Basketball is played by a team of individuals. The five members of the team on the court must come together to beat their rivals, working as a single unit to achieve results. However, the difference between the team and the individual components becomes a key theme in The Final Four. McBride embodies the individual. He puts himself first in everything he does, including placing his hand above all the others in the pre-game ritual and staying alone on the court at the end of the second overtime. He cannot trust others because he feels the world has let him down, whether in life or in the game. His individualism is born from a desperate desire to save the ones he loves from a life of poverty. He embraces this responsibility and believes that he alone can solve the issue. McBride embodies the idea of the individual, but even he cannot succeed without the rest of his team.

The idea of the team is represented by Bacic. He may be the star player for the Trojans, but everything he does is in service of the group. He places the importance of the team above everything. This means that Bacic behaves very differently from McBride.