|
 Aside
from a love for hoops, it would seem that Lucas (Chad Michael Murray,
Dawson's Creek, Gilmore Girls) and Nathan (James Lafferty, Emeril)
are two young men with little in common, but they are bound by the dark secret
that they share the same father.
Arrogant and assured, Nathan is the star of the high school basketball team and
hails from a wealthy family. Quiet and driven, Lucas is the only child of a
single working mom. He is also a legendary playground basketball player. After
growing up on opposite sides of the tracks in the same small town of Tree Hill,
North Carolina, the two boys' lives suddenly collide when a twist of fate puts
Lucas on Nathan's high school basketball team and the half-brothers compete, not
only for control of the court, but also for the heart of Nathan's beautiful
girlfriend Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton, MTV's TRL).
Lucas' transition into Nathan's world creates an instant love triangle. Peyton
is an intensely private and sensitive girl. She is a gifted artist, but for now,
she keeps her art hidden from the world. Although she is Nathan's girlfriend,
she quickly feels a connection to Lucas. Peyton lost her mother at a young age
and, like Lucas, she knows the pain of growing up without a parent. She and
Lucas both see the world from an outsider's point of view.
Nathan is painfully aware of the rapport between Peyton and Lucas, and it
doesn't take him long to notice that Lucas' best friend, Haley (Bethany Joy
Lenz, Guiding Light) is an unusual and intriguing girl. Because of her close
friendship with Lucas,
 Haley
finds herself suddenly forced to deal with this strange new world of wealth and
privilege.
Peyton's feisty best friend, Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush, Van Wilder), is a
wealthy girl who quickly sets her sights on Lucas. Both Peyton and Brooke are on
the cheer squad, which binds them together, but their personalities are worlds
apart. However, Brooke's sudden interest in Lucas adds to Peyton's confusion
over her growing feelings for him.
While the teenagers struggle to find their places in the world, the adults in
Tree Hill are dealing with the residue of decisions they made years ago.
Nathan's father Dan (Paul Johansson, John Q) and Lucas' mother Karen (Moira
Kelly, The West Wing) were high school sweethearts. When Karen became pregnant
during their senior year, she was devastated by Dan's decision to put his own
life and
 career
first. He went off to college on a basketball scholarship, leaving Karen behind
to raise their son Lucas alone. When Dan's dream of a basketball career didn't
work out, he returned to town with the wife he met in college and his new son,
Nathan. Now a wealthy businessman and one of the biggest fish in the small pond
of Tree Hill, Dan lives his basketball dreams through Nathan.
Dan's actions have had a ripple effect on many people in the town. While Karen
struggled to raise Lucas without a father, she remained friends with Dan's older
brother Keith (Craig Sheffer, A River Runs Through It). Keith is Lucas'
biological uncle and has served as his surrogate father over the years. His
connection to Lucas is complicated by his attraction to Karen, and he is haunted
by the possibility that he and Karen might have ended up together - and the hope
that they still could. Karen's entire adult life has been focused on her son,
but now that
 he's
taking his first steps into a new world, she knows she can't protect him
anymore.
Lucas and Nathan's new rivalry on and off the court has even brought back old
emotions for the grizzled basketball coach, Whitey Durham (Barry Corbin,
Northern Exposure). Whitey coached Nathan's father, Dan, when he was the
school's star player, and now he is coaching both of Dan's sons. He knows he is
partly responsible for Dan's decision to not give up his scholarship when Karen
became pregnant,
 and
he has to juggle conflicting responsibilities and loyalties toward the two boys.
Years in the making, a deep and bitter conflict slowly unfolds as the two boys
struggle to come to terms with who they really are and a father who has chosen
to live vicariously through one son, while ignoring the existence of the other. |