13 Basketball Movies To Get You Pumped For The NBA Playoffs!

The NBA Playoffs are heating up.  The play-in games are happening and it’s starting to get super exciting! Our Philadelphia 76ers had their best season since the 2001 season where Allen Iverson and company reached the NBA Finals.  That team ended up losing to the super stacked Los Angeles Lakers team that consisted of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Oh yeah, Phil Jackson was also the head coach of that squad. That team ended up winning 3 straight championships. Let’s get away from the bad news.

That 2001 Sixers team was led by Allen Iverson who won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award.  This year, Joel Embiid is most likely going to win the Most Valuable Player Award. See the similarities? That’s really where it ends.

Our 76ers open the first round of the playoffs against our rival Brooklyn Nets.  The Brooklyn Nets were stacked with talent at one point but all of the stars requested to leave.  Last year, superstar point guard was traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Sixers for every Sixers fan’s favorite player Ben Simmonds(can you sense the sarcasm?) This year, Kevin Durant asked for a trade and he ended up with the Phoenix Suns.  Star guard and overall weirdo Kyrie Irving asked for a trade and was dealt to the Dallas Mavericks.  The Sixers should absolutely dominate this series and probably will sweep the Brooklyn Nets.

Everyone is kind of looking past the Brooklyn Nets and focusing on a second round series with bitter-rival Boston Celtics. The 76ers finished in 3rd behind the Milwaukee Bucks and those darn Boston Celtics.  If you are a Sixers fan, you can’t stand the Boston Celtics and that green shamrock logo.

To get everyone pumped up for the NBA Playoffs, I wantedto put together a list of some of the best basketball movies to ever exist.

Here is a list of 13 Basketball Movies To Get You Pumped For The NBA Playoffs…

• Hoosiers

  This is one of the greatest sports movies of all-time let alone the best basketball movie.  It’s a pure underdog story and Gene Hackman was amazing as Coach Normal Dale.

• Space Jam

  This is the original Space Jam movie with Michael Jordan.  I didn’t even watch the new one with LeBron James. Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Billy Murray and the Tune Squad take on the Monstars!

   

• Blue Chips

  Nick Nolte plays a college coach who does some illegal stuff to get some of the best players in the nation on his team.  It’s a classic movie that stars Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway.

   

• Semi-Pro

  Will Ferrell on a basketball court means comedy.  That is what this film is… Pure comedy!

• White Men Can’t Jump

  This is my favorite basketball movie ever.  Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson = GOLD!

• Coach Carter

  This movie is more than just a basketball movie.  This is an inspiring movie and Samuel L. Jackson crushes is role as Coach Ken Carter.

• Hustle

  I just recently saw this movie and it’s top-notch.  Adam Sandler stars as an NBA Scout for the 76ers and finds a prospect in Spain and teaches him the ways of the NBA game.

• He Got Game

  Denzel.  That is all you really need to know.  Basketball star Ray Allen shines as Jesus Shuttleworth, the biggest and best high school player in the nation and Denzel plays his incarcerated father.  He is incarcerated for accidentally killing his wife in front of his kids. The story has so many twists and turns and it’s amazingly done. A Spike Lee Joint!

• Hoop Dreams

  One of the best documentary’s I have ever seen.  2 young teenagers have dreams of playing the in the NBA but they come from rough times and must navgate basketball and life.

• Above The Rim

  Another favorite of mine.  Tupac was such a good bad guy that I actually couldn’t stand him in this movie.  All-around great flick!

• Rebound

  Martin Lawrence plays a star coach who loses everything and is forced to coach a middle school team full of scrubs.  This is a good movie for kids and it has some really funny moments.

• The Air Up There

  This is a really cool movie. Kevin Bacon plays an assistant coach who sees a tape of a 6-10 boy who is a basketball phenom.  He heads over to Africa to recruit the boy and ends up adapting to the culture.

• Love & Basketball

  A great love story that centers around 2 neighbors who grow up together and end up falling in love with basketball and eachother.

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