Top 10 basketball movies

Hoosiers can not be at the top of the list anymore. It has not aged well at all. The basketball scenes are so amateurish it's atrocious. In fact, Hoosiers strikes me as a perfect candidate for a remake. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the movie and the plot was very good. But for a movie often cited as the quintessential basketball movie, the hoops scenes HAVE to be better to hold that crown.

Hoop Dreams is the best basketball movie ever.
Coach Carter was vastly better than Hoosiers.
Hoosiers could probably settle in at the three spot, but that's more of an indictment of hoops flicks as a genre than it is praise of Hoosiers.
White Men Can't Jump
Finding Forrester
He Got Game
Above the Rim

(Haven't seen Glory Road or The Basketball Diaries, but I imagine they'd be on this list somewhere).

 

"Glory Road" took some small liberties with the story, but otherwise looked to be a good representation of the Texas Western story.

Pern, I hear on "Hoosiers," but even in the late '80s the early '50s style was a throwback and outdated. At least they got some old high-school style gyms and uniforms and the state championship in Hinkle Fieldhouse. The story and scenery have held up well, and that more than compensates for the shortcomings.

 

They do make up for the shortcomings to make it an enjoyable movie, but not enough to make it the best hoops flick ever. As I said, I liked it (even though I didn't see it until about my senior year of high school). I just think to be the best bball movie ever, the bball should ... you know ... look good.

 

But how do you make '50s basketball look good, especially to a broad enough audience to make money on the production? I get what you're saying, Pern - not trying to start something here - but what would your solution be?

It's bad enough that we're dealing with a generation that thinks that slam dunks and being a hot dog - i.e., the mountains of crap shown on SportsCenter - constitutes good basketball now.

 

That is why I love the scene in Coach Carter when Samuel L. Jackson celebrates tying his shoe and then goes, "What is wrong with you guys?"

 

You might be right ... but do we know?

I know '50s high school basketball was before my time. Perhaps the play was decidedly ground-bound and stiffer than in more recent times.

Hey, I know a March Madness semifinalist who could help us here!

 

The special edition DVD box set includes the original game film of the actual Milan vs. Muncie Central championship game.

The basketball scenes are pretty accurate. The game looked very little like what we know today.

 

That's kinda what I was thinking. The two-handed set shot looks amateurish to us today.

 

10. The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
9. Air Bud
8. Space Jam
7. One-on-One
6. Fast Break
5. Heaven is a Playground
4. Slam Dunk Ernest
3. Juwanna Mann
1B. Celtic Pride
1A. Eddie

 

Nice list. Though I think Slam Dunk Ernest got ripped.

 

I'm still curious why people keep Hoosiers off of their lists.