The Best Basketball Movies: #6 "He Got Game" (1998)

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“He Got Game” is less a basketball story than a story of strained father-son relationship. Spike Lee wrote and directed the film which co-stars Ray Allen then at the beginning of his illustrious NBA career as the son and Denzel Washington as the father. Allen plays the nation’s most recruited high school player. His father is incarcerated at Attica for the accidental killing of his wife. That pretty much explains their non-existent relationship. Lee creates a suspend belief scenario. The governor is desperate for Allen to select his alma mater and grants Washington a week’s parole to convince his son. If successful, his sentence gets reduced. Once past that implausibility, you can enjoy strong drama and great Washington performance. Football legend Jim Brown plays the parole officer and there are cameos by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller.