High-energy, hilarious, heartfelt: San Jose Stage Company’s ‘The Great Leap’ flies high

By Joy Diamond | THE DAILY CALIFORNIAN

“I will win you games. I will score you points. I will shoot from half court, full court. I will shoot over whatever, whenever, whoever is getting in my way.”

So begins hotheaded 17-year-old Manford Lum’s (James Aaron Oh) fiery pitch to Saul Slezac (Tim Kniffin), the disgruntled, dismissive coach of the University of San Francisco basketball team, in Lauren Yee’s play “The Great Leap.” Saul had visited Peking University 18 years prior and helped the school establish its own basketball team. Now, in the year 1989, he’s received an invitation to bring his team to Beijing for a “friendship game” — and Manford, the self-described “most feared player in Chinatown,” wants in.