The 10 Basketball Player Movie Performances You Have To See

The Kia Optima loves basketball and loves it when players try their hand at acting. From the thirty-second cameo to the full-on starring role, these are the ones you gotta see. From the obvious—Kazaam—to the classic—Airplane!—these are the appearances you can't miss.

1. Dirk Nowitzki in “Like Mike”

There's quite a few other ballers' cameos in this flick, but Nowitzki's appearance is by far the best.

2. Gheorghe Muresan in “My Giant”

youtube.com

Pairing the tiny Billy Crystal with the upsettingly tall Gheorghe Muresan is just a good idea, and it resulted in what's commonly called a classic.

3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in "Game of Death"

youtube.com

One of basketball's finest sparring with kung-fu master Bruce Lee? Nothin' wrong with that.

4. Ray Allen in "He Got Game"

youtube.com

Noted as probably the best basketball movie of all-time—courtesy of Spike Lee, of course.

5. Dwight Howard in "Just Wright"

youtube.com

While it's just a cameo, Dwight Howard's totally memorable. Even if the rest of the movie might not quite match up to his appearance.

6. Michael Jordan in "Space Jam"

youtube.com

Obviously.

7. Wilt Chamberlain in "Conan the Destroyer"

youtube.com

Chamberlain infamously claims to have slept with "20,000 women," so it's great that his role in this movie is to protect the virginity of one.

8. Darius Miles in “The Perfect Score”

youtube.com

Aside from the fact that Scarlett Johansson's in it, which is certainly good, Miles's performance is surprisingly believable, despite that we're still upset with him for that whole "dropping-out-of-professional-basketball" thing.

9. Basically everyone in "Forget Paris"

youtube.com

In this rom-com starring Billy Crystal and Debra Winger (so it obviously had to be included), tons of b-ball players cameo as themselves.

10. Julius Erving in "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh"

youtube.com

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh ("TFTSP" for short) is like pretty much every other sports movie out there—sure. But the surprising thing is that Julius Erving is ACTUALLY a good actor?