MORE AWARDS
Basketball and the movies: The 2004 Gheorghie Awards
Best Basketball Performance by an Actor

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:

Robbie Benson
One On One (1977)
When high-school basketball phenom Henry Steele (Benson) heads off to play for a big-time college program, he is overwhelmed by all the new challenges and demands -- until he meets his attractive new tutor (Annette O'Toole). Benson also co-wrote the screenplay.

Omar Epps
Love & Basketball (2000)
Epps stars as Quincy McCall, the son of a former Clipper with NBA dreams of his own. The film follows his basketball career from high school to USC to Europe, but it's his one-on-one matchups with neighbor and girlfriend Monica Wright (Sanaa Lathan) that ultimately decide his fate.

Woody Harrelson
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
As Billy Hoyle, Harrelson capitalizes on his white hick facade to hustle the basketball courts of L.A., then teams up with one of his motor-mouthed victims, Sydney Deane (Wesley Snipes) to up the stakes -- and the trash-talk.

Jack Kehoe
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979)
And you thought Allen Iverson had a high tolerance for pain? As Setshot, Jack Kehoe keeps taking the charge, keeps getting up … and keeps draining shots in the clutch.

Sanaa Lathan
Love & Basketball (2000)
Opposite Epps' Quincy McCall, Lathan is Monica Wright, a fiery tomboy whose basketball path parallels McCall's from childhood. But without the lure of the NBA's riches and fame, her motivation is grounded in a competitive spirit that also leads her to fight for their relationship.

Lil Bow Wow
Like Mike (2002)
Calvin Cambridge (Lil Bow Wow), a 13-year-old living in an orphanage, stumbles into a pair of sneakers that magically give him NBA skills. He then takes to the court, impressing the likes of Jason Kidd and Allen Iverson on his way to gaining a foster father.

Duane Martin
Above the Rim (1994)
Kyle-Lee Watson (Martin) is a brash high-school basketball star struggling to handle his relationships with drug-dealing neighborhood kingpin (Tupac Shakur) and the school security guard (Leon) who has begun dating his mother.

Michael O'Keefe
The Great Santini (1979)
Based on a novel by Pat (The Prince of Tides) Conroy, The Great Santini features Robert Duvall as Bull Meechum, a Marine Corps fighter pilot and strict father. His son, Ben (O'Keefe), rallies his family by standing up to his father in a basketball game, ultimately leading to Bull's redemption.

Wesley Snipes
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
"It's hard work being so pretty!" Loudmouth playground rat Sidney Deane (Snipes) hooks up with con artist Billy Hoyle (Harrelson) to hustle the basketball courts of Southern California.

Maris Valainis
Hoosiers (1986)
The first of only two feature films in which he appeared during his acting career, it was a big one -- Valainis immortalized the role of Jimmy Chitwood, the basketball wunderkind who leads a small-town Indiana high school team to the state championship.

Mark Wahlberg
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Though the film focuses primarily on the coming-of-age story of high-school basketball player Jim Carroll (Leonardo DiCaprio), the real good vibrations on the court come from Wahlberg's Mickey, whose skills beget the film's most realistic sequences.