Not only winning is the motive for the team, Carter creates the dream of attending college a reality for each and every member of the basketball team. .
As it was a reality for him, Carter implements the appeal of ethos to protect his stance against the board's actions of ending Carter's cancellation of all activities. Ethos consist of convincing the audience by the speaker's credibility or trustworthiness. He says "I played basketball at Richmond 30 years ago" to show that he experienced what his basketball players faced as he had teammates "ended up in prison, some of them ended up dead (Coach Carter). He states that "It was the same thing then" as the school system and the way of thinking of basketball players has not changed at all (Coach Carter). He creates an argument "If you vote to end the lockout, you don't have to terminate me: I'll quit" creating the idea of if you get rid of me, then nothing will happen (Coach Carter). As Carter has been through the educational system and the being on the basketball team, he knows that basketball is the only way to unify the basketball team to achieve greatness in school work and he is "the only way I know how to do that" (Coach Carter). Rosenblatt, the author of the article, "Reflections: Why We Play The Game", mentions that in the realm of basketball that the American Dream can be achieved by the principle of "that the impossible is possible" (Rosenblatt). Carter shows a similar understanding to Rosenblatt where Carter changes the team's perception of attending college and made it to a reality even though the players thought that attending college is an unattainable feat.
Passionate in making change for his basketball team, Carter's body language shows the emotional side of his claim against the public's verdict of ending the decision. While giving the speech, his facial expressions of frustration and aggravation shows the importance of his resolution and makes him appear to look like he knows what he is trying to accomplish for the basketball players.