OPINION: If a movie has the best sports performance and single greatest sports play of all time, does that make it the greatest sports movie ever by default?
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I’ve been watching Above the Rim—the 1994 (potentially greatest) sports film of all time starring Tupac Shakur, Duane Martin and Leon—at a pretty frequent clip lately. Not for any particular cultural or historic reason; ever since I included the film in my “This or That” series that compares iconic movies to the soundtracks, I just keep turning it back on when I’m folding clothes or organizing my shoes. The film is a bit oxymoronic; as a movie, it’s actually not very good, especially the more and more I watch it, except it also might be the absolute greatest sports movie of all time. So much about the movie makes little to no sense in Tyler Perryian fashion (the editing alone contributes heavily; more on this later), yet Tupac is magnetic, and I’d argue that the film contains both the greatest sports performance of all time and the greatest individual sports play of all time.
I’ve written about Thomas Shepherd (Leon) being the greatest fictional basketball player of all time and hence the greatest sports performance of all time. We don’t have to get all into it, but in corduroys, a thermal shirt and without stretching, Shep puts up like 39-points on a running clock after being flagrant fouled multiple times to lead the team to victory with a game-winning steal and alley-oop to Kyle Watson (Martin) who upon multiple rewatches actually looks like a pretty terrible basketball player throughout the entire movie—ain’t no way a person who dribbles THAT high was making it to John Thompson’s Georgetown in the mid-’90s. I’ve seen countless sports movies; Shep leading the team from being down almost around 40 with a running clock, no real referee situation and playing in his Kohl’s work gear is easily the greatest sports-movie performance of all time. There needs to be a March Madness-style bracket for this but I feel pretty strong about this. That’s why I wrote about it in the first place.
What I also made mention of but have yet to really give its full due is the absolutely INSANE sports play that occurs IN the same game where Shep goes full pantheon-level fictional basketball player. Well, it is time to right that wrong. Today, we are giving flowers to an individual whose athletic abilities literally defy the laws of physics. I do not know his name, but I know his number. This one goes out to No. 52 on the Birdmen, the team run and “coached” by Birdie (Shakur).
At roughly the 1 and 21-minute marker (it happens about a few seconds before that time), Kyle Watson is just to the right of the top of the key and tries to throw a pass into the lane. Nameless Wonder No. 52 intercepts the pass with tremendous grace with his left hand, tosses a football pass…
…to himself on the other end of the basketball court and then proceeds to hit a 360-degree dunk because he’s just disrespectful like that.
I don’t think you heard me. He intercepted a pass in the lane and threw it to himself the LENGTH of the court for a 360-degree jam. Physically, this should be impossible. An NBA basketball court is .
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