It’s time to hit the courts.
Martin Lawrence is the latest Hollywood star to enter the basketball arena. In Rebound, he stars as a volatile college basketball coach who gets a little too big for his britches and is nearly banned from the sport forever. Given one more chance to redeem himself, he ends up coaching a pathetic junior high school team, whipping them–and himself–into shape.
Yet, after taking the kiddies to see Rebound, basketball aficionados may still yearn for the thrill of the full court press. So, they can head to the video store and rent these 10 excellent basketball movies.
10. Love & Basketball
The Fast Break: In this battle of the sexes on the basketball court, Quincy (Omar Epps) doesn’t know what to make of Monica (Sanaa Lathan), a girl who can outplay any of the guys. Best friends all throughout their school years, the pressure for each to be recruited by college basketball coaches brings them closer together. Their love blooms beyond friendship, as well as their desire to fulfill their hoop dreams.
The Swish Factor: The film appeals not only to the basketball lover but the romantic as well. The love story keeps the women interested while the court action keeps the men swishin’ for more basketball moments.
9. Finding Forrester
The Fast Break: An inspiring tale of a basketball player from South Bronx, Jamal, (Rob Brown) who also happens to be an excellent writer. Through a chance encounter, Jamal has a meeting of the minds with William Forrester (Sean Connery), a reclusive writer who attempts to change Jamal’s life by helping him realize his potential.
The Swish Factor: OK, technically not a true-blue basketball movie, Forrester still lovingly details the game through the eyes of a talented player, who happens to also have a wicked talent for writing. It tells the story of two people, separated by cultural and generational gaps, who try to help each other overcome personal obstacles by listening to their hearts.
8. Above The Rim
The Fast Break: Tupac Shakur and Duane Martin star in this urban drama, set around street basketball. It focuses on a 17-year-old high school star who is caught between the temptations of a local gangster and a former player, who is pulling him in the other direction.
The Swish Factor: This little seen indie gem has one thing going for it: the late rapper-turned-actor Tupac Shakur. Oddly enough, it also featured some up and comers at the time, including Bernie Mac and Marlon Wayans, who both give outstanding performances.
7. He Got Game
The Fast Break: Spike Lee directs this heartfelt story of Jake Shuttlesworth, (Denzel Washington), a man who is in prison for manslaughter. His estranged son, Jesus (Ray Allen), is a star basketball player at his high school and has the opportunity to reduce his father’s sentence if he signs a letter stating he will attend a prestigious university and play ball for them. But the decision to help his father is not going to be an easy one.
The Swish Factor: Game makes poetry out of basketball. As in many of Lee‘s movies, he makes you feel for the characters and view things differently from what you are used to.
6. Space Jam
The Fast Break: The Looney Toons are in trouble again! When alien slave traders want to take the Toons’ away to a life of servitude, Bugs Bunny calls on Michael Jordan to help them play a basketball game to win their freedom back.
The Swish Factor: Come on, it’s Bugs Bunny and one of the greatest basketball players of all time! How can you go wrong with that? Bill Murray, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and others also lend their talents to this slam-dunk, fun-filled film.
5. The Basketball Diaries
The Fast Break: This intense autobiographical account of poet and rock musician Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio), highlights his delinquent high school years, in which he excels at playing basketball for a boy’s club team, while also hustling to support his growing heroin addiction.
The Swish Factor: Diaries revolves around the game but isn’t necessarily about the game. Basketball is used as a backdrop to the personal stories of the character–and is one of DiCaprio‘s better performances, before he became a white-hot teen idol in films such as Romeo + Juliet and Titanic.
4. Coach Carter
The Fast Break: Based on a true story, the film focuses on Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson), a high school basketball coach who gained national attention by benching his undefeated team for poor grades. After accepting the job of helming his alma mater’s high school basketball team, he is taken aback by the team’s laissez-fare attitudes about their school work. So, he puts into motion certain steps to ensure the team does well both on and off the courts.
The Swish Factor: So many such stories go unnoticed and untold, so it is nice for one such as this to get its day on the court, especially with a leading man at the forefront to give it credibility.
3. White Men Can’t Jump
The Fast Break: Sidney (Wesley Snipes) and Billy (Woody Harrelson) are two of the more successful basketball hustlers in Los Angeles, or so they think. The only thing holding them back from greatness, however, is each other.
The Swish Factor: Jump takes the sport to the tough streets of L.A., but it’s the competitiveness between Snipes and Harrelson that makes the film hilariously delightful.
2. Hoop Dreams
The Fast Break: This top-notch documentary chronicles of the lives and high-school careers of two inner-city youths, William Gates and Arthur Agee, who both harbor legitimate hopes of playing professional basketball. The filmmakers followed them for nearly five years, from the summer after they leave elementary school, through high school, and up to their entry into college in the fall of 1991.
The Swish Factor: Hoop Dreams is for anyone who has ever had a dream to play college basketball–and possibly go further than that.
1. Hoosiers
The Fast Break: Based on the true story of a small-town Indiana team that made the state finals in 1954, this movie chronicles the attempts of a coach (Gene Hackman) with a spotty past, along with the town’s basketball-loving drunk (Dennis Hopper), to lead their high school team to a championship.
The Swish Factor: This is THE quintessential basketball movie, for anyone with a deep love for the sport–or for anyone hailing from Indiana.
