Best-ever basketball movies? Here’s the slam-dunk picks
Basketball and cinema go together like Travis and Taylor, teetering between storybook sweet and slightly suspicious. What we’re watching seems too good to be true. Is it real?
Can a high school team from a small Indiana town really win a state championship?
Can inner-city teens from Chicago make a better life for themselves through basketball?
Can white men jump?
Can Ray Allen act?
Can sports serve as conduit for romance?
The answer is yes to all. We’re not sure life always imitates art, but in our picks for the five best basketball movies, art definitely imitates life.
5. “Love and Basketball”
Two childhood friends who aspire to be professional basketball players fall for each other on and off the court in this 2000 winner. Quincy (Omar Epps), the son of an NBA player, has natural talent and leadership skills. Monica (Sanaa Lathan) is ultra-competitive but too often loses her cool during games. As they draw closer romantically, their divergent paths to stardom threaten to destroy the relationship.
Chads and Brads may find the romantic theme superfluous, but not every sports movie must be ruled by testosterone.
4. “He Got Game”
Basketball people knew Ray Allen could drain the 3 but the NBA sharpshooter out of the University of Connecticut
proved in this 1998 flick he can create drama without the ball. Allen is superb in this sometimes tense Spike Lee film about fame, family dynamics and finding a legal path of escape from prison.
Jake Shuttleworth (Denzel Washington) is imprisoned after accidentally killing his wife during a domestic dispute, leaving his son, five-star recruit Jesus Shuttleworth (Allen) to grow up on his own. The script borrows from “The Longest Yard” when Jake is approached by the warden (Ned Beatty) with a deal: Jake will get a week of work release to convince Jesus to attend the governor’s alma mater, “Big State,” in exchange for a shortened sentence if he succeeds.
We won’t spoil the ending, but justice and injustice go one-on-one