Love & Basketball (2000) is a Hollywood film, a love story starring Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan. It was written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (I will do a post on her). Lathan and Epps grow up next door to each other in the 1980s in Crenshaw, a black part of Los Angeles. They both love basketball – and, even when they do not want to admit it, each other. Basketball brings them together – and tears them apart.
This was the film that made Sanaa Lathan’s name and got Boris Kodjoe noticed (he takes her to the spring dance). Tyra Banks got a bit part but was already world-famous as a supermodel.
Gabrielle Union is in it too, then also pretty much unknown. She tried out for the lead but lost out to Lathan. Instead she got a part as one of Epps’s girlfriends. Union was to make her name that same year by starring in “Bring it On”, a cheerleader film.
Supporting characters: Debbi Morgan and Dennis Haysbert play Epps’s parents, Alfre Woodard plays Lathan’s mother.Ā In addition to the love story and the basetketball, the film shows Lathan’s relationship with her mother and Epps’s with his father. Debbi Morgan was great as a woman past her prime in a failing marriage.
The best scene except for the end was at the the spring dance: Lathan is dancing with Kodjoe and Epps is dancing with Union and they are playing Zapp and Roger’s “I Want to Be Your Man” (1987). Not only do I love that song but Lathan looked absolutely beautiful in that scene.
It is one of those movies I kept hearing about but never saw – till the other day. At the time it came out I had no reason to see it: I did not know Lathan then and my wife is no fan of Epps (too short?). I like Alfre Woodard but she is no big Hollywood star so I never know if she is in something until I am already watching it: “Hey, look, Alfre Woodard!”
It was a sweet story – though, truth be told, I would have probably watched it if it was just two hours of Sanaa Lathan breathing or waiting for a bus. If Halle Berry is bread, Sanaa Lathan is cake. With icing.
Lathan had played basketball only twice in her life before she got the part. They had to shoot the basketball scenes so you could not tell – partly by shooting the action from her point of view.
All the basketball players wear Nike shoes: because Nike had enough shoes from the 1980s for a period film. Prince-Bythewood, the director, tried to stay as in period as possible – though right in the opening scene set in 1981 she plays a song from 1983 (“Candy Girl” by New Edition). In the director’s commentary I found out that she knew that – she was just about the same age as the main characters in 1981 – but thought the song was too good to pass up.
– Abagond, 2010.
Family portrait from the film. Click to enlarge. From top to bottom: Harry Lennix, Sanaa Lathan, Regina Hall, Alfre Woodard.
See also:
- Love & Basketball at IMDb.com
- actors:
- soundtrack:
- By the same director:
Abagond 
Nice post. I’ve seen this movie but it was YEARS ago! I remember enjoying it though. What I would love to see is Cat on A Hot Tin Roof!
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i can’t believe you’re now just seeing love and bball! its awesome, its the sweetest movie and a very POSITIVE portrayal of an honest, giving relationship between two people who genuinely love eachother and care for eachother and also happen to be black. its just adorable, one of my favorites. i like movies where people who knew eachother from childhood get married, to me those tend to be the most honest, forgiving and cute relationships. i love it.
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annaleisha have you checked utube for Cat on a Hot tin roof?? its older so it might be allowed on there.
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Saw this years ago, Omar and Sanaa had such amazing chemistry!! Weren’t they a couple when the movie wrapped?
I loved the last scene when she plays her heart out for her man :sigh:
Sanaa is in London at the Novello Theatre, Can on a Hot Tin Roof with James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad, there are posters all over our tube underground. She looks effortlessly beautiful as always š
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof seems to be a hit with the Brits, arguably up there with Mamma Mia and Calendar Girls.
Gina Prince-Blythewood is a great director, one of the few black female directors I know of. She worked again with Sanaa in Disappearing Acts as Wesley Snipes long suffering lover. Another powerful drama with a premise refreshingly devoid of racial matters.
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didn’t bring it on come out that year? cause i think that is how i was introduced to gabrielle union, i don’t know which movie came first.
i remember hearing about that movie when it came, i wanted to see it then, but i never did get around to see it…i have had the chance but i lost interest in the movie. although i did watch sanaa in something new a year back which i also wanted to see.
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my bad, i didn’t read the entire post.
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You made this movie sound interesting. Please, tell me the truth: is it actually just another of those shallow “romantic” movies? Or does it have a substance?
truth be told, I would have probably watched it if it was just two hours of Sanaa Lathan breathing or waiting for a bus.
Nothing wrong in being honest about these things! š
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Abagond, you better hide the movie with Epps in prison , from your wife. There is a frontal naked scene with Epps coming out of the shower…this isnt black penis envy to tell you that he is pretty well hung….
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What… Did somebody say “frontal naked scene”??? Oh, where, what movie?
(Did I actually say this out loud? Even worse- I typed it for everyone to see. :D)
No, people, seriously. Objectifying men is a bad thing to do.
(Once again: what movie?)
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Nice post.
A nice romantic African American film (how many of those are out there?).
Have it at home so that I can watch from time to time.
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Sorry, Mira , haha, I cant remember the title
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B.R., that’s too funny! It may have been that football movie with ll cool j and jamie fox. That had frontal.
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haha, Islandgirl, it wasnt that one, but, you have to admit, Cameron Dias shaking hands with that linebacker in the locker room is classic!!
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Didn’t they date in real life after this?
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Update: Added a family portrait at the end of the post.
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