Oller: Feel-good 'Hoosiers' tops list of five best basketball movies
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 against each other in this impacting father-son film.
3. “White Men Can’t Jump”
Part comedy, part competitive blacktop ball, this 1992 classic (not to be confused with the weaker 2023 remake) tells the story of Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson), a white basketball hustler who banks on black players doubting his ability. After surprising another victim, Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), the two men team up to con their way across playground courts in Los Angeles. In side stories, Hoyle has to avoid the mobsters to whom he owes money, all while trying to keep his fast-talking wife (Rosie Perez) happy as she obsesses over watching “Jeopardy!”
2. “Hoop Dreams”
Shot over five years, this award-winning 1994 documentary chronicles the lives of Black teens William Gates and Arthur Agee as they pursue their dreams of making it to the NBA. The two high school players travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to a predominately white suburban school that is famous for its outstanding basketball program. The teens run up against social and physical obstacles as they cling to support from their families.
Gates is more highly touted, but feels the pressure of playing in the shadow of his talented older brother. Agee struggles on the court and in school, but eventually gets his act together and helps lead his team to the state tournament. At the end of the film, Gates signs with Marquette and Agee attends a small college in Missouri.
1. Hoosiers
Hollywood feel-good movie-making at its finest, this 1986 classic features Gene Hackman as Norman Dale, who brings a checkered past to his role as head coach at Hickory High. Based on the true story of Milan High School, which won the 1954 Indiana state championship, Hoosiers puts all the cliches to use, including overbearing parents and introverted teen Jimmy Chitwood, who must be talked into rejoining the team. But even then, and despite knowing how things will end, it all works to perfection. Hackman is excellent, as always, and Dennis Hopper nearly steals the show as the town drunk whose son plays on the team. There also is a romance between Dale and Myra Fleener (Barbara Hershey) that adds texture, but the real star is high school basketball, which is to Indiana what high school football is to Ohio.
The basketball scenes stop just short of being overly saccharine, and the final 15 minutes will leave you reaching for a tissue. There is no better line in any sports movie than Dale telling his players “I love you guys.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 5 best basketball movies of all-time include 'Hoosiers,' 'Hoop Dreams'
