Development Changes: In the first version of the Pilot script, Haley's character was named Reagan and was played by Samantha Sheldon instead of Bethany Joy Lenz. When the series was picked up, the name of the character was changed and the role was recast.

Sophia Bush (Brooke Davis) does not appear in this episode.

This episode didn't feature the normal opening credits.

This series was originally supposed to air mid-season, but the WB show "Fearless" had production difficulties, so One Tree Hill took its place.

Dan: Nathan. Remember, 20 shots - no less.
Nathan: Got it, Dad.
Whitey: Quit yakking and warm up.

Dan: Letting the dreams of this team just vanish. You're full of crap!
Whitey: It comes with old age Danny. Constipation.

Lucas: Did you change your hair?
Karen: If by change you mean drag a brush through it, then yeah.

Nathan: (to Lucas) What do I want? What do you want, man? I mean, other than my girlfriend and my spot in the lineup, huh? None of us want you on the team, man. I don't want you. The guys don't want you. My girlfriend sure as hell doesn’t want you ... but here's the deal. You and me, one on one. You can name the time and place. If you win, I'll quit the team. If I win, you crawl back in your little hole and you remember your place in all this. Time and place, baby. Time and place.

Keith: Why wouldn’t you play?
Lucas: I do play. Every night.
Keith: It’s not the same, Luke.
Lucas: Why? What makes it less of a game if people don’t see it?
Keith: I'll tell you why. When I was a kid, my father took me to Raleigh to see David Thompson play. I was 9 years old. I couldn't have cared less about basketball. But when Thompson stepped on the court, he was so young, so quick, and just so graceful that I was mesmerized. I couldn't take my eyes off him until late in the game, and I look up at my dad, and he's got tears in his eyes. 14,000 strangers and my father's crying because he's so beautiful. He played with such poetry that he made us feel like we were a part of it. You have a gift, Luke, and it's a crime not to let people see it, to hide it in the park. It's a damn shame. That's why.

Lucas: Can I ask you a question?
Peyton: It's a free country.
Lucas: Why are you a cheerleader? No offense or anything, but you're about the least cheery person I know.

Lucas: (to Peyton, about basketball) Guys kept teasing me about it, about how Nathan’s dad was my dad, too. So I asked my mom, and she said he wasn't. But I'd get home, and I hear her crying in her room. I knew it was true. So I never went back. I told my mom it was because I didn't want to have to see his face. But, it was mostly because I didn't want her to have to.

Dan: Yeah, and this bet tonight, is that a joke too? Or would you really quit the team? Because let’s be honest, you have everything to lose here and nothing to gain.
Nathan: Well, sometimes what you call everything, I call nothing.

(to Nathan after an obvious foul)
Lucas: No foul, basket counts, besides you won't score again.

Peyton: So, what did you bet?
Lucas: I win, Nathan stays on the team.
Peyton: Why?
Lucas: Because it's the last thing he wants. And anyway, it's not about him.

(to Dan after losing to Lucas)
Nathan: Don't worry, Dad. Your dreams are still safe.

Lucas: (voiceover) There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune but omitted, and the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat and we must take the current when it serves or lose the ventures before us.

Series Title: One Tree Hill

The series title is a reference to the U2 song "One Tree Hill". The song in itself is a reference to One Tree Hill, an area of Auckland, New Zealand.

Haley: It's not some type of Joey loves Dawson scenario.

In the WB series Dawson's Creek, Joey Porter (played by Katie Holmes) is best friends with Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek).

Lucas: (to Peyton) "It's me inside your head". (pause) You know, the song ...

The line that Lucas is quoting is from the NOFX song "Lenoleum" off of their Punk album that Peyton had a sticker of on her notebook.

The script written for this episode was originally intended to the script for a full-length movie. Creator and writer Mark Schwann was approached by producers to transform his movie script, which was originally entitled Ravens into a television series. After writing this pilot episode, production of a series, now entitled One Tree Hill was greenlighted.