Pick an Actor to Coach Your Favorite NBA Team to Glory
I’ll be the first to put up my hand and say I’m not much of a basketball fan. Here in Canada we have the Toronto Raptors and not much more when it comes to the sport. At least not in the sports circles I follow. For me it’s always been hockey, baseball and at one time I was a rabid boxing fan before it priced itself out of the market and watered itself down with meaningless titles and governing bodies thus condemning itself from garnering a new generation of fans. Though I’m not much on basketball itself, I’m all for movies that use the sport as a backdrop to create a winning film.
I’d been trying to come up with an idea here to feature some classic film stars playing basketball thus creating a starting line up as the NBA gets the 2018/19 season underway. The problem is there are very few films utilizing the sport for an exciting story prior to the 70’s and even then not many. It really isn’t until the 1980’s that movie producers took a liking to the game. So with no actors to feature from the classic era I thought it best to feature some of more recent vintage who have carried the clipboard and raised hell on the sidelines as the coach keeping us riveted to the movie screen.
So here’s a dozen actors listed in alphabetical order you’ll all know who did their best to bring home a championship. Have a look and let me know the actor best suited to coach your team.
Coach Crosby. 1978’s Coach
Coach Dennehy. 2002’s A Season on the Brink
Coach Dern. 1971’s Drive, He Said
Coach Hackman. 1986’s Hoosiers
Coach Hamilton. 1960’s Tall Story
Coach Hopper. 1986’s Hoosiers
Coach Howard. TV’s The White Shadow
Coach Jackson. 2005’s Coach Carter
Coach Kaplan. 1979’s Fastbreak.
Coach Mitchum. 1982’s That Championship Season
Coach Nolte. 1994’s Blue Chips
Coach Spradlin. 1977’s One on One.
A dozen here to ponder. Some big names, some lesser ones. Got your coach picked out? I saw my choice at the theater when it came out in 1986. Loved how he even gave a shot to Coach Hopper in an attempt to help him gain back his self respect. Great film. Suspect I’m not alone but then maybe I didn’t even feature your actor of choice. Feel free to toss me a three pointer and let me know who I might have missed and may your NBA team look forward to a great year.
Now that I’ve taken care of this, I’ll put the hockey game back on and leave you with a shot of the legendary Laker who I think is my favorite basketball player of all time.
“He is actually six-five, with the afro, six-nine.”
Posts I Like
Fun post dude. I’ll throw in Coach Finstock who’s got his star player, one of my relatives, Teen Wolf.
Never seen the film Fast Break but I do have the soundtrack by David Shire. Pick it up in a charity shop many moons ago with the hope it would have some funky ass beats. It’s not that great TBH but it does feature the sweet ballad “With you I’m born again” with Billy Preston and Syreeta. Best thing and the reason I kept it, is the record cover is pimpled like a basketball.
I do hope to see it one day though as it does sound fun from the poster tag “His dream team’s got a preacher, a jailbird, a pool shark, a muscleman. And the best guy on the team is a girl.” 🙂
Too funny that Fletch dream. 6.9 with afro LOL.
I’ve yet to see Fastbreak either. Have a copy burned from a VHS though so I’ve been eyeing it up on occasion. Heel of a player that Teen Wolf but Fletch and the Afro hard to stop and as that dream proves, he isn’t above using his teeth either. Like a wolf!
LOL hehe
I’m always partial to Gene Hackman in Hoosiers but that being said a lot of these I haven’t seen! Nice post.
Yes, me too. Pretty much in any film but Hoosiers is one of his special ones. I have the Dern film here and need to give it a go. Actually directed by Jack Nicholson. Cheers’
Coach Hackman to take me to a championship, Coach Crosby to just flat-out take me.
Great picks there and good luck.