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Basketball and the movies: The 2004 Gheorghie Awards
Best Basketball Action

With the All-Star weekend festivities taking place in Hollywood, NBA.com recognizes the symbiosis of basketball and filmdom in presenting the 2004 Gheorghie Awards. Named in honor of seven-foot-seven basketball and entertainment legend Gheorghe Muresan (Washington Bullets, My Giant, Snickers and ESPN ads, et al), the Gheorghies unveiled dozens of nominees in 15 categories over three days, with your votes determining the winners. The envelopes, please.

Complete Results

And the nominees are:

Above the Rim (1994)
The New York Times said of its basketball scenes: "When you'd like to make a film featuring fast, furious basketball sequences, [cinematographer]Tom Priestley Jr. is clearly the man to see." Priestley also shot "Blue Chips".

Blue Chips (1994)
With more than 15 NBA players in the cast, the basketball ought to be authentic. "[It has] fast, furious sports sequences during which [director William] Friedkin sends the camera racing along with the basketball." (New York Times)

He Got Game (1998)
While this movie also features Travis Best, Walter McCarty and John Wallace as Ray Allen's high school teammates, the most affecting game sequence comes at the end as Allen and Denzel Washington go one-on-one in a game they are fated to play.

Hoosiers (1986)
Excellent game sequences, and plenty of them. Director David Anspaugh trusts his audience enough to know the game. In fact, most sequences don't show the ball going in at all. We know it does, however, by the players' and the crowds' reaction.

Love & Basketball (2000)
Sanaa Lathan, who didn't play basketball before winning the role of Monica Wright, pulls off her scenes convincingly. While "Love and Basketball" doesn't have a typical big game ending, the few basketball scenes do resonate as true.

White Men Can’t Jump (1992)
Practically all hoops all the time, "White Men Can't Jump" is the movie equivalent of a gym rat: it can't get off the court. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson are downright believable as talented street-ballers. Also includes some of the best trash talk this side of Gary Payton.