Top Basketball Movies (16 & 15)

16. Eddie (1996)
Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Langella, Dennis Farina

Edwina 'Eddie' Franklin is a Knicks fan and after she gets called down to the court to participate in the half-time show, the crowd falls in love with her. When the coach is fired, the owner turns to Eddie to turn things around in New York. Now I'm not a big Whoopie fan, and I don't even enjoy her that much in this movie, but it is the surrounding cast that gets Eddie on the list. Langella, Farina and Richard Jenkins are all great, but it is the performances by NBA stars Rick Fox, Mark Jackson, John Sally and Malik Sealy (blow a kiss to the sky in remembrance) that put it over the top.

Favorite Character: Stacy Patton
Least Favorite: Claudine
Quote: "Yo, that's my jersey!" Walt Frazier.

15. He Got Game (1998)
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Rosario Dawson

Two in a row with Rick Fox. Ray Allen plays Jesus Shuttlesworth, the best high school basketball player in the country. He Got Game tells the story of Jesus being recruited by every school in the country and the troubles he faces while trying to get off the streets. His dad gets out of jail temporarily so that he can convince Jesus to go to a certain school. Speaking of Mr. Shuttlesworth, how terrible was Denzel's jumper?

Favorite Character: Jesus Shuttlesworth
Least Favorite: Lala Bonilla

Top Basketball Movies (18 & 17)

18. Like Mike (2002)
Starring: Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, Jonathan Lipnicki

Ok this movie was so bootleg that they couldn’t even use the Clippers as the other team in LA, they had to be the Knights. But it makes it on here for a few reasons. The amount superstars is great, with Kidd, Iverson and the like all having lines. But nothing beats when Dirk comes up to Like Mike and asks for an autograph for his niece or sister or somebody. Like Mike asks Dirk what her name is and he stalls and goes…“Uhh…Dirk.” Classic. Also this movie was the origin of my brother’s name. When I was in a big nickname giving mode, with gems like Case the Base and Big Tom, Tim got the moniker T-time after I had watched Like Mike do the same to his boy Tracy Reynolds.

Favorite Character: Dirk Nowitzki
Least Favorite: Stan Bittleman
Quote: “Uhh…Dirk,” Dirk Nowitzki

17. Hoop Dreams (1994)
Starring: Arthur Agee, William Gates

The only documentary to make the list, Hoop Dreams tells the story of a couple of young kids in inner-city Chicago trying to become basketball superstars. William Gates and Arthur Agee both attend the private school that their idol, Isaiah Thomas, went to. Agee doesn’t make it past the first year and returns home to public school. Neither one ends up making it in basketball, but Agee does get a small part in the basketball movie, Passing Glory in 1999.

Favorite Dude: Arthur Agee

Survivor Tocantins- Week 9

Thoughts

I get it that Coach and Tyson are such good buddies that they don't want to get rid of each other, but why are they so intent on booting Sierra? Do they have no idea how to play Survivor? 'She's the only outcast of the group so let's get rid of her,' that's their thought process? Wow guys, at least try to bounce JT, the guy who is good at challenges and everyone likes. He will get more votes than you if you take him to the end.

On a positive note for this year's crew, they finally made a great move. Although Stephen came up with the plan, JT gets the 20 point bonus for the back-stab. He had a clear-cut pact with Coach and turned on him to oust Tyson out of the game. It was obvious that JT still had a stronger bond with Stephen and Taj from back when they were in Jalapao, so when Stevie brought up the idea to get rid of Tyson now (which is the obvious move and has been for a couple weeks) JT jumped on board and they got rid of the most entertaining dude on the show.

Week 9 Results

Slaughterhouse 1st (635)



Tyson: -16
Stephen: 37
Taj: 37
Sierra: 37
Total= 95



Freecell Makes Me Wanna 2nd (353)




Debbie: 61
Total= 61





Rangers Stars Mavericks Cowboys 3rd (347)



JT: 61
Coach: 37
Total= 98





The Renegades 4th (214)



Erinn: 41
Total= 41

Top Basketball Movies (20 & 19)

20. Coach Carter (2005)
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Rob Brown, Rick Gonzalez

In this tale of an inner city group of basketball players having a tough time with a new, stringent coach, Samuel L. plays the black Norman Dale and sets his sights high with this crew of thugs and gangsters. He locks the gym with chains after the dudes start failing in school. This obviously causes a raucous in the community, but he doesn’t give in until the kids get their grades up. Oh and yes he makes Spanish from Old School do 1,000 suicides in order to get back on the team.

Favorite Character: Worm

19. Juwanna Mann (2002)
Starring: Miguel A. Nunez Jr., Vivica A. Fox, Kevin Pollack

Ahh yes the professional basketball star that gets booted from the league because he takes all his clothes off while standing on the scorers’ table. Oh that’s not the crazy part? True, Jamaal Jeffries then puts on a wig and a woman’s body suit and becomes Juwanna Mann, the new star of the women’s professional basketball league. We have one of those? Either way, the comedy is great here, as Jamaal’s ridiculously conceited attitude shines as he destroys every women's basketball player in his way.

Favorite Character: Juwanna Mann
Least Favorite: Puff Smokey Smoke
Quote: “Can’t help it, born with it,” Juwanna Mann

Disco Idol

Get her off the stage, she's wrecking the show

Lil Rounds- (Chaka Kahn/I'm Every Woman) I don't even have anything to say anymore. If she makes it to the top five it will be embarrassing for everyone involved.

Some ups, some downs...some ups

Matt Giraud- (Bee Gees/Stayin' Alive) I think with this song all of Matt's runs and riffs got a little out of control and hurt his performance. Also his falsetto at the beginning was so weak it might have thrown the whole thing off.

Allison Iraheta- (Donna Summer/Hot Stuff) She finally made serious changes to a song, and it kinda worked for me. Slowing down this song actually made me enjoy it. Except for the part near the end when the backup singers were doing most of the joint, I thought it was good.

Danny Gokey- (Earth, Wind and Fire/September) For the second week in a row Gokes has taken one from the Rickey Smith catalog. Unlike last week's, I enjoyed this one much more than when Rickey did it. There was nothing special about this, but solid overall.

Anoop Desai- (Donna Summer/Dim All the Lights) I don't know the song so I'm going to say that Kutner either chose the perfect song or made some great changes to it. The song worked so well that I have him as my number three this week even though he had a couple vocal hiccups. He again took an old song and made it feel contemporary.

Making a serious push for the finals

Kris Allen- (Donna Summer/She Works Hard For the Money) Wow, the kid is making great moves. With only the bongos and bass behind him, his guitar playing could shine through and it added a lot to his performance. The arrangement changes to the song were fantastic. Kris is giving it his best effort to put his own twist on everything he does. And we all know you can go far in this game doing it that way.

Holding everyone off at more than an arm's length

Adam Lambert- (Yvonne Elliman/If I Can't Have You) I knew it. He is seriously going every other week from upbeat joint to slow-it-down ballad. In a week of disco that I thought maybe he'd have to stray from that, he completely reworked this song. I loved that he made a point before he went on stage to say that he was gonna connect with the song. The judges and audience both love that, and Ms. Lambert can act like he is connecting even if he isn't because as we know he has been on Broadway. Oh and as always his vocals were the best of the night.