Where's the D? It's right here!

Love & Basketball (2000)

Rated: PG-13

Runtime: 124 minutes

Stars: Omar Epps, Sanaa Lathan, Dennis Haysbert

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Plot: Quincy “Q” McCall (Omar Epps) is a star basketball player at Crenshaw High School, wants to play college hoops at USC, and pushes girls down when they are beating him in basketball. Monica Wright (Sanna Lathan) is a also a star player at Crenshaw High School, also wants to play college hoops at USC, idolizes Magic Johnson, has a temper, and prefers Twinkies over flowers. Zeke McCall (Dennis Haysbert) is Q’s father and a former NBA star, who now spends his nights “scouting” for the Clippers. Monica moves next door to Quincy when they are both 11 years old, and they form a friendship that has a lot of ups and downs.

Rating—out of 5 basketballs: 3 basketballs. 1 for the story, 1 for the Double Dribble reference, and 1 for the shout-out from Omar Epps.

Tournament seed: 5–9—movie is favored to win its first game in the tournament and has a good chance to win a second game. But depending on the team it is matched up against, could be an early upset. Be sure to do your research before choosing.

Pretty good movie about basketball, even though it doesn’t have a lot of basketball action in it. Omar Epps has decent skills, but the women just shoot layups. The movie has a great idea of dividing itself into four quarters like a NBA game, which makes it easier to show the two stars grow together: first as kids, second as seniors in high school, third as freshman in college, and fourth as young adults. The movie travels through the early ‘80s into the mid ‘90s, so we are treated to classic rap/r&b hits by Bobby Brown, Digital Underground, Kool Moe Dee, New Edition, and Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock … and we get to see college kids playing the greatest basketball game ever: Nintendo’s Double Dribble. Quincy and Monica are pretty convincing in their love/hate relationship. It starts with Quincy giving Monica a scar on her face during a game of 2-on-2, moves on to some fooling around on the lawn after they both find out/announce their intentions to attend USC, travels from the lawn into Monica’s bedroom where Monica is “pleasantly surprised” when Quincy takes off his pants, elevates into a game of strip 1-on-1 in college, takes a step back when Monica puts her success in basketball ahead of being there for Quincy when he finds out his father cheated on his mom, which then causes Quincy to want to drop out of school and enter the NBA draft and see other girls. The movie then fast forwards 5 years to Quincy playing a limited role for the Lakers and Monica starting for a team in Spain. They are drawn back to each other after Quincy blows out his knee and Monica loses her love for the game and moves back in with her parents. Quincy is engaged to Tyra Banks … I mean Kyra (played by Tyra Banks … seriously … that was the best they could come up with for her … Kyra … ugh), but Monica still has feelings for him and wants him back. She tells Quincy she fell out of love for the game of basketball because he wasn’t in her life anymore, and challenges him to a game of 1-on-1 … for his heart. With the game tied 4-4, Monica misses a layup, and Quincy dunks for the win. Monica starts to walk away, but Quincy says “double or nothing” and they get all smoochie. The movie then cuts to 1 year later and Monica is now playing for the L.A. Sparks and she and Quincy are married and have a daughter.

What’s cool about this movie is I learned some stuff along the way: being someone’s girl means you play ball together, ride bikes to school together, get flowers when the boy is trying to be nice, and you kiss in the bushes for five seconds. Also: the last time the Clippers won, Dr. J was a nurse; “U-G-L-Y” and “Yo Mama” are classic cheers that never get old; Nike makes dresses; offense sells tickets; defense wins games; some things should never fuckin’ happen; and if basketball is all you care about, you shouldn’t be bonin’ your boyfriend …  you should bone Dick Vitale.

Oh, I forgot to mention; Omar Epps gave me a shout-out when his character was talking to Monica; she was all mopey after a practice and he says:

Quincy: “So, you’re gonna act Salty all night?”