Basketball Movies

The season is looking to become shorter and shorter with this lockout looming over the heads of all NBA fans. I mean who is suffering worse? The players, the executives or us, the fans? It's getting out of hand and we need to get our minds off of the situation. So with that said, let's shift our minds to some of the basketball movies that have graced our screens and our hearts. If there is one thing, basketball movies have something that the NBA won't have and that's infinite entertainment because at least if with a basketball movie, we won't be let down nor look for it to lockout a season. Now, let's check out some movies that could keep us busy till the lockout is settled (or even afterwards). Remember, I'm basing this only on movies that I've seen already.

This movie starring Duane Martin as an over-confident player trying to make it out of high school. While awaiting for his scholarship, he has a tough choice on when a local tournament comes to town on who's team he's going to play for. His high school coach's team or a team who was lead by neighborhood thug Birdie (played by Tupac Shakur) all while getting lessons from an old high school all-star who came back to town after a jail stint (played by Leon), who also happens to be Birdie's brother.

Space Jam is more of a comical part of basketball starring Michael Jordan and the cartoonish Looney Tunes gang. The story is that a couple of basketball players have had their skills stolen from this monster who uses it to make a cartoon basketball team to go up against Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and their crew to defeat them and take over the world. Now it's up to Jordan to help out Bugs and Daffy as they take out this team that posses the skills of those that MJ normally go up against.

This movie stars Rhea Perlman as a P.E. teacher who is assigned a tough job of taking over an out-of-luck boys basketball team at Sunset Park High school. At first, the gang of misfits doesn't give her the respect she wanted, but in due time she warms up to the guys both on the courts as their coach and helps some of them out off the court as well.

Nick Nolte stars as a coach for a college team that's been losing in the worst ways. Being in desperate times, he enlist a friend of the school (who is also a school booster) to help him go out and grab the top three prospects in the country to come out and play for them. They stopped at nothing to get them, from getting them gifts like a new car, a new house among others to get them to play. But soon all of this came at a cost. The movie also stars Shaquille O'Neal and (at the time) rookie Penny Hardaway.

This is the story of a man and a woman who have known each other since they were kids. When it came to basketball, that was their passion. Especially when it came to competing against each other. But throughout the years, they've struggled their love for basketball and the love for each other and soon everything became complicated. This movie stars Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan.

Queen Latifah stars as a physical therapist who is hired to personally take care of a New Jersey Net basketball All Star (played by Common) who she had met after a Nets game in a gas station, thanks to her god sister who had suggested the idea. The relationship becomes more complicated as she falls for him, but now has to deal with the fact that her god sister is now dating the star for all the wrong reasons.

White Men Can't Jump stars the movie dynamic duo of Woody Harrelson (Billy) and Wesley Snipes (Sidney) as two basketball hustlers from Venice Beach, California who meet up on the court to try and out hustle players for their money. Things go bad when Billy's past catches up with him as he gets Sidney involved as well. They now try to collect a debt that Billy owes as fast as possible through a street tournament. The movie also stars Rosie Perez.

This Spike Lee movie stars Denzel Washington as a father, who had just gotten out of jail and heads back to Brooklyn to try and re-kindle his relationship with his son (Jesus Shuttlesworth), played by NBA All-Star Ray Allen. The only problem is that he was only released for a week so that he could convince his son to play for the governor's Alma Mater, in exchange for a reduced sentence. This movie also stars Rosario Dawson.