This Film Was Spike Lees Love Letter to and Critique of Basketball
Along with being one of the most important and socially impactful directors of our time, Spike Lee is an established basketball aficionado. If anything, he has become more synonymous with sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden watching his beloved New York Knicks than being a filmmaker. When Lee wrote and directed He Got Game in 1998, it appeared on the exterior that this was going to stand as his love letter to the sport. While the admiration and romanticism of the game are present, in one of his most poetic and touching turns as a director, Lee, a thoughtful social critic, is simultaneously cynical about basketball and the industrial complex dominating it. Evoking the mindset of Radio Raheem's brass knuckles in Do the Right Thing, the director gives a little bit of love, and a little bit of hate towards his sport of passion.
The Historical Context of Basketball in 'He Got Game'
At a fundamental level, Lee's passionate fandom of basketball, as well as his knowledge, makes He Got Game, now 25 years old, stand out from the pact of other sports movies. The film is about a temporarily paroled convict, Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington), who must convince his son, Jesus (played by real-life NBA Hall of Famer, Ray Allen), a young budding basketball superstar, to commit to playing for the governor's alma mater in order to receive a reduced prison sentence. Game sequences are covered and blocked in such a precise manner that only a true fan would know how to shoot. Every movement of the game, dribbling, post-ups, drives, and jump shots, are fixated on, collectively portraying the beauty of the sport.
Defending his title as perhaps the definitive New York filmmaker, Lee creates a wondrous allure to the Coney Island neighborhood setting, with the local community basketball court acting as an idyllic land for the neighborhood kids to develop their craft and capture the American Dream. Additionally, the historical context of the NBA in the late '90s factors into the dramatic arc of the film. In real life, the phenomenon of basketball prodigies entering the pros immediately from high school rose in prominence during this time, headlined by future league superstars KobeBryant (who Lee originally wanted to cast as Jesus Shuttlesworth) and KevinGarnett. In He Got Game, Jesus must choose between attending college or capitalizing on his innate talents and jumping straight to the pros. He is tempted by the illustrious benefits and lifestyles of both.
Jake Shuttlesworth, who was sentenced to prison for the involuntary murder of his wife, is undoubtedly a complicated figure. He is a man who lost everything, and his fate as a free citizen is dependent on the collegiate commitment of his son. Jesus, as his name alludes to, has now evolved into a messiah-like figure of basketball born to redeem the life of his father. Through flashbacks, it is learned that Jake trained his son to become great and did so through mentally abusive means. The morality of his domineering behavior over Jesus is morally questionable, Lee shows that the art of basketball is the bond that links this broken relationship. The crux of the plot is interpretable as an act of divine intervention. Regardless of his chance to receive a shortened sentence, Jake being granted the opportunity to guide his son with his career endeavors is a blessing.
The Spiritual Father-Son Relationship Between Jake and Jesus
Understandably, because he is responsible for the death of his mother, Jesus wants no part of his father. Jake attempts to rebuild their relationship, but he can hardly bid a recruitment pitch for Big State, the school that Jesus must attend to receive a lighter sentence. For Jake, basketball takes on a mythical spirituality, and Lee's romanticism of the sport solidifies in two separate scenes about its almighty power. While walking along the boardwalk at Coney Island, Jake reveals to his son the origins of his name. Earl Monroe, Hall of Fame guard for the Knicks in the 1970s, who was given the nickname "Black Jesus," was the inspiration for Jesus Shuttlesworth, not the one of Nazareth. This comes as a relief for Jesus, who expressed his frustrations with the biblical undertones of his name, as it instead acts as a sign of loving paternity and inspired heritage.
The poetic quality of He Got Game, regarding its majestic outlook on basketball, is exemplified by the climactic one-on-one game between Jake and Jesus on the same court where the latter was raised on. If Jake wins, his son must sign his intent to play for Big State. If Jesus wins, his father resumes his original sentence, and the basketball prodigy can choose his own destiny. A non-conformist filmmaker for his entire career, Lee subverts a trope-riddled scene in sports movies into one of the most humbling sequences of his filmography. Their emotional game is not presented to track the momentum of the score. While Jake scores a handful of baskets on his son (in real life, Washington scoring on Allen was unscripted), the film never leads the viewer into believing that he will pull off an upset. As expected, Jesus defeats his father, and Jake is sent back to Attica.
Jesus, on his terms, announces the surprise decision to commit to Big State. However, because Jake did not meet the qualifications of the agreement, as he was not the reason for his son's enrollment, he remains behind bars. As is shown throughout the film, the closing moments of He Got Game depicts Jake and Jesus balling on separate courts. Lee takes his grounded film to fantastical levels when Jake hurls his basketball over the walls of Attica, soaring through the sky and into the presence of Jesus, signaling the divine kinship that is inseparable from his dad. This is Lee at his most sentimental, and it's only fitting that it is fleshed out through the spiritual connection of basketball between a fractured father-son relationship.
The Inevitable Capitalist Motivations Behind Basketball
Despite the presence of Lee's tender appreciation of basketball and how it can wound the souls of broken people, the director is a critic at heart, always raising awareness of issues that hide in plain sight. The majestic existence of Jesus, a basketball Messiah, is countered with an unrelenting amount of baggage—the kind that can lead to the downfall of the next superstar. First and foremost, the spotlight that shines on an elite high school prospect like Jesus is suffocating, and Lee captures this sensation by flashing to various montages of real-life NBA players and coaches praising him as the next Great One, creating the feeling of overload due to media coverage. What Jesus has already grown accustomed to is the expectation that people, even loved ones in his circle, seek to monetarily take advantage of him, including his uncle, Bubba (Bill Nunn). His romantic partner, Lala (Rosario Dawson) is skeptical of his loyalty to her if he decides to attend college. The stress of the decision of whether to enroll in a university or declare for the NBA Draft is an albatross around his neck. People in Jesus' orbit often talk directly into the camera, mirroring the feeling that Jesus has due to everyone lecturing him about what career paths he ought to take. Audiences watch the spirit of Jesus devolve as the story progresses. He grows in cynicism with each instance of close friends and family acting like "leeches" on his prospects.
A noteworthy supplement to He Got Game is Lee's brief appearance in the acclaimed 1994 documentary about aspiring basketball stars, Hoop Dreams. At a basketball recruitment camp attended by the film's subject, Lee dishes out a plate of harsh reality to the group of All-American prospects in a speech. "Nobody cares about you" he proclaims. "You're black. You're a young male. All you're supposed to do is deal drugs and mug women... This whole thing is revolving around money." Lee's bleak view of the fate of black people in America is unmistakably tied to the industrial complex of basketball, no matter how much passion he possesses for the sport. The Steve James documentary amounted to an unflinching revelation that the American Dream was a false promise, and He Got Game is equally cautious of the hopeful future granted to Jesus. Sure, he is destined to earn millions of dollars in the NBA and even more through additional corporate endorsements, and the luxuries of his fame will be seemingly limitless. The film is proactive in showing how the romanticism of basketball is aggressively being corroded due to the predatory tendencies of agents and college recruiters. There is one comment that Jake says to his son after their poetic one-on-one game ends that lingers as the film's closing credits roll. He implores his son, "Get the hatred out of your heart, or you'll end up just like your father."
A brilliantly delivered message from Washington shines a light on the grim implications of basketball in relation to black America and integrates Lee's speech from Hoop Dreams. Forget the biblical allusions to his name or his promise of becoming the next Michael Jordan, basketball on its own will not evolve him into a better man, because the system that realizes dreams does not care about Jesus Shuttlesworth.
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