Norm Snively, an alcoholic and bumbling clown, and his Golden Retriever are doing a show at a child's birthday party. After the dog causes havoc at the party, Snively angrily takes him to a dog pound, until the kennel falls out of his truck, rendering the Golden Retriever homeless. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Josh Framm has relocated with his mother Jackie and two-year-old sister Andrea from Virginia to Fernfield, Washington. Due to heartbreak over the death of his father, a pilot who died in a plane crash during a test flight due to fuel shortage, he is too shy to try out for his middle school's basketball team or to make any friends. He instead becomes the basketball team's manager, an awkward offer by Coach Joe Barker which he accepts. He practices basketball by himself in a makeshift court that he sets up in an abandoned allotment, where he meets the dog and names him Buddy. Josh soon discovers that Buddy has the uncanny ability to play basketball, and decides to let Buddy come home with him.