The Greatest Basketball Movies Of All Time
#1 White Men Can't Jump
White Men Can't Jump is a film that takes everything you thought you knew about basketball, and turns it upside down.
Written and directed by Ron Shelton (Bull Durham), the film stars Woody Harrelson as Billy Hoyle, a white con artist who hustles basketball games with black players. In one of his first scams, he dupes Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), an African-American player, into thinking that white men can't play basketball.
It's about a white man who hustles basketball games with black players, lulling them into the misguided notion that white men can't match up with black hoopsters. One of his victims in particular—African-American Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) becomes Hoyle's agent, arranging his various inner city scams.
Deane doesn't feel as though he's selling out his own people; he goes along with Hoyle because he feels it will provide a better life for his wife, Rhonda (Tyra Ferrell), and son.
The film's title was derived from a common stereotype that white men cannot jump very high or well, especially in basketball. However, this belief is not backed up by any science or statistics.
#2 Coach Carter
In Richmond, California, Ken Carter accepts the job of coaching the high school basketball team at his alma mater, only to discover that he's got a lot of work ahead of him. The players are undisciplined, unmotivated, and prone to fighting—and their parents aren't exactly thrilled with their coach's new rules.
Carter makes it clear that he expects total respect from his players—even when they're cursing at each other during practice. He also makes sure that they attend every class and get good grades. As a result, their performance on the court improves dramatically, and they make it all the way to the playoffs!
But when Carter realizes that many of his players are still failing classes, he decides to close down the gym for two weeks so that everyone can focus on studying instead of playing basketball. The community is furious—especially when Carter refuses to let anyone else coach in his place during those two weeks—but he doesn't care what people think: This is what needs to happen if these kids are going to succeed in life!
#3 He Got Game
When his dad Jake is released from prison, Jesus Shuttlesworth isn't exactly jumping for joy. He's the man who killed his mother and forced him to take care of his little sister, and now he has to convince his son to accept an offer from the governor: join the university's basketball team. It's a delicate mission, especially since Jesus is the hottest player in the country, being courted by all sorts of agents and organizations with millions of dollars at stake…
The film "He Got Game" is a compelling story about a father and son, played by Denzel Washington and Ray Allen. The father, Jake Shuttlesworth, is a man serving a life sentence for the accidental murder of his wife during a domestic dispute. The dispute centered around Jake's aggressive coaching of his young son Jesus who he is obsessed with turning into a basketball star. As the film opens we learn that Jesus has indeed become a high school basketball star and is being now aggressively pursued by University teams and commercial agents. In a somewhat fanciful, yet unfortunately believable plot device the Governor promises Jake early release from prison if he can convince his son to go to Big State.A lot of viewers say that his film is amazingly well executed.
