love and basketball movie review

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"Love & Basketball" is about how you can either be in love or play basketball, but it's tricky to do both at the same time. It may be unique among sports movies in that it does not end with the Big Game. Instead, it's a thoughtful and touching story about two affluent black kids, a boy and a girl, who grow up loving each other, and the game.

Monica is a tomboy. Her parents and older sister despair of getting her to act like a girl. She'd rather shoot baskets. In 1981, when she's about 12, her family moves into a new house in Baldwin Hills, a good Los Angeles neighborhood. Next door lives an NBA star and his son, Quincy. The first time the kids meet, they play a pickup game. Monica goes for a score, Quincy pushes her, and she gets a little scar that will be on her right cheek for the rest of her life.

He likes her. "You wanna be my girl?" he asks. She wants to know what that means. "We can play ball and ride to school together and when you get mad I gotta buy you flowers." She doesn't like flowers, she says. But she kisses him (they count to five), and the next day he wants her to ride to school on the handlebars of his bike. She wants to ride her own bike. This will be the pattern of a lifetime.

Flash forward to 1988. Monica, now played by Sanaa Lathan , and Quincy ( Omar Epps ) are high school stars. They're not dating but they're friends, and when Quincy's parents ( Dennis Haysbert and Debbi Morgan ) start fighting, he slips out his bedroom window and sleeps on the floor of her room. In a sequence of surprising effectiveness, she takes the advice of her mom and sister to "do something" with her hair and goes to a school dance with a blind date. Quincy is there, too. They dance with their dates but they keep looking at each other. You know how it is.

They're both recruited by USC, and both turn into college basketball stars, although Monica, on the women's team, feels she's penalized for an aggression that would be rewarded on the men's team. Their romance has its ups and downs, and eventually they're both playing in the pros--he in America, she in Spain. The ending reunites them a little too neatly.

But these bare bones of the plot don't convey the movie's special appeal. Written and directed by first-timer Gina Prince-Bythewood (and produced by Spike Lee ), it is a sports film seen mostly from the woman's point of view. It's honest and perceptive about love and sex, with no phony drama and a certain quiet maturity. And here's the most amazing thing: It considers sports in terms of career, training, motivation and strategy. The big game scenes involve behavior and attitude, not scoring. The movie sees basketball as something the characters do as a skill and a living, not as an excuse for audience-pleasing jump shots at the buzzer.

Omar Epps is an accomplished actor, effective here if a little too old (27) to be playing a high-schooler. Sanaa Lathan is the discovery. This is her sixth movie (she was in the lookalike films " The Wood " and "The Best Man") and her chance to flower, and she does, with a combination of tomboy stubbornness and womanly pride. She has some wonderful scenes with her mother ( Alfre Woodard ), a housewife who defends her choices in life against her daughter's half-formed feminist notions.

Epps has effective scenes, too, with his parents. His dad retires from pro ball and is socked with a paternity suit, and Quincy has to re-evaluate how he feels about both parents in a couple of strong truth-telling scenes.

The movie is not as taut as it could have been, but I prefer its emotional perception to the pumped-up sports cliches I was sort of expecting. Like Robert Towne's " Personal Best ," it's about the pressures of being a star athlete--the whole life, not the game highlights. I'm not sure I quite believe the final shot, though. I think the girl suits up for the sequel.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Love & Basketball (2000)

Rated PG-13

118 minutes

Sanaa Lathan as Monica Wright

Omar Epps as Quincy McCall

Alfre Woodard as Camille Wright

Dennis Haysbert as Zeke McCall

Debbi Morgan as Nona McCall

Written and Directed by

• Gina Prince-Bythewood

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Love and basketball, common sense media reviewers.

Romance and sports mix; some strong language and sex.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Monica faces sexist behavior and attitudes from th

As a female basketball player, Monica faces sexism

Some scuffles, parent slaps adult child. Some bask

Fairly explicit sexual references and situations.

"F--kin'" used once. "S--t," "bulls--t," "damn," "

Domino's Pizza box in one scene. Miller Genuine Dr

Drinking at a college party; one of the lead chara

Parents need to know that Love & Basketball is a 2000 coming-of-age romance that follows a relationship between childhood neighbors through the ups and downs of their lives on and off the court. This movie has strong sexuality for a PG-13, including descriptions of some sexually aggressive women, a strip…

Positive Messages

Monica faces sexist behavior and attitudes from those closest to her as she proves basketball is just as important to her as it is to male players. Quincy's dad is an abandoning, philandering father figure and Quincy works hard throughout the film not to turn out like him.

Positive Role Models

As a female basketball player, Monica faces sexism and double standards both on and off the court, but proves herself a champion through determination, love for the game. For all his faults, Quincy's father encourages Quincy to choose graduating from college over turning pro before graduating. Quincy refuses to be like his philandering basketball star father.

Violence & Scariness

Some scuffles, parent slaps adult child. Some basketball fouls.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Fairly explicit sexual references and situations. Quincy's father is unfaithful; women fall all over Quincy and explicitly ask to sleep with him. As high schoolers, Quincy and Monica have sex -- a condom is prominent in that scene. A game of strip basketball in a dorm room shows underwear only. Brief nudity: male buttocks. As a child, Quincy overhears his parents having sex in the other room.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--kin'" used once. "S--t," "bulls--t," "damn," "bitch," "t-tties," "ass," "goddamn." Some sexual references, such as "coochie," "bone," "get with you," "stick your thing in anything."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Domino's Pizza box in one scene. Miller Genuine Draft is the beer of choice in a bar. NBA, WNBA, USC.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking at a college party; one of the lead characters is drunk and surly. In another scene, the mother of one of the lead characters is drunk, drowning her sorrows on the back patio of her house.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Love & Basketball is a 2000 coming-of-age romance that follows a relationship between childhood neighbors through the ups and downs of their lives on and off the court. This movie has strong sexuality for a PG-13, including descriptions of some sexually aggressive women, a strip basketball game, and a scene of Monica and Quincy having sex that has no nudity but is fairly explicit -- and includes the obvious use of a condom. A character gets drunk when she finds out that her husband has been unfaithful. Quincy is drunk and surly at a college party where there's a lot of drinking. Profanity is regularly used, including "f--kin'" (used once). Other language includes "s--t," "bulls--t," "damn," "bitch," "t-tties," "ass," "goddamn." Some sexual references are heard, such as "coochie," "bone," "get with you," "stick your thing in anything." The movie also explores issues of sexism in sports, and the double standards in how aggressive play from men is treated differently from aggressive play from women. It also explores the pressures that talented collegiate athletes face: whether to stay in college and earn a degree or turn pro in the hopes of making a large salary. The not-so-glamorous realities of professional basketball players who aren't playing on the NBA circuit is also shown. For families with aspiring athletes, these are all issues in the movie worth discussing. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (6)
• Kids say (5)

Based on 6 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Divided into quarters like a real basketball game, LOVE & BASKETBALL shows two basketball-obsessed kids, Monica ( Sanaa Lathan ) and Quincy ( Omar Epps ), as they make friends on the court at age 11, play basketball in the same high school, then at the same college, and then go pro. As they deal with unfaithful, dishonest, and unsupportive parents; demanding coaches; hostile teammates; and the temptation of recruiters; their friendship blossoms into love, then hate, and back again.

Is It Any Good?

Funny how this likable movie is 20% about basketball and 80% about love, and you end up cheering the leads on for about 90% of it. You want these two rather stubborn and talented basketball players to realize they're meant for each other even more than you want them to win the big games or get the big sports scholarships. The chemistry is great between Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps .

If you're into the romance enough, you'll probably be forgiving as the pair face some standard-issue family conflicts and the old dating double standard: Quincy always seems to have a girl on his arm when Monica isn't around, and Monica stays true throughout the movie. But the characters experience plenty of positive growth, especially when Quincy confronts his philandering father, saying, "How come you couldn't be the man you kept trying to make me?"

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how people reconcile the demands of love, family, and career, and why it is that Monica and Quincy had so much trouble telling each other how they felt. Teens may also want to talk about the different views Monica and Quincy had of their relationship at different ages, and how the key element linking them through all was not basketball but friendship.

How does the movie explore some of the double standards of sexism in sport?

Besides the central story, what are some of the other themes the movie explores? For instance, how does the movie show the lives of professional basketball players who haven't made it to the NBA/WNBA elite? Or the choice gifted collegiate athletes must make between graduating from college or turning pro before earning a degree?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 14, 2000
• On DVD or streaming : October 10, 2000
• Cast : Alfre Woodard , Omar Epps , Sanaa Lathan
• Director : Gina Prince-Bythewood
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black directors, Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Sports and Martial Arts
• Run time : 124 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : language, sexual references, and sexual situations
• Last updated : March 2, 2023

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• Entertainment
• <em>Love & Basketball</em> Was More Than a Movie. It Changed My Whole Life

Love & Basketball Was More Than a Movie. It Changed My Whole Life

W hen Gina Prince-Bythewood ’s Love & Basketball was released 20 years ago, it was celebrated as a mainstream romantic film featuring Black characters, but I treasured it for so much more.

I was living in Cambridge, Mass., nearing the end of my first year at Harvard Law School , but I had no desire to be a lawyer. I’d gone to law school because my father was a lawyer and expected me to become one, too. But the gray gloominess that hung over New England was becoming hard to distinguish from the gloom I felt in myself. I was lost in it—trapped inside an impossible cloud of other people’s opinions and expectations.

Then a bright star came into view. A young, brown-skinned girl wearing an L.A. Lakers cap and a can’t-tell-me-nothing attitude. Sitting in the Harvard Square movie theater, between two of my girls from class, I watched Monica Wright roll up on her new neighbor and his friends playing basketball and ask if she could join.

“Man, girls can’t play no ball!” huffs her neighbor, Quincy.

“Ball better than you,” Monica snaps back. The boys grudgingly let her play, and she schools them. “I’m gonna be the first girl in the NBA,” she says. (The WNBA didn’t exist yet.)

“No, I’m gonna be in the NBA. You’re gonna be my cheerleader,” Quincy replies before Monica beats him to the basket. Desperate to stop her, he shoves her into the grass. In the next scene, a fresh cut is bleeding on Monica’s chin and her mother is cleaning it in the bathroom while scolding her for “running around like a little boy.” Annoyed, Monica yanks her head away, eyes her new wound in the mirror and smiles.

Looking up at this strong-willed girl who knew exactly who she was and what she wanted in life, a light flicked on inside me. It was like she was showing me parts of myself I’d forgotten about, ignored or maybe never knew were there.

It might have crossed my mind to yank my head away from my mother as a child, but I wouldn’t have dared. Growing up, I was a good girl . I never got in trouble. I did what I was told. I played basketball in high school even though it wasn’t my thing. I went to church. Made straight A’s. Didn’t curse, drink or smoke. I’d become a master at taming, hiding and cutting out the parts of myself that weren’t compatible with the person other people wanted me to be: the rebellious, curious and sexy parts; the questioning and fearless parts. The free parts.

That mastery had led me to the most prestigious law school in the country. But I hated this sanitized, diminished version of myself. I was uncomfortable inside her—sad, confused and anxious. And I was starting to get this terrifying sense that if I stayed in law school, I could get trapped in her the rest of my life.

No way Monica would let that happen to her. Flash-forward to later in the movie: she’s a high school senior (played by Sanaa Lathan), sitting at the dining table, listening to her dad urge her to consider options besides playing basketball. There’s only one game left in the season, and—unlike Quincy (Omar Epps), who has his choice of colleges to play for—Monica hasn’t been recruited yet. But her vision of herself as a ball player holds strong. “There’s still a chance!” she yells, defending her dream.

Sitting there in that darkened theater, I didn’t even have a dream. I’d been trying to become a lawyer for so long that I had no idea what I wanted for my future. But what was I supposed to do, drop out and find myself? Impossible. I couldn’t even entertain the question without the fear of judgment in my ear: Have you lost your mind? What kind of fool drops out of Harvard Law School?

But up on the big screen, Monica isn’t letting her dad, her fear or anyone else tell her what to do. She doesn’t get there that day—her team loses the game. But a few days later, Monica gets a letter from USC. They want her! On top of that, Quincy will be playing there, too. In the grassy patch between their bedroom windows, he reaches for a congratulatory hug, but Monica takes a kiss.

Monica may know what she wants in life, but getting it isn’t easy. While playing at USC and then overseas, she encounters more haters and difficulties. And of course, she and Quincy have their drama to get through. But at the end of the movie, Monica’s running onto the court in a Los Angeles Sparks uniform with Quincy cheering her on from the sidelines. She’s living a life of her own, one she created. It took dismissing the pressures from everyone else and standing strong in herself. Not easy—but possible.

I didn’t know what I wanted my future to look like. But 20 years ago, watching this movie, I knew I had to have the guts to find out. After finishing my first year of law school, I didn’t go back.

And, as expected, people called me crazy. At times, I felt alone and scared. But the freedom and aliveness that came with being more at home in myself kept me pushing forward. I went on a winding path through the sports and entertainment industries and the interior design field. And then one night, I sat down at my drafting table and started writing. It felt like being united with a huge piece of my identity.

Now I write books for young adults. My latest is the love story of two high school basketball players. Unlike Monica—a ball player at heart, who knows exactly what she wants—my heroine hates basketball and has no idea what to do with her life after graduation. Through my novels, I hope to pass on the same message that Love & Basketball gifted me with 20 years ago: feel free to be yourself and create the life you want.

Don’t think I’m preaching this message from the mountaintop. I’m still working to be free, still learning how to live outside of fear as I shape my professional space as an author. But for me, Monica Wright will always be a shining example of what’s possible when we have the courage to stand alone in the truth of ourselves. On the 20th anniversary of Love & Basketball , you may revisit the movie craving romance—and trust, the chemistry between Monica and Quincy is there. But be prepared to leave it belonging a little more to yourself.

Liara Tamani is the author of the upcoming novel All The Things We Never Knew (Greenwillow/HarperCollins).

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• DVD & Streaming

Love and Basketball

• Drama , Romance , Sports

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Omar Epps as Quincy McCall; Sanaa Lathan as Monica Wright; Dennis Haysbert as Zeke McCall; Debbi Morgan as Nona Mcall; Alfre Woodard as Camille Wright; Harry J. Lennix as Nathan Wright

Home Release Date

• Gina Prince-Bythewood

Distributor

• New Line Cinema

Movie Review

Quincy McCall has one dream in life: to play basketball in the NBA like his father Zeke, a Los Angeles Clipper. Monica Wright is the tomboy next door. She also has aspirations to play in the NBA, despite her gender. As the two grow up together in the 1980s, a mutual fascination for basketball draws them together on and off the court. With his famous father and natural talent, Quincy becomes the superstar jock of Crenshaw High and secures a scholarship to the University of Southern California. Monica, on the other hand, almost forfeits her chance to play college ball because of her fiery temper during games. So when USC offers her a scholarship at the last minute, life seems complete with Quincy by her side and hoop dreams in the making. But as Monica hits her stride amid adversity, Quincy’s charmed life begins to unravel. Family struggles, broken trust and diverging scholastic goals tear them apart as both pursue basketball careers. Will Quincy and Monica’s love bring them back together?

Positive Elements: The constructive influence of family plays an important role throughout the story. A young Quincy’s parents reprimand him for swearing. Zeke regrets cheating on Quincy’s mom, Nona. Nona warns her son about the dangers of casual sex (though her greatest concern is that her wealthy son might be trapped by a gold-digger). Quincy’s parents show him the value of an apology after he accidentally injures someone. Two coaches reprimand Monica for her prima donna behavior and teach her lessons in self-control and sportsmanship. Full-time motherhood is applauded when Monica’s mom lists the ways she has been able to give her children a loving home. Zeke stresses the importance of higher education over financial gain to his son as he shares his regrets of never finishing school. When Quincy finds out his dad has lied to him about having an affair, a sacred trust is broken. Indeed, Zeke’s adultery and cover-up cause a great rift in the family. Monica also feels the sting of lost trust when Quincy’s wandering eye causes him to cheat on her. The virtues of friendship are explored as Quincy and Monica try to balance school, basketball and a deep love for one another.

Spiritual Content: None

Sexual Content: Coarse sexual slang and content mars the film. At a dance, boys grope the girls who are wearing tight, low-cut dresses. Several frank discussions about sex arise and both genders ogle each other. Safe sex propaganda pops up when Quincy dons a condom while bedding Monica. Later on, they play “strip basketball” (Quincy’s rear is shown momentarily and Monica takes off her shirt). A poster of women in thong swimsuits graces the wall of Quincy’s dorm room. An assumption is made that physical intimacy is normal for dating relationships and promiscuity passes for the status quo among pro athletes. Monica facetiously tells her mother she is a lesbian. Locker room and dorm room scenes reveal women in sports bras. Quincy sees provocative photos of his dad’s affair. A married couple having sex is overheard from a child’s bedroom.

Violent Content: During a backyard basketball game, a young Quincy shoves Monica, leaving her with a bleeding face. Shortly thereafter, she returns the favor by wrestling him to the ground. Monica pushes Quincy during an argument. A quarrel erupts when Nona throws an object at Zeke. Monica’s mother slaps her across the face.

Crude or Profane Language: Close to ten s-words and an f-word. God’s name is abused twice. More than 25 mild profanities and crude anatomical expressions.

Drug and Alcohol Content: Quincy gets intoxicated at a party. Zeke frequents sports bars and drinks beer. Nona turns to the bottle to deal with her stress.

Summary: With basketball as its backdrop, this love story succeeds in developing two characters who are caught in the web of life trying to figure out how to achieve their goals without forfeiting family and friends. Love and Basketball has great messages that many families might have benefited from. Bad decisions frequently carry consequences—from the college athlete whose playing days are cut short by a pregnancy, to the pain of distrust and infidelity, to the need for self-control on and off the court. It’s too bad novice director Gina Prince-Bythewood had to drag lewd language and lust into a script that didn’t need it.

Jonathan Bartha

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Love & Basketball Reviews

If the romantic complications follow a familiar game plan, the film throws a fascinating spotlight onto the contrast between men’s and women’s basketball.

Full Review | Apr 8, 2023

Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed this love story starring Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan is about kindling a relationship amongst their affection for the sport both of them excel at which keeps them bound with daily pressures...

Full Review | Feb 28, 2023

This 2000 sports drama, a veritable slam dunk of filmmaking, proves that a genre often written off as banal can appeal to everybody.

Full Review | Jul 12, 2022

An exceptional feature writing and directing debut by Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 28, 2022

This is Prince-Bythewood's first feature film as both a writer and director, and she shows admirable command of her craft.

Full Review | Mar 9, 2022

Prince-Bythewood's right to avoid the raucous, high-decibel quality of most male-driven sports movies. She's out to give us character studies and she succeeds wonderfully in her writing and her direction of a skillful, emotionally engaging cast.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 9, 2022

he relationship between Monica and Quincy is a treat, making this a great date movie.

Gina Prince-Bythewood has taken the conventional coming-of-age romance genre and invigorated it with such vivid characters and such alertness to the culture she's representing, that she makes what might have been derivative into something brand new.

[Prince-Bythewood] draws strong performances from an attractive pair of leads in Epps and Lathan, both of whom have the acting chops and the athletic ability to be convincing in their roles.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 9, 2022

he two stars are immensely appealing (Epps possesses the most liquid, soulful eyes of any actor since Omar Sharif) and create a real chemistry together.

[Epps and Lathan] have expressive eyes and faces that sell their basketball and romantic ups and downs about as well as Prince Bythewood's extremely earnest script does.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 9, 2022

While full of great jump shots and on-court action, this "love story in four quarters" is first and foremost a romance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 15, 2022

A good basketball movie and a great love story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 15, 2021

This is a feminist, funny, and tender love story...

Full Review | Oct 5, 2021

...a slow-moving yet pervasively entertaining drama...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 6, 2021

Too often dismissed as a soppy chick flick, the film is a drama that is clear-eyed and serious about female ambition and gender roles.

Full Review | Nov 19, 2020

The impressive cast includes Dennis Haysbert, Debbi Morgan, Regina Hall and Alfre Woodard, and Prince-Bythewood gets deep into the heartaches and triumphs of her main characters as time and events change and shape them

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 21, 2020

[It] wrestles with complicated issues of love and friendship, competitiveness and gender identity...

Full Review | Mar 31, 2020

A great movie that showed us a bit of Black love, even with the things that went wrong in the movie. The characters were given an opportunity to grow.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 23, 2019

This is a classic...but it does have some problematic elements with an adult viewing.

Love and Basketball

Debuting filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood shows an admirable command of the technical aspects of filmmaking in "Love and Basketball," a slick romantic drama about two L.A. athletes. Aiming to please at all costs, Prince-Bythewood's narrative is too neat and its fairy-tale resolution too pat. But the pic is so well directed and lead performance by Sanaa Lathan so charismatic that audiences will overlook the script's flaws and root for the central duo.

By Emanuel Levy

Emanuel Levy

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Debuting filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood shows an admirable command of the technical aspects of filmmaking in “Love and Basketball ,” a slick romantic drama about two L.A. athletes. Aiming to please at all costs, Prince-Bythewood’s narrative is too neat and its fairy-tale resolution too pat. But the pic is so well directed and lead performance by Sanaa Lathan so charismatic that audiences will overlook the script’s flaws and root for the central duo. With the right handling and marketing, this New Line film, scheduled for April 21 release, could become a hot date movie embraced by upscale black viewers, with some crossover appeal among young white urbanites and possibly reaching the B.O. of such recent black efforts as “The Best Man” and “Soul Food.”

Spike Lee proves himself a major force in the new African-American cinema, helping to expand its range beyond inner-city and crime dramas. Last year, he was instrumental in setting up his nephew Malcolm Lee’s romantic comedy, “The Best Man,” at Universal, and here functions as producer (with partner Sam Kitt).

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Prince-Bythewood’s romantic drama centers on the friendship, rivalry and love between two youngsters from Baldwin Hills, an affluent black neighborhood of Los Angeles, who share an unquenchable passion for basketball.

Spanning close to two decades, yarn is divided into four segments, or quarters, as they’re called here.

The first, set in 1981, begins with Monica and Quincy as children, when Monica’s family moves in next door to Quincy’s. Shocked that Monica can play ball better than the boys, Quincy asks her to be his girl, and the two engage in a ceremonial kiss. But the bond lasts only a minute, because Monica is quickly outraged by Quincy’s macho attitude.

The second quarter, set in 1988, finds the couple in high school. Quincy ( Omar Epps ) is following in the footsteps of his famous father, Zeke McCall ( Dennis Haysbert ), an NBA player. Monica (Lathan) must face an arrogant Quincy, who has his pick of colleges — and attractive women. The two are clearly attracted to each other, and tension builds to a highly erotic sex scene.

It’s in this segment that scripter begins to develop her chief theme: Monica’s struggle to become a bright, independent woman, deviating from the subservient role of housewife played by her mother (a splendid Alfre Woodard), and refusing to conform to the characteristics of the ladylike type, despite the efforts of her sister and even her coach.

Main dramatic conflicts occur in the third, and best, quarter, which depicts how Monica and Quincy pursue their respective basketball careers as college sweethearts. Quincy, upset by the suffering of his mother (Debbie Morgan), is forced to realize that his adulterous dad is not exactly an idol. Quincy is also let down by Monica, who can’t join him due to a curfew before a big game. Determined to drop out of school and turn pro, Quincy breaks off their romance.

Cut to Barcelona, 1993, where Monica is immersed in her career. But professional fulfillment comes with the price of isolation and loneliness; she begins to doubt whether “being all about ball” is worth losing the love of her life, and can’t fully enjoy her success. Missing family and friends, Monica returns home, only to find Quincy engaged to be married in two weeks.

At this point, narrative follows the path of a screwball comedy, giving a new twist to the convention of preventing a lover from marrying the wrong spouse. Unlike Hollywood chestnuts, here a sexually aggressive woman pursues her man, attempting to open his eyes before it’s too late.

The storytelling is not always exciting, but a more serious problem is that yarn is not deep enough in showing the meaning of basketball for Monica; one never gets the feeling that playing ball is a necessity in her life.

In its insistence on gratifying the audience with an elegant movie at all costs, narrative resolves its strands all too tidily, including intergenerational tensions between Quincy and his father, Monica and her mother, and Monica and her coach.

“Love and Basketball” is the kind of Cinderella story in which the heroine gets it all, a movie whose commercial considerations must have dictated the yarn’s shape.

That said, there’s no doubt that Prince-Bythewood is a gifted director: The film is so suave, graceful and technically accomplished that it’s hard to believe it’s a first-effort feature. Impressive production values, from lensing to costumes to musical score, all contribute to a glossy package.

Helmer is extremely deft with her cast, coaxing appealing performances from leads Epps and, especially, Lathan, who could likely parlay her good looks and acting skill into a major Hollywood career.

Supporting cast is equally adept; pic boasts standout character perfs from Woodard and Morgan, as the two loving, traditional mothers, and Haysbert, as the philandering hubby.

Effortlessly erotic in a way that few films are, “Love and Basketball” features a number of exciting sex scenes that may make it a hot date movie.

• Production: A New Line release of a 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production. Produced by Spike Lee, Sam Kitt. Executive producers, Andrew Z. Davis, Jay Stern, Cynthia Guidry. Directed, written by Gina Prince-Bythewood.
• Crew: Camera (Deluxe color), Reynaldo Villalobos; editor, Terilyn Shropshire; music, Terence Blanchard; production designer, Jeff Howard; costume designer, Ruth Carter; sound (Dolby/SDDS); casting, Aisha Coley. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres), Jan. 26, 2000. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 124 MIN.
• With: Monica Wright - Sanaa Lathan Quincy McCall - Omar Epps Camille Wright - Alfre Woodard Zeke McCall - Dennis Haysbert Mona McCall - Debbie Morgan Nathan Wright - Harry J. Lennix Young Monica - Kyla Pratt Young Quincy - Glenndon Chatman

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What it's about.

The title says it all: this is a story of love and basketball, one where the two intertwine and excitedly inform one another. Two childhood friends with a passion for ball develop deep feelings for one another. They have ambitions to go pro, but as Monica discovers how uneven the playing field really is for female athletes, and as Quincy grapples with his own needs and career, they reconsider their relationship both to each other and to the game they so love. 

Love & Basketball is a beautiful and sensitive movie that breaks stereotypes about Black love, which exists here as soft and nuanced as any other expertly drawn pairings in movies, and about Black women; Monica gets angry, but also vulnerable, hardworking, and loving. The sports component of the movie is just as finely detailed, with the energy of the matches bouncing off the screen walls. Clearly ahead of its time, Love & Basketball gets at the core of the game without losing sight of its talented players. 

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Love & Basketball is more than a chick flick

Gina Prince-Bythewood’s 2000 debut film is clear-eyed and serious about female ambition and gender roles.

By Simran Hans

I wanted to make a black When Harry Met Sally ,” Gina Prince-Bythewood told the Hollywood Reporter , reflecting on her debut film Love & Basketball . In the 20 years since its release, the film has served as a cultural reference point for black audiences.

The story begins in 1981, with neighbours  and childhood sweethearts Quincy (Glenndon Chatman) and Monica (Kyla Pratt) battling it out on the court. “I’m gon’ be in the NBA. You gon’ be my cheerleader,” says 11-year-old Quincy with a smirk. Monica replies with a slam dunk. A few days later they share a cute first kiss. This dynamic repeats itself throughout the film, which follows the older Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) as they bounce through high school, college and into their respective careers as professional athletes. It is as much a basketball movie as it is a love story, curious about the couple’s potential both on and off the court.

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Produced by Spike Lee, the film features an impressive ensemble cast of black actors who were, in the year 2000, still establishing themselves. After seeing Regina Hall in Malcolm D Lee’s The Best Man , Prince-Bythewood cast her as Monica’s girlie older sister. (Hall wouldn’t carry a romcom until 2012’s Think Like a Man .) Gabrielle Union has a small role as a flirty fellow high schooler who competes with Monica for Quincy’s attention – she’d have her break as a cheerleading captain in Bring It On later that year. Even Tyra Banks pops up, three years before she launched the reality TV series America’s Next Top Model .

There’s flirtatiousness and wit in a cheeky sequence of strip basketball, comedy in a scene that sees Quincy ask Monica if she’s going to the school dance with “Spalding” (Prince-Bythewood cuts to the branded basketball sitting in Monica’s lap) and electric chemistry between Lathan and Epps, who were secretly dating at the time. Still, to call the film a romantic comedy would be a misnomer. The impulse to claim it as such is likely due to the dearth of black romantic comedies, a genre whose whiteness is particularly glaring. In 1997, Love Jones and Soul Food were released, with How Stella Got Her Groove Back following in 1998, and  The Best Man in 1999. Love & Basketball , which came out in 2000, occupies a slightly different space.

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Too often dismissed as a soppy chick flick, the film is a drama that is clear-eyed and serious about female ambition and gender roles. Monica’s father and later her college basketball coach tell her off for losing her head, penalising her for the intensity and aggression of her focus. “I was just showing emotion,” she tells her dad through gritted teeth. When she refuses to break curfew to comfort Quincy, she is similarly chastised for her dedication to her game.

Monica also clashes with her traditional, stay-at-home mother Camille (the brilliant Alfre Woodard), refusing to trade her basketball jersey for an apron. Camille smiles approvingly when her teenage daughter dons a tight white dress for the school dance, but Monica struggles to be “ladylike”, fidgeting uncomfortably and sitting with her legs apart as though she were courtside. As an adult, Monica needles at her mother’s choices, criticising her constant deference to men. Hot with anger, Camille slaps her, and Monica’s expression transforms into that of a little girl.

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Prince-Bythewood – whose credits include The Secret Life of Bees , Beyond the Lights and Netflix’s The Old Guard – was a former ball player herself. When she wrote the film’s first draft, the Women’s National Basketball Association did not yet exist (it was founded in 1996). “When I was on the field, I was never told to slow down. I was told to run faster, be more aggressive, play harder, go after it,” she wrote in an essay for the Lenny Letter newsletter in 2016. Sports helped her find her swagger, and so it makes sense she wrote a movie in which the handsome jock chose the cool, low-key tomboy over the glamorous cheerleader.

The film’s seriousness is its enduring strength. When a swooning cover of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” by the R&B singer Maxwell plays as Monica loses her virginity, the scene is both respectful and romantic. Quincy unrolls a condom; Monica verbally articulates her consent. The tenderness with which Prince-Bythewood treats Monica’s desires is what makes the film so moving. In the film’s climax, Monica insists the now-engaged Quincy play her in a one-on-one match, two weeks before his wedding. The stakes feel huge when she insists, with utter solemnity, that if she loses it’s because deep down he wants her to stop him from getting married. “I’ll play you… for your heart,” she tells him, a perfect line, as cheesy and quotable as Nora Ephron’s “I’ll have what she’s having”. 

“Love & Basketball” is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video

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Why We Keep Returning to ‘Love and Basketball’ 20 Years Later

Gina Prince-Bythewood wanted to tell a love story first and foremost—‘When Harry Met Sally …,’ but about a young black girl with dreams of playing professionally. Twenty years after its release, her movie still resonates with audiences.

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Yvonne Orji was like a lot of teenage girls in 2000. She loved basketball and played for her high school team, and her favorite movie was Love & Basketball. She even dressed up as Monica, the movie’s main character, for Halloween—gold no. 32 chain and all. To Orji, the movie represents something more than a credible sports story. It’s an authentic black love story. “It’s important to reinforce that we do have love for one another and we love loving one another, contrary to popular belief.” The Insecure actress-comedian says if she can’t have a love like Monica and Q, then she doesn’t want it. “I don’t understand, like, what are we doing if [Maxwell’s] ‘This Woman’s Work’ isn’t playing in the background?”

Twenty years ago today, first-time writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s semiautobiographical film was released nationwide. The movie follows Monica Wright (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy McCall (Omar Epps) as they discover their talents and decipher their complex relationships—with basketball, with their families, with each other. The story is told through four quarters, following Monica and Q from when they were childhood frenemies (Monica was a Lakers fan, Q’s dad played for the Clippers) to their respective paths to high school basketball stardom, college freshman year woes, and dreams of going pro.

“But these bare bones of the plot don’t convey the movie’s special appeal,” Roger Ebert wrote in his review. “It is a sports film seen mostly from the woman’s point of view. … And here’s the most amazing thing: It considers sports in terms of career, training, motivation and strategy. The big game scenes involve behavior and attitude, not scoring. The movie sees basketball as something the characters do as a skill and a living, not as an excuse for audience-pleasing jump shots at the buzzer.”

Prince-Bythewood tells me that the film, even though it takes place primarily on the hardwood, was always meant to be a love story first. When she started writing the script, her inspiration was When Harry Met Sally … but with brown faces. As she kept writing, the story got personal. She began pulling from her real-life experiences while growing up. (Her first kiss, like Monica’s, was with a boy from the neighborhood, and he, like Q, counted the seconds on his fingers.) She fused her love for basketball into a story about black love that many cling to as their rom-com bible. “The best love stories are the stories that aren’t always focused on the love stories, but that the characters are driving toward something for themselves, and striving for something for themselves,” Prince-Bythewood says. “That feeds into the love story.”

Love & Basketball premiered during a hot streak for black romantic comedies. Movies like Love Jones (1997), The Wood (1999), The Best Man (1999), and Brown Sugar (2002) were creating a new genre that black audiences weren’t accustomed to seeing. It set a new standard for seeing our love on screen in a pure, unadulterated fashion. Q and Monica’s connection deepens as they grow up. They have an unspeakable bond that starts a little uneasily (“Man, girls can’t play no ball,” Q tells Monica. “Ball better than you,” she replies), but ends in iconic fashion (“I’ve loved you since I was 11, and the shit won’t go away,” Monica tells Q).

Prince-Bythewood finished the script for Love & Basketball almost three years before its release, but she struggled to get any studios to bite. “Who the hell was ever gonna want to see a movie about a black girl who wants to be the first girl in the NBA?” she asks me over the phone last week. (I stopped myself from screaming, “ME!”) The script was deemed “too soft,” especially compared to successful—and violent—black films from the early ’90s like Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Menace II Society (1993). Prince-Bythewood felt it was time for something different. She wanted to make a film that addressed multiple stigmas in cinema: that black love exists and that girls can play ball better than boys.

By 1998, the script had caught the eye of Spike Lee. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, partnered with New Line Cinema to bring Prince-Bythewood’s story to life. “I said I’d never cast anyone who couldn’t play basketball,” Prince-Bythewood says. She ended up auditioning over 700 people for the role of Monica—actors and athletes alike. She had already sent Serena Williams the script and had Marion Jones audition. “I grew up playing ball and I hated it whenever females were playing basketball in movies and TV because they were bad ; I felt like it set us back,” she says. Lee had just released He Got Game (1998), starring Ray Allen, and he wanted to follow a similar model and cast a popular female basketball player to star as Monica.

Lee already had someone in mind. Niesha Butler was living Monica’s life. By the time she graduated from the Bronx’s Riverdale Country School, she held the career scoring record in both girls’ and boys’ divisions, tallying more than 3,000 points. When Lee asked her to audition, she had just finished her freshman season at Georgia Tech, where she was the Yellow Jackets’ leading scorer and the ACC Rookie of the Year. Butler remembers being engulfed in the script during the plane ride to Los Angeles. “It just spoke to me as a female athlete on all types of levels,” she tells me. Butler appreciated the complexities within Monica—a character who was able to show her emotions without coming off as another stereotype. “Monica was not an angry black woman. Monica was smart, sophisticated, ambitious, kind, a good daughter, a loving partner. She was so multifaceted. We were hungry for that kind of story to be told.”

Butler says she was considered for the lead role, but that pursuing it would threaten her NCAA eligibility. She wouldn’t have been able to get paid for her work or participate in any of the film’s promotions. It was “heartbreaking,” she says, but Love & Basketball is still her favorite movie. “I think when you have such a body of work that is so good and was written so well, it wouldn’t have mattered [who got the role of Monica]. What Gina did with Love & Basketball … it wasn’t just words written on a paper. Gina lived that.” And so did Butler, to an extent. She was an All-American at Georgia Tech, played professionally overseas, and had a stint in the WNBA with the New York Liberty. Now the CEO of ScrapSports , a virtual scrapbooking service, Butler says it was all for the best. “It was just a beautiful experience, but more for me, I’m a proponent and a supporter of women’s sports and women’s activism. It was written and directed by a woman. It was about a woman’s story and I have nothing but total support and love for it.”

Ultimately, Prince-Bythewood went against her word; she cast Lathan even though the actress had never touched a basketball before, and today Prince-Bythewood says she can’t imagine anyone but Lathan playing Monica. It’s hard to argue otherwise: Prince-Bythewood incorporated devilish details into the character that still resonate with hoopers, and Lathan delivered a textbook tomboy performance, from Monica’s graceless walk to her effortless ponytail (“You’d be pretty if you did something to your head,” Monica’s mother tells her. “I don’t know why you want to walk around looking like, ‘Who shot John’”). Even when prompted 20 years later, Prince-Bythewood struggles to name a player she’d recast as Monica. (She reluctantly lands on Liz Cambage, Notre Dame–era Skylar Diggins-Smith, or Dawn Staley in her prime.)

Prince-Bythewood came to realize that, as a director, she could fake a jump shot—Lathan has said she was “miserable” during the early stages of the shoot because Prince-Bythewood insisted that she train up to six days a week—but couldn’t forge a love connection. When Lathan and Epps did their screen test, their chemistry was off the charts. “I didn’t know they were dating at the time, and they were very smart not to tell me,” Prince-Bythewood says, laughing at the memory. Epps was her first choice for Q, and though he was already cast, Lathan never tried to use that as leverage. Prince-Bythewood explains that she would’ve been hesitant to cast the two together had she known: “What if they would’ve broken up in the middle of shooting?”

A now-recognizable supporting cast contributed to the movie’s appeal. Gabrielle Union played a messy Shawnee Easton (“Damn, girl, I didn’t know Nike made dresses”); Regina Hall played the ultra-girly older sister, Lena; Kyla Pratt, known for her Nike WNBA commercials at the time, played a young Monica; Boris Kodjoe played the über-attractive college hunk, Jason; Tyra Banks played the trophy-fiancée stewardess, Kyra. Robin Roberts had a cameo, and Dick Vitale dropped his classic “diaper dandy” during a faux- SportsCenter package.

Erika Ringor, who played Monica’s college teammate Sidra, remembers attending an open casting call in Los Angeles after responding to a radio ad looking for female basketball players that her cousin had heard. She had no management, no representation—it happened to be at her old high school gym, and she happened to be an actress who played ball. “I had no idea it was going to be this big,” Ringor says. Truthfully, not many people did. With a quiet $8 million opening weekend, Love & Basketball is one of the rare films whose popularity grew over time. Fashion labels still use it as inspo , it’s the theme of marriage proposals , and you can buy replicas of Monica’s and Q’s jerseys online. “I’m going to get a T-shirt that says, ‘Yes, I’m the girl from Love & Basketball ,’” Ringor jokes. She still plays locally in pro-am leagues like Basketball Beauties, and has participated in multiple celebrity games around L.A. People think she actually went to USC, and often quote her most memorable line back to her: “Never let a freshman take your spot.”

“I’ve had girls come up to me and say, ‘You got me through my college years in basketball,’” Ringor says. “One lady DM’d me and said, ‘My little girl plays basketball because she saw you on TV. She loves basketball now because of you.’”

In a 2015 interview with Essence , Lathan said , “It’s one of those things that happen once in a while. Not very often does a film speak to different generations across cultural and gender lines.” It’s a short list when it comes to films accurately capturing the women’s basketball experience, and Love & Basketball reigns supreme. Monica shows the audience the struggle of growing up as a female athlete. “I put a woman on screen that plays ball, but that could still be feminine. She wasn’t this typical cheerleader or homecoming queen. That was important to me,” Prince-Bythewood says. “One of the things I loved so much is how many guys say Monica is their ideal [woman]. That’s so dope to me, because growing up, I never felt like anybody’s ideal.” She wrote what she wanted to see on screen, and all the basketball-loving girls watching didn’t feel overlooked. We felt as if we could be Monica.

“I think, as a kid, we were able to see somebody that we can aspire to be,” says All-Star WNBA point guard Chelsea Gray. She first watched the film with her older brother, Javon. It was constantly on repeat in her house. She’d rush through her homework and offer to clean his room so he would sit and watch it with her. Javon would groan, “Chel, again?” To this day, Gray says, whenever he calls, and she mentions that she’s watching an “old movie,” he calls her bluff: “It’s Love & Basketball , isn’t it?” Gray plays for the Los Angeles Sparks, just like Monica did. “I think there’s a plethora of movies, documentaries and things, that talk about what went on in the men’s game, whether it be in the professional or college aspect. But [ Love & Basketball ] hits all parts of life, and what women have to deal with when they decide they want to be an athlete. … She took a stand—she’s not just a woman athlete, she’s an athlete .”

The movie not only faultlessly depicts life as a ballplayer, but it’s so spot-on that the audience can’t help but use it as a blueprint. How many college basketball players have remembered not to pull up from 3 on a fast break after watching this movie? The fear of being sloppy seconds to Tanya Randall is real . Niesha Butler agrees: “I started as a freshman, I led [Georgia Tech] in scoring as a freshman, and the seniors there ain’t trying to give you nothing. That’s a real-life story.” She also relates to the loneliness Monica feels as she looks out her window in Barcelona while watching Spanish-dubbed Family Matters reruns during the time when she plays overseas. Prince-Bythewood even shows the disparities between men’s and women’s facilities; Q plays in an arena that can sit almost 10,000 fans, whereas Monica plays in a side gym that seats only a few hundred. (“I don’t have it easy like you, all right? There’s no red carpet laid out for me,” she says.)

. @BillSimmons and @jemelehill discuss how @justsanaa had never played basketball before shooting 'Love & Basketball' on @TheRewatchables pic.twitter.com/tuICoZqjAr — The Rewatchables (@TheRewatchables) April 20, 2020

Prince-Bythewood makes Los Angeles a character in the story. She used the real Crenshaw High School boys’ and girls’ basketball programs in the film, and students at the time decorated the stands as if it were any other Friday-night game. The cheerleaders proudly donned their Crenshaw colors on the sideline and spelled out the M-A-M-A (what, what? Yo mama) rebuttal to the infamous U-G-L-Y cheer. “It was a beautiful thing to be able to bring them into the filmmaking process. It let them experience that and show their environment and culture in a positive way,” Prince-Bythewood says. “I just wanted to show another side of black life.” Filming locations spanned from the affluent Baldwin Hills (a.k.a. “the Black Beverly Hills”) to Ladera Heights to Inglewood to give a fresh, upper-middle-class narrative that wasn’t prevalent in many black films at the time. “It was a love letter to L.A.,” Orji adds. It wasn’t until she moved to California and started shooting the hella-L.A. show Insecure that she recognized the neighborhoods from Love & Basketball ; she compared driving past a house that looked like Q’s to visiting Elvis’s Graceland.

A Northern California native, Prince-Bythewood came to study film and run track at UCLA and then never left L.A. In her original script, Monica and Q were Bruins; USC was chosen after UCLA declined to be a filming location. The rich history of the Women of Troy (Cheryl Miller, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper) made USC a smooth transition to incorporate into the plot. “Cheryl Miller was on my wall growing up, and so was Magic Johnson. Monica’s walls were my walls,” Prince-Bythewood says. The detail to make Zeke McCall, Q’s father, a Clipper was crucial. (“Your dad plays for the worst team in the NBA. Last time they won, Dr. J was a nurse,” a young Monica says to Q.) For Q to become a Laker and Monica to suit up for the Sparks was an L.A. basketball-storybook ending.

When I first started playing basketball at 6 years old, I made my dad play “Lyte as a Rock,” from the film’s soundtrack, before every game; the car ride from my house to the gym was just long enough for the song to play twice. (Please take a moment to imagine me spitting every lyric with a heavy Brooklyn accent like MC Lyte. I’ll wait.) I still have my pink-and-black Love & Basketball hoodie embellished with a female Air Jordan symbol on the back—I begged my parents to buy it at one of my AAU tournaments. I owned the film on VHS and DVD. I know the script verbatim and quote it as part of my everyday vernacular. I wanted to be Monica—I even took an upperclassman’s spot on the varsity team as a freshman in high school. I wasn’t afraid to show my emotions on the court; I was a ballplayer, and like so many young athletes watching the movie for the first time or the 100th, I felt seen.

“I want girls to be proud of their athletic prowess and that it’s not something to be embarrassed by,” Prince-Bythewood says. “If nothing else, the fact that the movie has done that is perfect for me.”

Authenticity, Prince-Bythewood says, was her main objective. When she wrote Monica’s character, she envisioned the players she studied and idolized as a kid: Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, Dawn Staley, and Sheryl Swoopes. She even interviewed each of them to make sure Monica’s story closely resembled their experiences. “I wanted to make a movie for them to be proud of. Hearing from them after the film came out that they saw themselves in Monica meant everything to me,” Prince-Bythewood says.

How they played the game inspired Prince-Bythewood to pick up a basketball at a young age and never put it down. Her love of the game moved her to put pen to paper to draft her story. Monica, Q, and Sidra have become those heroes for so many. Twenty years’ worth of hoopers have come up quoting Love & Basketball , idolizing the #relationshipgoals that Monica and Q set. Countless pick-up games on blacktops around the country have been played “for your heart.” It’s a cult classic that shall remain in the vault forever. All’s fair in love and basketball, right?

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Summary Two college basketball players (Epps and Lathan) have known each other since childhood. Their love of basketball sometimes conflicts with their love for each other.

Directed By : Gina Prince-Bythewood

Written By : Gina Prince-Bythewood

Love & Basketball

Where to watch.

Sanaa Lathan

Monica wright.

Quincy McCall

Glenndon chatman, young quincy, jess willard.

Chris Warren

Young Monica

Alfre Woodard

Camille wright, naykia harris.

Harry Lennix

Nathan wright.

Debbi Morgan

Nona mccall.

Dennis Haysbert

Zeke mccall, colleen matsuhara, coach hiserman, nathaniel bellamy jr., highschool referee #1.

Regina Hall

Lena wright.

Shar Jackson

Gabrielle Union

James DuMont

Christine Dunford

Coach davis, april griffin, dorsey high school player, critic reviews.

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Love And Basketball Review

07 Jul 2000

124 minutes

Love And Basketball

Veteran teleplay writer Prince-Blythewood's debut film script sparked a bidding war after a reading at the Sundance Institute, and Spike Lee's production company, 40 Acres And A Mule Filmworks, emerged as the winner. Long time basketball fan Lee was keen to promote a film that gave the female players a voice, and saw that in Prince-Blythewood's script. It's also a darn sight more commercial than Lee's similar He Got Game.

The gamble paid off in the States, with Love & Basketball out-grossing Lee's film and developing a strong teen following - helped in part by the good-looking leads (there's plenty of flesh on show). Lethan matches up to the better-known Epps and comes off the obvious winner, but sometimes the film is too forced in her favour. She has the best lines, the best sporting skill - months of intensive training turned the basketball virgin Lethan into a convincing player - and, while it's great to see a heroine promoted in the same way as a traditional hero, it shouldn't be at the expense of reducing the man to 'the girlfriend'.

Love & Basketball faces a tougher ride in the UK, where the sport lacks following and the mysteries of the American collegiate system are hard to fathom. It also comes off second best to the soon-to-be released Girlfight, another Sundance champion, which deals with the same issues of a woman challenging the rules in a male-dominated sport with greater success. Where Love & Basketball suffers is in being too predictable.

There's not a scene that can't be seen coming a mile off, from the sports-loving Monica's confrontation with her stay-at-home mom (Woodard playing against type), to Quincy's realisation that Monica is quite pretty when she puts on make-up and a nice dress.

Love & Basketball

• Blu-ray edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
• October 15 2021

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Sparks fly both on and off the court in this groundbreaking feature debut by writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood ( The Old Guard ), which elevated the coming-of-age romance by giving honest expression to the challenges female athletes face in a world that doesn’t see them as equal. Sanaa Lathan ( Alien vs. Predator ) and Omar Epps ( Higher Learning ) make for one of the most iconic screen couples of the 2000s as the basketball-obsessed next-door neighbors who find love over flirtatious pickup games, fall apart under the strain of high-pressure college hoops and families, and drift in and out of each other’s lives as they pursue their twin aspirations of playing professionally. Aided by stellar supporting performances and an eclectic R&B soundtrack,  Love & Basketball  captures the intoxicating passions, heartbreaking setbacks, and sky-high ambitions that mark a young woman’s journey to the top of her game and to lasting love.

Picture 9/10

The Criterion Collection presents a new Blu-ray edition for Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Love & Basketball , presented here on a dual-layer disc with a 1080p/24hz high-definition encode in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

Sourced from a new 4K restoration (scanned from the 35mm original camera negative), Criterion’s presentation is rather gorgeous, which shouldn’t be too big a surprise for a new restoration for film that isn’t that old and was a big studio picture, yet I was still struck by the film texture that is present. Grain is, somewhat surprisingly, a bit heavy, though it's rendered well. It’s not perfect, getting a little noisier in darker areas of a scene, but on average I thought it had a very clean, fine look. Colours are nice, yellows and blues both managing to pop, and black levels look inky while still allowing for excellent shadow detail, even in the film’s darkest scenes.

Outside of some archival footage taken from a video tape source (shots of Magic Johnson for example) the image is clean and film-like throughout. Damage is also not a concern. In all, this was a wonderful looking presentation, and again an excellent example of what a fresh 4K scan can accomplish.

(Criterion’s notes mention this is a slightly longer version than what played in theaters. Based on comments in one of the commentaries I suspect the additional footage may have been inserted into what is still a tame love scene. I am unsure if this is the same edit that was on previous home video releases.)

The film comes with a 5.1 surround soundtrack, delivered in DTS-HD MA. Dialogue is clean and sharp, sticking to the fronts primarily. There are some great sound effects in the stands during some of the game sequences, delivering wide range and superb clarity, the effects mixed around the viewer effectively. The school campus, and other crowded settings, also mix things appropriately through the speakers.

Where the track mostly shows off is in its delivery of the film’s music soundtrack, using the lower frequency to great effect and spreading to all of the speakers where appropriate. The mix also makes sure not to drown out any important dialogue. It sounds great.

Extras 9/10

The film has received a couple of previous DVD and Blu-ray releases from New Line/Warner Bros., the film even showing up in New Line’s Platinum Series DVD line. It appears Criterion has ported over a few of the features, though not all, starting off with two audio commentaries , the first of which features director Gina Prince-Bythewood and actor Sanaa Lathan. The track ends up being a very pleasant surprise thanks to the loving yet contentious relationship between the film’s director and star. Throughout the track—and other features on the disc—we get a glimpse of a filmmaker who has a set vision for a film in her mind and is determined to get that exact film on a finished print, and it seems one of the things she really struggled with was the casting of Lathan because she didn't match her ideal image of the character. While the star had the look, she apparently couldn’t play ball to save her life, and that, on top of other things , almost led to Lathan being fired during various stages of production, from script readings to actual shooting. The two talk about those tough times, Prince-Bythewood, an athlete herself, being amusingly blunt throughout their conversation. Lathan, too. Without necessarily saying it right out the director admits she just had to get her head around some things, especially how the film was a love story around basketball and not the other way around. Thankfully the director came to terms with all of it.

I’m happy it all worked out and Lathan was able to stay on because it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. And if there were ever any hard feelings during production they don’t come through here, the two getting along just fine, even if they still poke fun at one another: when Prince-Bythewood gives Lathan a hard time about showing off her six-pack in one scene, the actor responds she “earned” showing it off after all the training she had to go through. The two also talk about more pleasant aspects of the production, the other members of the cast (Prince-Bythewood still made Tyra Banks audition for her role), and the surprise success of the film’s release. What’s also interesting is some of the issues the director ran into with New Line while editing the film, the studio seeming to be squeamish at a love scene early in the film, with one note mentioning the woman in the scene wasn’t “enjoying” it enough or that it was a bit too much . There are other little interesting things like that throughout the track touching on how studio execs can react differently to elements in a film, including how they may approach films with a predominantly black cast. All around it’s an entertaining and informative track, one of the better director/actor pairings I recall listening to.

The second track (which looks to have been on New Line’s DVD but not Warner’s Blu-ray) is something along the lines of an “isolated score” track with added commentary, featuring Prince-Bythewood, editor Terilyn A. Shropshire and composer Terence Blanchard. The director and editor just focus on working with the material and putting the film together, sharing stories about covering mistakes (that no one noticed anyway) or, in the case of Shropshire, how to work with a director and convince them to go one with something. I found Blanchard’s contribution (who may have been recorded separately) to be the most rewarding, as he really gets into the art of writing an orchestral score for a film, especially at a time when Hollywood was starting to inch away from that and go with more synthetic/electronically produced scores. The three also touch on working with temp tracks and the difficulty around those because a director will fall in love with that and expect a similar thing with the final score. There is a lot of dead space in this track, but that may be due to the “isolated score” aspect of it. Still, I found the specific technical details offered up rewarding.

Also carried over from previous editions are a collection of deleted scenes , audition footage , and the film’s trailer . The deleted footage consists of eight scenes and runs about 8-minutes. An optional commentary features the director going over why the scenes were originally written and shot before explaining why they were cut, and which were the hardest to take out. I can’t say any of the footage will be missed from the finished film, though it’s funny to just see how awful Monica’s date with the college guy went, and it was also interesting to see the direction Prince-Bythewood wanted to take Tyra Banks’ character in. The audition footage, running 9-minutes, is noted to be testing the chemistry of the film’s actors, one set featuring Lathan and Omar Epps, and then another set featuring Kyla Pratt and Glenndon Chatman, playing the younger versions of Lathan’s and Epps’ characters. Not carried over from previous editions are storyboards, a music video, and a documentary that appears to be about women in sports.

I’m a little surprised that last item didn’t make it to this, but I haven’t seen it: for all I know it could be a puff piece not worth carrying over. Criterion does add a feature that may fill in for it in some small manner, the 22-minute Athletes and Artists and “Love & Basketball,” featuring director Prince-Bythewood, former WNBA player and Hall of Famer Sheryl Swoopes, and writer-producer-actor Lena Waithe. The conversation between the three, performed remotely, focuses on how the film managed to “speak” directly to the two guests here of the director, representing them in a way no other film had. There is discussion around what was expected of them growing up and the lack of role models for them, which leads to a discussion on how the film fills that gap. The conversation does get rather personal, Prince-Bythewood admitting here that her anxiety around how women athletes would respond to the film caused her to skip a screening that Swoopes had attended, and Swoopes, much to the delight of the director, explains how her wedding had a Love & Basketball theme to it. It’s a subject Criterion has touched on in a few other releases recently, but the conversation ultimately touches on the importance of representation in film and the impact that can have.

Criterion has also produced the 38-minute making-of documentary, Playing for Your Heart , featuring interviews with Prince-Bythewood; actors Lathan, Omar Epps and Alfre Woodard; producer/writer Reggie Rock Bythewood; and basketball adviser Colleen Matsuhara. The documentary is probably about what you expect, but it does get more into that love/hate relationship between the director and star, where Lathan was almost fired simply over how she was rehearsing her lines before a script reading, all because Prince-Bythewood, still new to all of this, didn't understand how actors like Lathan prepare. We also wonderfully get to hear from Woodard and Epps and their stories behind agreeing the roles, despite Epps not wanting to play an athlete again, and the director talks about the many drafts of the script and the director workshops she did to help in developing scenes, clips from those workshops presented here. Accompanying this is a shorter 16-minute feature around editing the film, with the director and editor, Shropshire, going over that process of the film again, though expanding on a few details offered up in the commentary.

The best inclusions are two short films by Prince-Bythewood, the director also offering up a short 4-minute introduction. The 1997 film Progress is a 3-minute film that bluntly questions the progress black Americans have made in the country over the last hundred years. Her 1991 UCLA thesis film, Stitches , is also here. The 31-minute film has more straight forward narrative, focusing on a young up-and-coming comedian and her relationship with her family and boyfriend, the latter of whom is currently putting himself through law school. Slow reveals through the story and her comedy routines paired with her hesitancy about going to a family barbecue her uncle may be attending all help in offering up a portrait of a damaged person who goes through self-destructive fits when facing past traumas. It’s an obviously personal film that is incredibly well made, packing in a lot about its character in a very short runtime. What ends up being most interesting about this film, which has a couple of minor thematic similarities to Love & Basketball (at least around dealing with a relationship and career), is how much darker this film is compared to her first feature, the director in her introduction attributing that to just where she was in her life when making each film.

The release then closes things off with an insert featuring a short essay on the film by writer Roxane Gay. Despite the lack of more academic material or more footage from the director workshops Prince-Bythewood performed when developing the story, Criterion has pulled together a satisfying set of features around the film’s production that I think fans of the film will be more than pleased to dig through.

A rather sharp special edition for the film, delivering an excellent new presentation and a number of involving features around the film’s development and production.

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Review by Criterion HQ

Love & basketball 2000.

17 Jun 2021

Criterion’s review published on Letterboxd:

Sparks fly both on and off the court in this groundbreaking feature debut by writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard), which elevated the coming-of-age romance by giving honest expression to the challenges female athletes face in a world that doesn’t see them as equal. Sanaa Lathan (Alien vs. Predator) and Omar Epps (Higher Learning) make for one of the most iconic screen couples of the 2000s as the basketball-obsessed next-door neighbors who find love over flirtatious pickup games, fall apart under the strain of high-pressure college hoops and families, and drift in and out of each other’s lives as they pursue their twin aspirations of playing professionally.

Our edition of LOVE & BASKETBALL is coming September 21, 2021. Visit Criterion.com to learn more and pre-order.

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Love & Basketball (United States, 2000)

Love & Basketball is, as one can infer from the title, about love and basketball. The film follows the lives of two next-door neighbors, one male and one female, from their first meeting on the court at the age of 11 until a fateful night a dozen years in the future. Through all this time, their passion for basketball is equaled only by their passion for each other, but it's never clear for either of them which takes precedence - the game or the relationship. In the final analysis, the feature debut of writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood (backed by producer Spike Lee) succeeds better as a sports movie than as a romance. While the sports clichés are kept to a minimum in favor of a Hoop Dreams -type view of basketball, the love story follows a familiar trajectory.

The two protagonists are Monica Wright (Sanaa Latham) and Quincy McCall (Omar Epps). She is determined to become the first woman ever to enter the NBA; he is driven by the need to better the accomplishments of his father, Zeke (Dennis Haysbert), a star for the Los Angeles Clippers. Love & Basketball is divided into "quarters" like a basketball game, with each segment chronicling a different period in Monica and Quincy's lives. The first quarter, set in 1981, details their meeting and their brief relationship as an 11-year old "couple." The second quarter skips ahead seven years to high school, where both Monica and Quincy are stars. However, since he's a male and she's a female, his future in the sport appears to be set while hers is uncertain. When it comes to choosing a college, she has to wait anxiously to hear from a recruiter while he plans a press conference to announce his choice. Quarter #3 transpires during the pair's freshman year at college, when she faces pressure from a demanding coach and he struggles with salacious revelations about his father. Finally, in the fourth quarter, the film shows the degree to which Monica and Quincy's dreams are realized both on and off the court.

Although Love & Basketball 's story does not pack an emotional wallop, it tells an engaging tale about how the things that seem to be the most important in life aren't always so. On the surface, that might appear to be a trite message, but Prince-Bythewood's screenplay has two elements to distinguish it: vivid characters and a female perspective on a genre that is typically dominated by testosterone-saturated motion pictures. Along with the yet-to-be-released Girlfight , Love & Basketball affirms that sports (and sports movies) are not the lone purview of men.

Prince-Bythewood makes a valiant attempt to balance the screen time given to Quincy with that accorded to Monica, as well as to afford an equal hearing to the complexities of their individual stories. However, it doesn't take long for the viewer to recognize that Love & Basketball is really Monica's story. She is the better developed character and it's clear that the writer/director understands and sympathizes with her more than with Quincy. That's not to say that his character is ignored or constructed out of bits and pieces of other sports movie protagonists; Quincy is allowed to shine - just not as brightly as Monica.

Love & Basketball 's structure offers a way to cover 12 years in one movie, but it is a little cumbersome. The movie feels longer than it needs to be, with segments #2 and #3 both dragging in places. Prince-Bythewood's approach also demands a certain level of suspension of disbelief. During the earliest time period, two younger actors (Kyla Pratt and Glenndon Chatman) stand in for Monica and Quincy, but, starting with the high school years, it's Lathan and Epps. And, while Lathan might be able to pass for a teenager, there's no chance for Epps, who looks every day of his 26 years.

Both leads give strong performances, with Lathan's work slightly overshadowing Epps' (as one might expect from a movie in which the focus is slanted towards the female lead). There is a strong chemistry between them, and both are capable of carrying scenes on their own. They're also athletic enough to make the basketball scenes believable. The most impressive supporting performance is turned in by Dennis Haysbert, who plays Quincy's all-too-human father. As Monica's mother, Alfre Woodard is underused, although she does have one nice scene opposite Lathan. Also appearing are Harry J. Lennix as Monica's supportive father and Debbi Morgan as Quincy's long-suffering mother.

Even though every major cast member of Love & Basketball is black, the film is essentially color-blind. However, while race is a non-issue, gender is not. The film illustrates, among other things, the vast gulf of inequality that exists between male and female athletes. By dramatizing Monica and Quincy's lives in parallel, Pince-Bythewood is able to explore the inequities. Despite having the same drive, ambition, and passion, they cannot reach the same peak, nor are the plateaus along the way on the same level. For example, Monica's high school games are played in front of a sparse crowd while Quincy's take place in a packed gymnasium. Attention to details like this place Love & Basketball a step or two ahead of the competition. Although not a slam-dunk, it's a satisfying lay-up.

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• April 17, 2024 (United Kingdom)
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