Robby Denwood is an 11-year-old on a losing streak. Obsessed with basketball, he worships J.J., the NBA superstar of the mighty Thunder. Unfortunately, Robby is himself a terrible player, benched for all of his school team's games. After one hard day on the practice field, Robby decides to run away from home, toward the Thunder's arena. When a chance meeting brings him together with his hero, he finds that nothing is quite what he thought it would be.Robby's friendship with the superstar leads him to the bright lights of the pro-basketball world, but it also leads the fame-weary J.J. into Robby's world of simplicity and contemplation. Robby will never become the hoops star of his dreams, and J.J. will never be an anonymous kid again, but both come to realize that string music does not only come from the sound of a ball swishing through a net.