A week from tomorrow (2/29/08) is the release date for the Will Ferrell movie, Semi-Pro. If you don’t know about the movie yet, it is a comedy set in the 1970’s surrounding the NBA-ABA merger. Will Ferrell plays the owner/player of the ABA’s worst franchise that will be left by the wayside after the merger.
Semi-Pro got me to start thinking about basketball movies. Specifically, what are the best basketball movies out there?
It turns out that the basketball movie is by far the least represented of sports movies. Think about any sport and there is likely a great movie you can associate with it. Football has Rudy, Brian’s Song, The Longest Yard, and a few others. Hockey has Slap Shot and Miracle. Baseball has too many to name, but includes Field of Dreams, Major League, and Bull Durham. Boxing has had a few good movies, even though it barely exists as a sport anymore (the entire Rocky series, On the Waterfront, and Raging Bull). Even soccer has a few good movies (Bend it Like Beckham, Ladybugs, and Victory).
What does basketball have? The answer…
1) Hoosiers – Really the list pretty much begins and ends here. The classic tale of the underdog high school team in Indiana. You can’t talk basketball movies with out naming Hoosiers.
But outside of Hoosiers, what other basketball movies have been made?
2) White Men Can’t Jump- A movie starring Woody Harrelson (also in Semi-Pro), Wesley Snipes, and Rosie Perez. And that is your number two movie? Wow, the state of basketball movies is pretty bad.
3) Hoop Dreams - I caught this documentary on late night TV a while back. I kept waiting for Leonardo Dicaprio to show. Turns out I was confusing it with Basketball Diaries. Who knew? The documentary is regarded pretty highly by most people. It was a bit boring to me.
4) He Got Game- Milla Jovovich, Rosario Dawson, Ray Allen, and Denzel Washington? Directed by Spike Lee? It’s got to be good, right? The only problem is that it is less about basketball and more about A) college recruiting and B) Father-Son relationships. It’s worth seeing if you never have before, but it is by no means great.
5) Blue Chips- I never saw this film. I mean, a movie starring Nick Nolte and Shaq O’Neal? For what it’s worth, I’ve been told that it is a great movie.
Looking at the list right now, we have been stretching in order to fill up the top 5 spots. I’m going to try to make it all the way to 10. We’ll see how that works.
6) The Air Up There – By no means a great movie. I remember when it came out. It was right around when I started paying attention to basketball. I remember it being a little too schmaltzy… and I was 12 or 13 at the time.
7) Celtic Pride – Now, I like Daniel Stern as much as the next guy, but this movie was ridiculously bad.
8) The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend – I saw this in my teenage years. I thought it was a pretty cool topic, but it wasn’t done as well as it could have. It came off like a made-for-TV movie.
9) Like Mike (?)- Yes, the Lil Bow Wow (oops, sorry about the Lil) movie where he puts on some Jordan Sneakers and all of the sudden is the best basketball player on Earth. It co-stars that kid from Jerry Maguire. Yes, that is your number nine movie.
10) Juwanna Mann- A guy dresses up as a chick to play girl’s basketball. The problem? No one watches real life girl’s basketball (sorry WNBA fans, but it is true), so why would anyone want to see this movie?
Let’s check out some of the other basketball movies that have come out:
Glory Road – I haven’t seen it, but I’m guessing it would be in the top ten if I had.
Slam Dunk Ernest- I stopped watching the Ernest movies with the Halloween one. Everyone knows that the Halloween one was the best, none of the others matter.
Eddie- Yes, Whoopi Goldberg coaching basketball. It must be hilarious!
Love and Basketball – Get rid of the Love part and I might have actually wanted to see it.
Basketball Diaries – I never saw it, but I heard it is more about drugs than about basketball.
Finding Forrester – “You’re the man now, dog!” Not really about basketball so it didn’t qualify for my list.
BASEketball- If it qualified, I would probably have it at number one. But this movie isn’t about basketball, it is about a sport of its own (by the way, BASEketball is actually pretty fun to play when you only have 2 or 3 people).
The Sixth Man – I liked it better when it was called Angels in the Outfield… and Angels in the Outfield sucked.
Air Bud - Did anyone ever watch a single one of those Bud movies? It always seemed like something a home-schooled kid would get forced to watch by his/her parents.
High School Musical – I think there is some basketball in there. I’ve never seen it and never will see it. I don’t like musicals.
Space Jam – It had Larry Bird and Bill Murray in it. That alone should have put it in the top ten, right?
As you can see, the basketball movie category is sorely lacking. Hopefully Semi-Pro will bring something to the table.
Did I miss any movies? Should my top ten look different? Let me know in the comments.
February 21, 2008 at 10:49 am |
I left off Coach Carter. Sorry for that.
February 21, 2008 at 10:50 am |
Dammit, I also left off Rebound (the Martin Lawrence “comedy”)
February 21, 2008 at 10:53 am |
I also left off Above the Rim.
February 21, 2008 at 10:09 pm |
I really think that The Air Up There should have been higher. I still try to do the “Jimmy Dolan Shake and Bake.” “First you think I’m gonna go right, so I show you right. Then you think I’m gonna go left, so I show you left. Then you think I’m gonna go left again, so I show you left but go right.” Really though, White Men Can’t Jump is one of the best sports movies of all time. It’s definitely number one in basketball. Besides, Hoosiers sucked. It’s like the Citizen Kane of sports movies. I still quote White Men Can’t Jump in my every day life.
February 21, 2008 at 11:46 pm |
I agree with Chris about White Men Can’t Jump…
And c’mon…you never noticed I used the JD-shake n bake like ALL THE TIME in high school?
Above the Rim should be a top-ten-er.
Sunset Park was also left out…
Heaven is a Playground was kind of interesting.
Forget Paris had some funny b-ball scenes.
Teen Wolf should qualify. It would be in MY top ten atleast.
And because I will always be gay for MJ (and Elmer Fudd)…Space Jam should’ve ranked.
February 22, 2008 at 8:10 am |
Holy Shit, I think Gerald just blew your list out of the water. How did you forget Teen Wolf dude? And Forget Paris did have some funny basketball scenes. And I agree with Gerald agreeing with me.
February 22, 2008 at 8:47 am |
Psh… no one ever saw Teen Wolf.
Nah, you’re right, it is an inexcusable omission. It definitely hits the top ten in the list.
I had no idea what Forget Paris was. Then I looked it up on IMDB. Turns out I saw it when it came out on VHS. That movie was terrible. They kept hyping it up about how the dude was a ref in the NBA, then it turns out that there is only 5 minutes of basketball (this number is an estimate on my part, I just know there was hardly anything to do with b-ball in it).
I never saw Above the Rim. Mostly due to my bias against anything rap related (Above the Rim got hyped the crap out of because Two-pack was in it). I thought I listed it under my others, but I guess not.
Should I have included “Double Team” on the list? I mean, it’s got Dennis Rodman as one of the co-stars (along with Jean Claude Van Damme). Plus there is the whole story about us trying to go see it when we were 15-16 and not being able to get in. Then it turns out that we were better off for not seeing it. Classic.
February 22, 2008 at 1:24 pm |
you youngsters forgot the 1960’s movie” the absent minded professor”
February 22, 2008 at 1:32 pm |
I actually thought of Flubber, but it didn’t sound right. I was mixing up the Absent Minded Professor with the remake Flubber.
It’s good to have that cleared up.
February 23, 2008 at 3:39 pm |
yeah, I saw basketball diaries, and it was more of a drug related movie around the basket ball arena…I also vote for Teen Wolf!
March 19, 2008 at 3:41 pm |
http://movies.msn.com/movies/moviesfeature/dvd/basketball?GT1=7701&silentchk=1&
May 29, 2008 at 3:03 pm |
I still watch all of Above The Rim whenever it runs on cable. Along with Air Up There.
There’s another documentary called Soul in the Hole, but it wasn’t very good.
Double Team had negligible basketball content. There’s Cross Over that came out starring Hot Sauce of And-1 fame. Also another movie starring And-1’s The Professor was just premiered at the Tribeca Sports Film Fest, the name escapes me at the moment. Taiwanese film Kung Fu Dunk came out late last year, but it’s miserable. Absolutely awful.
October 28, 2008 at 3:40 pm |
Update: Semi-Pro wasn’t very good. I’d rank it higher than Celtic Pride, but I’d never watch it again.
October 28, 2008 at 3:42 pm |
If it counts, Bedazzled (the Brendan Fraser version) would be a top 3. It only has about 15 minutes related to B-Ball, but the movie is freakin’ funny.