Real talk: I’ve been meaning to write about this movie for YEARS, and with my Stream It spot landing close to the 24th (!!) anniversary of its release, as well as this year’s electric NCAA women’s basketball tournament, it seems THE TIME IS NOW. So let’s step into the FYA laboratory — or, rather, onto the FYA court — for a Highly Scientific Analysis of a modern classic: Love & Basketball.
But first, a drinking game! (This is not the longest one that I’ve created, but honestly, the first rule could be the game on its own.)
The Official FYA Love & Basketball Drinking Game
Take a drink whenever:
- Someone scores a basket
- Monica or Quincy longingly look at the other person
- Monica acts ‘unladylike’
- Quincy’s romancing someone who isn’t Monica
- Magic Johnson or the number 32 is referenced or appears
Take a shot whenever:
- A new quarter starts
- An actor you recognize appears
- Make it a double if you can’t remember their name
- Monica has a new hairstyle
- The camera lingers on Monica’s scar
Chug for the duration of:
- Lena doing Monica’s hair
- Monica and Quincy rolling around on grass
Cast & Basketball
THIS!!! CAST!!!!!!! I’m mixing sports metaphors, but casting director Aisha Coley and director Gina Prince-Bythewood really hit it out of the park.
Sanaa Lathan as Monica Wright and Omar Epps as Quincy McCall
I must have seen Sanaa Lathan briefly in Blade first, but this is when I really saw her. For someone who didn’t even play basketball, she perfectly embodied Monica throughout the final three quarters: the teenage tomboy with complete confidence, at least on the court; the college freshman who’s no longer the biggest fish in a small pond; and the aimless adult who needs to forge her own path to get everything she wants.
Omar Epps was the bigger name of the two, fresh off of teen fare like Scream 2 and The Mod Squad. Quincy undergoes a more subtle transformation, since he’s always been the hotshot nepo baby, but he gets to show more depth and vulnerability away from the spotlight.
Kyla Pratt as Young Monica
I was never a Disney Channel show watcher so I missed the entirety of The Proud Family, but I definitely watched Kyla Pratt in her first credit — as Becca Ramsey in The Baby-Sitters Club movie! (And, of course, guest starring on Veronica Mars.) What I love most about Young Monica and Young Quincy is that they’re just undeniably kids. The competing karate kicks scene is so dorky in a way you only are when you’re a pre-teen trying to look cool.
Alfre Woodard as Camille Wright and Harry J. Lennix as Nathan Wright
Monica’s the antithesis of her trad wife mother, who’s played by the legend Alfre Woodard.
Monica’s dad is kind of a non-entity, but he’s played by Boyd from Dollhouse.
Debbi Morgan as Nona McCall and Dennis Haysbert as Zeke McCall
Debbi Morgan’s one of those actors with a long and varied filmography, but OF COURSE I know her best for her work on The WB (Charmed).
PRESIDENT DAVID PALMER!!! And, of course, the Allstate guy lol. Zeke is pretty bad at being a family man, although pretty good at making Quincy look tiny. (At least the movie’s keenly aware that Quincy’s short for a pro baller.)
(The way that Nona’s brandishing the cake knife in the scene above was ALARMING, like that woman has never held a knife before one day in her life.)
Regina Hall as Lena Wright
Baby Regina Hall! I love how the Wright sisters’ scenes usually involve Lena doing Monica’s hair.
As if the main cast wasn’t already stacked enough, but there are also cameos GALORE.
Gabrielle Union as Shawnee Easton
It’s one of the Y2K teen movie queens! (10 Things and She’s All That in 1999, this and Bring It On in 2000 — WHAT A RUN.)
Boris Kodjoe as Jason
HOLY SHIZZ, Notable Hot Person Boris Kodjoe was Monica’s date to the spring dance??!?!
Tyra Banks as Kyra
I just love that I can pretend the T was turned into a K for naming this character lol.
Chemistry & Basketball
When ‘love’ is in the title, you know the movie has to deliver on the romance. Kids these days may talk of yearning, but Monica and Quincy ate, slept, breathed yearning. And the greatest proof that the chemistry was fire is the time-honoured tradition of beautiful co-stars hooking up behind the scenes.*
Even watching it back then, I knew the love scene was refreshingly rare — the experience is not glamourized and even dares to be awkward — but it completely holds up 24 years later. (There’s consent! There’s a condom!)
As exquisite as Monica and Quincy are together, there are a few extraneous romantic air balls. It probably didn’t raise as much of a red flag back then, but Lena setting high schooler Monica up with a college guy?!?! Or how it’s implied that Monica implied that she never dated ANYONE ELSE other than Quincy?!?!? Basically, Monica deserved much better for her non-OTP options!
* I seriously think a lot about casting directors unintentionally being matchmakers for offscreen romances. They should def. get wedding invitations if the couple gets that far, right?!
Music & Basketball
The impeccable music drops are so efficient in establishing the time of each quarter. (Although, as I’ve discovered in writing this post, a lot of the songs in the movie weren’t on the soundtrack!) The standout has to be Maxwell’s cover of “This Woman’s Work” that plays during Monica and Quincy’s first time together.
Filmmaking & Basketball
At the risk of sounding like the Old that I am, they really don’t make ’em like this anymore. Not only does it look fantastic (e.g., you can actually see night scenes, and there’s proper lighting for Black actors, WHAT A CONCEPT), but it’s barely over 2 hours long! The movie also exudes this warmth that the ones nowadays don’t have. (Maybe because of film vs. digital, a topic on which I am a complete noob.) Love & Basketball is even more of an impressive feat when considering that it was Gina Prince-Bythewood’s first feature that she directed AND wrote!
As a sports film, the action is compelling on and off the court. My fave sequence is the high school championship game from Monica’s point of view, which is a fun way to get inside a character’s head that also saves on stunt work. Least fave would be Short King Quincy’s injury-causing dunk as a pro. While it’s not impossible for someone under 6 feet tall to dunk, it’s also not very common!
Nostalgia & Basketball
There’s the nostalgia of the time being revisited, and then the nostalgia of revisiting the movie itself. From the music to the styling, everything about this film is so evocative and transportive of Los Angeles in the ’80s. Being set in the past is also to its benefit, in that the historical lens can excuse anything that didn’t age as well as the cast. (I’m thinking of things like Monica calling other girls hoes — obvs out of jealousy, but also era-accurate misogyny.)
The first time I watched this was actually at a 16th birthday party, aka the PERFECT introduction to it. My memories of the actual party are fuzzy, but I distinctly remember dropping EVERYTHING to pay attention to the TV because I was transfixed. Rewatching as an adult, I might like it even more than I did as a teenager. Sure, my perspective might have changed, but the FEELINGS? No need to play for it, because Love & Basketball still has my heart.
Does Love & Basketball make your Hall of Fame? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
I know I watched this at some point in my teens and liked it, but I barely remember anything from it, except I feel like there was some good banter/shit-talking as they played together. It’s definitely something I have to revisit soon!!
Hooray, my YAngelizing is working! 😂