water. After escaping, the Hoop Squad learns that Odium's nanites are in an abandoned oil field that was too near to earthquake fault system. Static realizes that the reason the robot stole the compressor was to pump the nanites into the fault. With this plan, he could create his earthquake.
Out in the oil field Odium starts pumping the nanites into the ground but the Hoop Squad and Static arrive. As soon as he sees them, Odium surrounds himself with nanites and transforms into another giant robot. He explains that he implanted his personality into the nanites and will now destroy the Hoop Squad. However, the squad starts pummeling him with their various capabilities while Static reverses the polarity of compressor causing the nanites to flow back into it. Desperate to complete his plan Odium runs to the compressor but Point Man destroys the compressor and the robot along with it. As soon as the robot is destroyed, Gear contacts the team and tells them that he's escaped and has the real Dr. Odium.
With their adventures done, the Hoop Squad plays in a basketball game now in their civilian identities while Virgil and Richie shout out to them in their superhero names. Mr. Hawkins, however, insists that "these are ball players, not superheroes".
Background information[]
Home video releases[]
Production notes[]
Karl Malone and Andrea Romano at the episode's recording session.
- The guest stars were suggested by Kids WB. According to Dwayne McDuffie, nobody wanted to do the episode, but the crew obliged simply because "the studio was always so nice to the show that when they asked us to do it, we sort of took one for the team."[1]
- Following the episode's recording session, Karl Malone took pictures for a half hour for the PR people, then stayed after and signed about a hundred autographs for fans.[1][2]
Production inconsistencies[]
- Throughout the episode, Dr. Andrews' robot assistant is referred to as "La Gata", yet she is called "El Gata" in the credits. Gata is a Spanish word meaning "female cat" or "jack" (and in some dialects, "beautiful woman"). In all its senses, the word is feminine, and thus "La Gata".
Trivia[]
Static Shock "Hoop Squad" promotional piece.
- As with other guest appearance episodes of Static Shock, this episode received its own promotional poster design.
- The members of the Hoop Squad know Static and Gear's secret identities, but whether this is because Static told them or if the government already knew is unknown.
- In spite of the fact that all four members of Hoop Squad are real-life people, only Karl Malone voiced his own character in the episode.
- Dwayne McDuffie has called this episode "a train wreck. Actually, more like a head on collision of two trains full of stink bombs."[1]
Cast[]
Quotes[]
Gear: Hey, hands off the merchandise you nanite kleptomani - (captured by the robot) ack! |
Static: Where's Gear? |
Static: He's sure mastered the shake, rattle, and roll. |
Spin Drive: Guys you all know our newest member: water boy. |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Series Creator Dwayne McDuffie Interview conducted by Jim Harvey.
- ↑ Dwayne McDuffie on the ToonZone forums (Sept. 30, 2004)