OT - basketball movies

[Mark Padgett]

With summer coming up soon, I thought it might be fun to share our thoughts about our favorite basketball movies. Mine is "Tall Story". Made in 1960, it stars Anthony Perkins and (yum yum) a young Jane Fonda. Perkins plays a star college basketball player. The Russian national team is coming to play an exhibition and some gamblers approach him about throwing the game. Fonda plays a co-ed who came to college looking for a husband. She chooses Perkins. Once he realizes he also wants to marry her, he has to decide whether or not to take the money and throw the game. The star Russian player is played by Gary Lockwood, of all people.

BTW - there's a scene in which Perkins is being shown a trailer he's thinking of buying for himself and Fonda, and the guy showing it is demonstrating how both he and his wife can fit in the small shower stall. He says, "Sometimes we even turn on the water."

The only thing missing from the movie is Tim Donaghy.

[MD Longhorn]

The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh.

Loved the TV show, "The White Shadow" while it lasted.

[grunewar]

Movies = Space Jam. C'mon MJ and cartoons?! What could be better?

TV = Globetrotters and Robots episode on Gilligan's Island!

Bwahahahaha!

Seriously, truth be told, I still like Hoosiers.

[Nevadaref]

When I was a kid I enjoyed Amazing Grace and Chuck. It has the benefit of actually featuring a really good basketball player.

[Judtech]

Wow, great off topic thread.
The Good
Hoosiers is the best if only b/c I have a personal tie in and grew up in Indiana!!!
FastBreak with Gabe Kaplan is a forgotten classic. Plus it had Bernard King!
Amazing Grace and Chuck interesting, but couldn't get passed Alex English in a Celtic Uniform
One On One - Chicks dug Bobby Benson. Guys thought "I can take this guy" And watching him hopped up on speed was hilarious. And who can forget the classic "All the way with a red hot poker!"
Hoop Dreams - My Alma Mater gets a cameo appearance!
White Men Can't Jump - Well, b/c we cant!
The Air Up There - Cheezy, but I liked it. Sort of a precursor for the wave of international players
Forget Paris - My mother in law reads everysign on the road much like Crystal's father inlaw
Finding Forrester - Sean Connery hoops fan? Gotta love it
Semi Pro - Loved the nut huggers
He Got Game - Denzel, Milla Jovovich, Jim Brown, Travis Best, Rick Foxx. What a cast
Playing For Knight - Who didn;lt love watching Arvin get laid out every week by Coach nite

The Bad
Space Jam - Cartoons? Really? Sort of playing into the NBA stereotype dont u think?
Eddie - LIke we already don't think Whoopi thinks she knows it all!
Like Mike - Not as bad as Like Mike 2 - Street Ball
Air Bud - And its follow up movies. (and I am a DOG lover!)
Celtic Pride

Plus there are a ton of good documentaries out there. But I will now get off my Movie Review Box

[bainsey]

That's easy. Coach Carter.

As for Air Bud, don't tell me you didn't consider the proper free throw administration to a golden retriever.

[Nevadaref]

The Absent-Minded Professor !!!

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Judtech

Semi Pro - Loved the nut huggers

Don't forget Semi-Tough was probably the best football movie ever - along with Knute Rockne All-American.

[dsqrddgd909]

Originally Posted by Judtech

Hoop Dreams - My Alma Mater gets a cameo appearance!

Alma Mater? Marquette?

[Mark Padgett]

One movie I bet you guys have never seen (I have it on DVD) is "The Basketball Fix". Made in 1951, it stars John Ireland and a young Marshall Thompson.

The synopsis reads - "A college basketball star collaborates with organized crime and becomes involved in 'point shaving'. A sportswriter tries to get him back on the right track." Thompson is the player who gets asked to point shave and Ireland plays the sportswriter.

Tim Donaghy plays the bookie. HAHA - just kidding.

As always, the basketball scenes from that era look really strange in the context of today's game. Plus - it's in black and white.

[amusedofficial]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

One movie I bet you guys have never seen (I have it on DVD) is "The Basketball Fix". Made in 1951, it stars John Ireland and a young Marshall Thompson..

Seen it! I think it was in the cheapo DVD bin at Wal-Mart. It is tremendous, the Reefer Madness of sports films

http://www.imdb.com/rg/action-box-ti...1008/tt0043320

Has several elements essential to good basketball films

--Gangsters with wide-brimmed hats who hang out in bars where even the rummies wear suits

--Someone in the first three names in the credits works for a newspaper

--Someone in the last three names in the credits is a naive, trusting, really annoying younger brother

--two-hand set shots aimed at plywood-box backboards

--the lane is narrower than the free throw circle

--the girl's life runs a full circle from being more important than gamblers, to being less important than gamblers to being more important than gamblers

--arrests are made during a crucial tournament game. In this film, I believe the officials used the proper IAABO mechanic to indicate player disqualified due to being hauled off to the pokey (violation signal, then hands upright, eight fingers in front of face to simulate jail cell)

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by amusedofficial

--the lane is narrower than the free throw circle

And that's why it was called the "key". There was a 6-foot wide lane and a 12-foot circle. It looked like the key-hole on an old door.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

And that's why it was called the "key". There was a 6-foot wide lane and a 12-foot circle. It looked like the key-hole on an old door.

A skeleton key was used in those old doors. *sits back and waits for comments*