Hoops on Screen: Top 10 Basketball Movies
From He Got Game to Space Jam, these flicks are all-stars.
1 / 10
Love & Basketball (2000) - With a new NBA season tipping off on Tuesday, we've got basketball on the brain. To get our heads in the game, we put together a list of our top 10 movies about that baller life. We kick it off with Love & Basketball, Gina Prince-Bythewood's drama about neighbors-turned-competitors-turned-lovers, starring Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps. Life adorably imitated art earlier this year when real-life NBA star Kevin Durant proposed to his girlfriend, WNBA player Monica Wright, who even shares the exact name as Lathan's character in the film! (Photo: New Line Productions, Inc.)
Photo By Photo: New Line Productions
2 / 10
Hoop Dreams (1994) - Steve James' epic, Oscar-nominated documentary is as raw as they come. He follows two promising young ballers pursue their dreams of NBA careers over the course of five years, from high school to college. James' cameras witness much triumph, heartbreak and tragedy on the way. (Photo: New Line Cinema)
3 / 10
Blue Chips (1994) - The Exorcist director William Friedkin brought his dark sensibilities to this sports drama about a college basketball coach (Nick Nolte) who uses illegal means to take his team to the championships. But the film will always be remembered as the acting debut of hoops star Shaquille O'Neal. (Photo: Paramount Pictures)
Photo By Photo: Paramount Pictures
4 / 10
Hoosiers (1986) - This drama, based on a true story about a high school basketball coach with a troubled past and an alcoholic teen, who pair up to win their school's first state championship, earned two Oscar nominations and was a highlight of co-star Dennis Hopper's already illustrious career. (Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc)
5 / 10
Coach Carter (2005) - In a rare expletive-free role, Samuel L. Jackson plays a high school football coach who leads his team to undefeated status, but falls out of favor when his rigorous academic demands get in the way of reaching the championships. The film also stars Channing Tatum as one of Coach Carter's star players and Octavia Spencer as a team mom. (Photo: Paramount Pictures)
ADVERTISEMENT
6 / 10
Space Jam (1996) - This innovative family film, a blend of animation and live-action, stars Michael Jordan as the basketball savior of the Looney Tunes, who must play a game of high-stakes ball against a group of alien enslavers in order to gain their freedom. The kooky film is not to be confused with another one of Jordan's basketball-meets-Hollywood projects: the music video for Michael Jackson's hit "Jam," in which the two MJs square off on the court. (Photo: Warner Bros.)
7 / 10
Above the Rim (1994) - Tupac Shakur, Duane Martin and Leon Robinson star in this drama about a promising young basketball player's relationship with his two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former baller whose dreams never panned out. Benny Medina wrote the story for this powerful film, which also stars Marlon Wayans and Bernie Mac. (Photo: New Line Cinema)
8 / 10
Just Wright (2010) - The most romantic basketball film since Love & Baskeball, Just Wright stars Queen Latifah as a physical therapist who falls for her client, a pro baller (played by Common) who suffers a career-stopping injury. The film also boasts a stellar supporting cast, including Paula Patton, Phylicia Rashad and Laz Alonso. (Photo: David Lee/ Fox Searchlight Pictures)
9 / 10
White Men Can't Jump (1992) - Racial tensions come to a head on the basketball court in this seminal film starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as competing street ballers who join forces to hustle unsuspecting amateurs. The modestly-budgeted film was a huge success at the box office, grossing nearly $75 million. (Photo: Twentieth Century FOX Films)