The score to the opening sequence in the classic basketball film He Got Game sounds more symphony than street.
But that’s just another way director Spike Lee reels you in, combining the brilliance of composer Aaron Copland with montages of young ballers practicing and pursuing their hoop dreams.
Fifteen years ago today, He Got Game set a blueprint for how basketball films should be made. This wasn’t based on a true story of any historical significance or an underdog team’s ‘season on the brink.’ This was about one player’s view from the top — navigating the pressures from all angles to please others while simultaneously confronting his strained relationship with his father.
The player was Ray Allen. The father was Denzel Washington.
It was quite an on-screen combination. Allen had never acted before and Denzel was…Denzel.
Spike Lee’s gamble on Allen
“A bigger risk would have been to cast an actor to play the best high school player in the nation,” Lee said last month on ESPN’s First Take. “[You] see these basketball movies…somebody shoots. What’s the next shot? The ball going through the hoop. I hate that.”
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Allen’s character “Jesus Shuttlesworth” remains a staple in film and basketball lore.
“I think my role was important because it helped a lot of kids to see what they may have to deal with in not only basketball, but in life as well,” Allen said via a team spokesperson. “To this day, I still get called Jesus at least once a day.” (Probably by his Heat teammates.)
He was just 22 years old at the time, but Allen pulled off the high school phenom role especially well.
Sure, Allen was an NBA player ‘playing’ an incredible basketball player. But Allen spent most of the film off the court, in scenes with his father, “Jake,” sister, girlfriend, teammates, agents, coaches and recruiters. Originally, Allen was Lee’s third choice behind Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury. (The film is partly based on Marbury’s rise to the NBA out of Brooklyn.)
But Allen actually auditioned. He earned it.
“You needed a guy who had a certain innocence, a guy with a certain baby face,” recalls Roger Guenveur Smith, who played shady street agent ‘Big Time’ in the film. “You needed somebody who would be able to show up on the set every day prepared to work. You don’t just come in and do your scenes in two days and walk off the set. It was quite a commitment on Allen’s part to come in on the offseason and devote that kind of focus to make it work.”
Smith’s scene with Allen midway through the film is undoubtedly one of the movie’s highlights. ‘Big Time’ schools Jesus on the pitfalls and perils other hoop stars have faced while trying to make it out of Brooklyn and to the pros. (Drugs, girls, gangs.)
“Before we even went in the car, we ran the scene many times and we improvised quite frequently,” Smith said. “[Allen] was able to flow with that.”
Smith, who is currently performing a one-man show based on the life of Rodney King at Los Angeles’ Bootleg Theater, credits director Spike Lee and Hollywood acting coach Susan Batson for preparing Allen to “shine.”
Allen agrees.
“[Batson] helped me understand what I was trying to accomplish and inform me when I looked good, if it read well and also told me when I did poorly,” Allen said. “She kept me in line. Spike and Denzel were the ones who told me to just be myself and to stay focused like I do in basketball.”
Not ‘Oscar-worthy,’ but impressive
Film critic and columnist Richard Roeper called Ray Allen’s acting debut “probably the best performance by an athlete in the last 25 years in a mainstream movie.”
Allen recently revealed to Fox Sports he’s interested in more acting gigs after his NBA days are done:
“It’s just something that’s going to keep me busy and something that can challenge you and keep you focused on a daily basis […].”
“I haven’t been able to find the time. That took my whole summer (of 1997 after his Milwaukee Bucks had failed to make the playoffs). Now, I’ve been playing in the playoffs. Mostly, you go into June and that time is so limited.”
Last year, He Got Game landed top billing in Dime Magazine’s countdown of the top basketball movies of all time.
“Honestly, no other hoop flick deserves this spot,” wrote the hoop magazine’s senior editor senior Sean Sweeney. “It perfectly mixes the temptations and accolades of what it means to be the best player in the country.”
The film’s final scene, where Allen plays Denzel one-on-one, is a captivating end to a film as much about father and son struggles as basketball highlights.
Allen was in his comfort zone. Finally, a clear on-screen advantage over Washington.
“What you looking around for?” Jesus asks after pummeling his father to a convincing victory. “That’s game, 11-5…Jake.”
It’s no surprise Allen got the best of Washington in the end — but holding his own in a feature film with no experience?
That’s game.
Follow theGrio’s Todd Johnson on Twitter @rantoddj