Fuck the Lakers (2001)
The NBA season may be over, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop watching basketball. Here are some “slam dunks” and “finger rolls” (and even some “bricks”) you can “take to the hole” of your VCR.
Hoop Dreams (1994)–Originally made for Minnesota public television,
this amazing documentary follows the high school careers of Arthur Agee and
William Gates–two aspiring young basketball players from Chicago. You always
hear about kids believing their skills on the court are their only means of
salvation from the ghetto, but seeing it firsthand is infinitely more meaningful.
View this film in installments, because it’s so intense (and kind of long).
White Men Can’t Jump (1992)–Woody Harrelson is a street baller who
hustles black men under the erroneous impression that he ain’t got game. But
they’re wack, ’cause this honky’s got mad game. He befriends Wesley Snipes and,
while dominating the blacktop world, they learn some poignant lessons about
race.
Hoosiers (1986)–Gene Hackman hollers, “When it comes to this team,
my word is the LAW!!” I love that. In this based-on-a-true story, he plays an
ex-college coach who was mysteriously fired. After a ten-year stint in the Navy,
he comes to tiny, bucolic Hickory, Indiana, and takes their cute little team
all the way to the state finals. Please note Dennis Hopper as the drunken dad,
“Shooter.”
Love and Basketball (2000)–Sanaa Lathan aspires to be the first woman
in the NBA. She kicks ass on the basketball court, but in the court of romance
she is a total wuss! Go figure! The movie is billed as “a love story in four
quarters,” but I say watch the first three then turn off the VCR, because the
end is really stupid.
The Basketball Diaries (1995)–Attention ex-junkie artists: can’t you
see the inherent irony in trying to make a living selling work that is always
based on the story of how horrible it was to be a junkie? That’s what this movie
is, and here’s a secret–it totally stinks and Leo isn’t even hot.