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A Facebook group of over 5,000 people with a loose grasp of science, government, and grammar has issued a bogus card to its members, supposedly exempting them from wearing a mask in public.

The card is issued by the Freedom to Breathe Agency (FTBA) a Facebook Group posing as a government agency that protects people’s right to go mask-free in public.

The card claims the holder has a disability that prevents them from wearing a mask, and that it’s illegal for any business to ask them to disclose their condition.

“I am exempt from any ordinance requiring face mask usage in public. Wearing a face mask poses a mental and/or physical risk to me. Under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), I am not required to disclose my condition to you,” the card reads.

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“If found in violation of the ADA you could face steep penalties,” the card continues. “Organizations and businesses can be fined up to $75,000 for your first violation and $150,000 for any subsequent violations. Denying access to your business/organization will be also reported to FTBA for further actions.”

It’s pretty disturbing that anyone would pretend they have a disability to get away with putting people’s health and safety at risk by going mask-free during a pandemic.

The good news is that the card looks so bogus that it’s safe to assume no one would ever fall for the scam.

via Reddit

The card is littered with typographical errors.

The headline should read: “FACE MASK EXEMPTION CARD” not “EXEMPT.”

The word poses is spelled posses.

The ADA’s official title is the Americans with Disabilities Act not the Americans with Disability Act.

Organizations and businesses can be fined for “their” not “your” first violation.

Further, if it was an official government agency, the website would be at a .gov site not a .com.

The FTBA’s website was a monument to anti-science, paranoia, and bad grammar, but it’s been taken down. Here’s a screenshot that was taken before it went offline.

The fake exemption card caught the attention of the Department of Justice that said it is aware of the fake card and that “these postings were not issued by the Department and are not endorsed by the Department.”

Freedom to Breathe Agency / Facebook

According to the group’s Facebook site “Wearing a mask is an unhealthy obstruction of oxygen flow that can lead to hypoxemia and hypoxia, can permanently damage the brain, lungs, heart and about any organ.”

However, that is not true.

According to Dr. Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, an epidemiologist and lecturer at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales Australia, hypoxia is unlikely to take place with cloth and surgical masks.

Some people with pre-existing respiratory illnesses (like asthma, COPD), may face breathing difficulty with use of certain types of tight fitted masks, called respirators. [There is] less chance of hypoxia as they may discontinue using masks in that case. Risk is very low with cloth and surgical masks as they are not tight around [the] face.

This information is not hard to find.

The members of the Freedom to Breathe Agency either aren’t smart enough to understand the basic science behind wearing a mask or don’t have the curiosity to find out the truth for themselves.

Wearing a mask not only prevents people from catching COVID-19 but from spreading the deadly disease as well. So the Freedom to Breathe Agency are willfully deciding to put the health of others in danger because they aren’t smart enough to know or they just don’t care.

They don’t care about science, they don’t care about the health of others, and they sure don’t care about grammar.

When Disneyland finally opens, Star Wars land might not be the only new attraction you’ll get to experience on your first trip back into the park. In a post published on the Disneyland Parks blog, the theme park announced that it will transform the current Splash Mountain attraction at their Disneyland Resort and Magic Kingdom theme parks in Southern California and Florida to align with the 2009 animated feature The Princess and the Frog. The original attraction was themed around Disney’s 1946 feature Song of the South, a film inspired by the Uncle Remus stories, a collection of folktales from the Southern Plantation Era published in the 1880s.

If you weren’t aware that Splash Mountain was themed after a movie rather than just some weird drug trip of a ride full of glowing plants and menacing critters, we don’t blame you, Disney has been pretty ashamed of the movie for some time now. It’s been shelved by the company since the 80s, and does not appear on the Disney+ streaming site. There’s been public support for a retheme for years, but the issue received renewed attention amid the social justice protests that have broken out across the country after the killing of George Floyd by the police.

“The retheme of Splash Mountain is of particular importance today,” begins the statement issued by Disney. “The new concept is inclusive — one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year.”

The Princess and the Frog, set in New Orleans, Louisiana, famously features Disney’s first animated depiction of an African American princess, Princess Tiana of Maldonia, and the new attraction’s story will take off after the movie’s final kiss and will follow Tiana and her trumpet-playing Aligator companion Louis “on a musical adventure as they prepare for their first-ever mardi gras performance.”

In a statement by Anika Noni Rose, the actress who voices Princess Tiana, expressed her support for the theme:

“It is really exciting to know that Princess Tiana’s presence in both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom will finally be fully realized! As passionate as I am about what we created, I know the fans are going to be over the moon. The Imagineers are giving us the Princess and the Frog Mardi Gras celebration we’ve been waiting for, and I’m here for it.”

The new attraction will be designed by Disney Imagineer Charita Carter, and fans of the original Splash Mountain will be glad to know that the new attraction’s creative design will also be overseen by Disneyland Imagineer Tony Baxter, who crafted the original Splash Mountain experience in 1989 after being inspired by his childhood memories of watching Song of the South.

According to Disney’s blog, a launch date for the new Splash Mountain has yet to be announced, though Disneyland Park’s Imagineers have been working on a Splash Mountain refresh since last year when they developed a backstory for the attraction and settled on a concept sometime this past summer. Meaning: It might come sooner than later.

With #JungleCruise currently trending on Twitter, too, it seems this might begin an even deeper exploration of the tropes seen in Disney rides.

Chris Evans and Paul Rudd have a lot more in common than starring in their own Marvel movies. The two actors recently made the jump into streaming TV series with Apple TV’s Defending Jacob for Evans and Netflix’s Living with Yourself for Rudd. They’re also both pretty adept at giving entertaining interviews, so it made perfect sense for Variety to pair them up for its “Actors on Actors” issue.

While looking surprisingly well-groomed for just coming out of a quarantine, the two actors discussed their streaming shows before Evans got down to brass tacks and demanded to know the secret to Rudd’s ageless looks and how he manages to be awesome in so many pop culture staples:

Evans: Why don’t you age? Are you drinking baby blood?

Rudd: I most certainly age.

Evans: Oh, you know what? It’s not a question so much as it’s just an attaboy. In terms of Hollywood, you are a part of Marvel, you’re a part of “Friends” and you’re in the [Judd] Apatow crew. Those are three real clubby, cliquey, benchmark-y things. I can’t think of anybody else that has such a kind of wide-spread affiliation with so many different genres and groups. Basically, what does it feel like to be awesome?

Unfortunately, Rudd dodged the question and left Evans hanging without learning the secret to the Ant-Man star’s immortal looks and natural coolness. But the two did get to reminiscing about how they met for the very first time on the set of Captain America: Civil War. Not only that, but Evans revealed that Rudd was gracious to dance in a Grease sing-along video that Evans was making even though the two had just met that day. However, the footage never saw the light of day, so maybe everything Paul Rudd touches doesn’t turn to cinematic gold.

Nah, his part is probably great.

(Via Variety)

Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening meant that perhaps the most important Premier League match in the club’s history would not take place with the Reds on the pitch. If Thursday’s tilt between Chelsea and Manchester City ended with anything other than a City win, then for the first time in Premier League history, Liverpool would be champions.

After 90 scintillating minutes of football, the decades-long wait on Merseyside ended up coming to its conclusion thanks to a 2-1 Chelsea victory.

The story of the match was how a pair of Manchester City blunders led to Chelsea’s goals. While City appeared in control of the game at the start of things, Chelsea broke the scoreless affair thanks to Christian Pulisic. Benjamin Mendy and Ilkay Gundogan had a miscommunication upon which the American was able to pounce. Showing off the pace, dribbling, and skill that made him one of the most expensive signings in club history, Pulisic took on both Mendy and Gundogan en route to a silky finish from the top of the box.

City, however, have been proud Premier League champions for nearly 900 days, thanks in large part to the brilliance of Kevin de Bruyne. The Belgian, who very well might be the best midfielder in the world, has saved his squad on plenty of occasions, and looked primed to do it once more when he buried a gorgeous free kick in the second half.

From there, the match decided to descend into complete and utter chaos. Pulisic looked primed to pick up his second of the match, as he absolutely blew past Fernandinho and beat Ederson. His finish, however, was not powerful enough, and Kyle Walker was able to narrowly clear the ball off the line.

Minutes later, it appeared a goal line clearance happened once again, as Ederson and Fernandinho teamed up to thwart Chelsea once again. The issue, though, was that Fernandinho used his hand, leading to a red card and a penalty. Willian stepped up to the spot, Ederson went the wrong way, and Liverpool came mere minutes away from earning the title.

With 10 men on the pitch and needing two goals to keep their slight title hopes alive, City weren’t able to turn the fight they showed for the final few minutes into anything. The whistle blew in London, and several hundred miles away, the (hopefully socially distant) celebration in Liverpool began.

Liverpool had seemed preordained to win the title from early on this year, as the Reds played with a ruthlessness that no club in the world was able to match on a nightly basis. While the Prem’s COVID-19 delay meant that that coronation would have to wait a little longer than Jurgen Klopp and co. would have liked, waiting a few more months is nothing when it’s been 30 years since their last time earning the distinction of being the kings of England.

While crowning a champion is done and dusted, there are still several more matches to play in this campaign. By nature of being the champions, Liverpool have earned a guard of honour from their opponents ahead of their next Premier League match. Because the footballing gods have quite the sense of humor about them, the Reds will next take the pitch on Thursday, July 2, when they travel to the Ethiad Stadium to square off against Manchester City.

People’s Party once again takes place via video chat for the latest episode with special guest Method Man. After The RZA recounted the origins of Wu-Tang Clan on People’s Party Live in April, Method Man gives his own take on the iconic hip-hop supergroup’s formation, as well as explaining how he got his own start as a solo artist before his fateful meeting with The RZA.

Meth explains how he wrote “Method Man,” his formal introduction to the world from Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), the group’s groundbreaking debut album. He says the inspiration came to him while he and Cappadonna were on an all-night drug trip listening to Hall & Oates. The chorus of “Method Of Love” became the basis for the hook on “Method Man,” while the rhymes derived from Meth incorporating pop culture references like Fat Albert.

He also explains how comic books and Saturday matinees of Shaw Brothers kung-fu movies opened the group’s minds to RZA’s Eastern philosophies and approach to “strength in numbers.” “I’ll let you in on a little Wu-Tang trivia,” he says. “Wu-Tang originally was just supposed to be GZA, RZA, and Ol’ Dirty… [“Protect Ya Neck”] was supposed to be a bunch of friends from around the way spitting on this record. Being the scientist that he is, RZA said, “Let’s see if we can attack it like that.” RZA had to overcome some dissent from GZA, who snuck subliminal shots at RZA’s process into their debut, but eventually the crew became the foundation for an entire movement of grimy, lyrically-focused hip-hop from New York. The rest, as they say, is history.

Watch a preview of Method Man’s People’s Party interview above and catch the full episode on Monday, June 29.

People’s Party is a weekly interview show hosted by Talib Kweli with big-name guests exploring hip-hop, culture, and politics. Subscribe via Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Athlete A (Netflix documentary) — This film digs into the claims of abuse at USA Gymnastics through the eyes of The Indianapolis Star reporters. It’s heavy stuff but a valuable watch to expose the culture of cruelty that persevered through the elite-level gymnastics system for far too long.

Home Game (Netflix series) — On a brighter note, this series will explore unusual and extreme sporting traditions across the globe, including roller derby and… voodoo wrestling?

Burden Of Truth (CW, 8:00 p.m.) — Joanna’s not thrilled about helping out with a class-action suit, but it’s probably worth it, right? Billy might be able to save the day with help from his dad.

In The Dark (CW, 9:00 p.m.) — The stakes are high for the whole group with fallout over Nia’s supply complicating matters for everyone.

Blindspot (NBC, 9:00 p.m.) — This crazy tattoo show’s now taking on a high-stakes undercover mission, and Madeline’s son will hopefully be intercepted, but an old ally is on the way? Hmm.

Cake (FXX, 10:00 p.m.) — Two Aussie brothers experience love, life, and humanity while leading a dangerous mission against man’s eldest enemy.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon: Shaquille O’Neal, John Lithgow, Ozuna

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert: Patton Oswalt, Ibram X, Kendi

Late Night With Seth Meyers: Rachel McAdams, John Early

The Late Late Show With James Corden: Russell Crowe, SpaceX Crew Dragon Astronauts, Charlie Puth

The Hellboy reboot starring David Harbour didn’t do too hot in theaters despite featuring a character whose head literally bursts into flames. The film was a financial and critical dud, and even Harbour himself admitted that it had “major problems.” Fans were also puzzled by the seemingly odd choice to recast the character despite Ron Perlman‘s beloved portrayal of the beer-chugging demon. However, in a new interview, Perlman drops the revelation that he actually was approached to star in the Hellboy reboot, but he turned it down because it was missing one very vital component.

While promoting the VOD release of his new movie Run with the Hunted, Perlman revealed to Comic Book Movie that the third Hellboy movie was offered to him, but he had to give it a hard pass if original Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro wasn’t involved:

“The reboot was something I had the opportunity to participate in and decided that the only version of Hellboy I’m interested in is the one I do with Guillermo and so in walking away from it, I truly walked away from it, and haven’t seen it or heard much about it. I wished them well, but it was not in my bailiwick.”

While fans of the first two Hellboy films from Perlman and Del Toro have been patiently waiting for that story to be wrapped up in a third installment, the Hellboy reboot bombing may have completely scuttled the chances of that ever happening. Then again, with the advent of streaming services battling for new content and reviving projects, who knows what might happen down the road.

(Via Comic Book Movie)

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Despite having just three albums to her name, make no mistake of it: Teyana Taylor is a veteran in the R&B world. Ten years ago, Taylor withered her way onto Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album at the final hour. It’s there she provided background vocals and, thanks to the satisfaction of Mr. West, would be signed to his GOOD Music imprint in 2012. Two years later, she would release her debut album VII while her sophomore effort would arrive nearly four years later in 2018. After successfully executing a quick turnaround for album No. 3, Taylor looks to present her one-of-a-kind artistic vision once again with her spotlight-claiming release, The Album.

The Album attempts to ensure that Taylor will receive her crowning moment among the masses. It’s a moment that would have arrived with her 2018 album K.T.S.E. — if her vision had not been shelved for that of her label boss’, who saw it fit that projects shave off half their weight for a quicker-yet-unfulfilling listening experience. This time around, Teyana cruises with two hands on the wheel while backseat drivers are left to find their own ride.

With all outside interference removed from her creative field of vision, Taylor’s third album presents a love absent from the fairy tale experience. Listeners are instead introduced to an emotional whirlwind that resides heavily in lust, persuasion, and sadness. Backed by Rick Ross and daughter Junie on “Come Back To Me,” Taylor seeks a momentary end to the fights and struggles of her relationship. Propelled by exhaustion and doubts towards the true nature of his feelings for her, she wearily loosens her once-tight grip with the hope that if the love is real and true, they will find their way back to each other. Two songs later the persuasion continues with Taylor calling on Erykah Badu for a modern-day version of Badu’s “Next Lifetime” record on “Lowkey.” Fighting against a “right person, wrong time” premise, she attempts to persuade her secret lover to try and make things work, despite all signs pointing to its failures. “I want it / But this ain’t the right time,” she sings. “But, dammit, you’re so fine / So take me tonight.”

Moving away from the moments of persuasion on The Album, Taylor dives headfirst into accounts of her sexual pleasures. Intending to make sure every minute of the night is filled with satisfaction, Taylor recruits Kehlani for a steamy night between the two women on “Morning.” “I’m five foot five, I can handle it / You fine, fine, fine, you scandalous,” Kehlani says on the song, while Taylor promises to “give it to you just how you want it.” Taylor continues to satisfy her desires two songs later on “69.” Fantasizing and then detailing a night focused on simultaneous satisfaction, Taylor begs her lover to let go of their grudges against her as she has done the same with him. Not looking to place the blame on anyone, she instead poses the idea of simultaneously apologizing for their part in the issue by playing their respective numerical roles in the bedroom. “Mad about some argument from yesterday,” Taylor says. “’Cause tonight, no need to fight, I can ease your mind.”

Embarking on the last third of The Album, Taylor veers into moments of sadness as her ventures into love prove to be one-sided and unfulfilling for herself. Tired and fed-up on “Concrete,” she compares her unsuccessful attempts of getting through to her hard-headed partner to parsing through concrete. Her pain can be felt as she emotionally belts out her displeasures with lyrics like “Tryna get through to you feels like a burden / Why am I so confused if we’re for certain?” Time and time again her complaints and concerns are downplayed and viewed as not serious, leaving her to privately seek a relationship that is rock solid rather than a partner with an impenetrable ear to her needs. The following song, “Still,” is quite literally soaked in tears as she sings, “I keep crying for love / But it won’t wipe my tears.” Playing as a double entendre for the pain inflicted by love and being a part of Black America, especially as a woman, Taylor is left to be consoled by her tears as the love she desperately seeks is nowhere to be found.

The Album goes on for a bit too long and, as a fan, the eyes eventually grow tired and the ears overworked. Not to say the quality of the songs diminished at any point on the album, but the quality of The Album and its listening experience would have been boosted by a considerable amount. Setting the few flaws aside, Teyana Taylor’s third album is a well-written book of love in her own eyes, one that shows the many faces of pain, confidence, hope, pleasure, and happiness enclosed in an emotional playback of the birth of her first child and a celebratory discovery of love.

The Album is out now via G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam. Get it here.

The 1975 are fresh off the release of their new album, Notes On A Conditional Form. Although the group doesn’t often have guests on their songs, they recruited Phoebe Bridgers for “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America,” and now Bridgers has spoken up to defend them against haters.

In a new profile from The Forty Five, she explains why she thinks disliking the group could be considered sexist, saying, “Hating The 1975, I feel like, is sexist, because teenage girls invented that band being famous. Like, teenage girls invented The Beatles. Teenage girls invented music. You’re trying to say that something’s stupid just because teenage girls like it? It’s f*cking insane.”

Elsewhere in the piece, she spoke about Billie Eilish, and how the singer’s family having connections in show business shouldn’t count against her material: “People trying to cancel Billie Eilish is my favorite. It’s just like, you can’t handle how cool she is. Or people saying that female indie rock stars were invented by a trust fund or something. It’s like, you know where The Strokes came from? Nepotism and wealth has always informed music. It has never not. You get more opportunities or whatever, it doesn’t mean that their music is bad. And if we’re gonna shine that light on women, f*cking look around at the men whose parents bought them music as a career.”

She also expressed hope that “middle class musicians,” as she called them, don’t become an endangered species due to the coronavirus pandemic: “I hope middle class musicians survive, because there’s already not enough of them. It’s either you have a trust fund, and you can pay to go on tour… You either can afford to not make any money, or you stay in your hometown, you can barely even afford to play gigs. The middle class is disappearing, because there’s such little reward. There’s a danger that [the pandemic will] really increase the privileged divide of music, which is heinous.”

Read the full feature here.

Basketball is a sport that’s practically built for the drama of movies. The fast-paced action is perfect for montages, and the tension of last second-heroics punctuated by the sound of a buzzer are all the makings of cinematic greatness. But not all hoops films are made equal. Some, in fact, are downright mediocre and others, while originally praised as brilliant, have fared worse over time than others.

There are plenty of basketball movies — whether they follow a team’s journey or use the game as the backdrop for the larger thrust of the film. But a good basketball movie needs to be well cast with a strong story, some realistic-looking game-play and maybe some classic moments and quotes that stand out to fans years later.

Having trouble sorting it all out? We’ve got you covered.

13) Semi Pro

There has to be a straight-up comedy on here with zero appetite for drama or anything but laughs, and Semi-Pro is it. The heyday of struggling basketball teams is ripe with comedy, and this Will Ferrell movie is criminally underrated in his overall comedic cannon. Ferrell as a player/coach/owner of an American Basketball Association team is a gem. This movie is not realistic in any way — Andre Benjamin of Outkast plays a prominent role — but it doesn’t have to be. Basketball in Flint, Michigan looks like a hell of a lot of fun in this one, and its enduring legacy is the occasional Tropics jersey you’ll see at an NBA game.

12) Hoosiers

Hoosiers needs to be on this list because it is regarded as a classic basketball movie. The Indiana Pacers have a Hickory High jersey that looks very cool. And Gene Hackman in a coaching role is always something to appreciate. But there is not a movie on this list that has aged worse than Hoosiers, a film made in 1986 and a film about an all-white small-town basketball team triumphing because they got one good player. In this particular movie, they are the good guys. But three decades later, it’s hard not to view the team they beat as the far more interesting story.

11) Coach Carter

High school basketball is ripe with stories that make for good movies. And making your entire team because they violated your academic agreement is a pretty compelling way to draw an audience in, right? This is one of those basketball movies where the team grows and changes as it gets better on the floor, teaching a lesson along the way. It’s fairly formulaic, but it tells a nice story. A sneaky highlight of this film is an appearance from a very young, extremely bald Channing Tatum. Another early highlight is Samuel L. Jackson, a high school basketball coach, getting challenged by one of the team’s better players to a fight. You can imagine how that goes, but that alone is worth a look, right?

10) Glory Road

Speaking of more interesting basketball stories, there is Glory Road, a Disney-fied version of Texas Western’s run to the men’s NCAA Championship Game in 1966. The 2006 film doesn’t nearly have the cult following of Hoosiers, but the true story is far more compelling and highlights an issue that basketball in that era certainly suffered from: racism. Texas Western’s run to the title game against Kentucky is given the proper weight it should, and Josh Lucas’ turn as The Bear, coach Don Haskins, is a worthy center for this underrated film.

9) The Way Back

A heavy film whose box office fortunes were impacted by COVID shutdowns that happened right as it was coming out, The Way Back demands a lot from its lead as Ben Affleck leans on some of his own experiences with the bottle to play a damaged alcoholic trying to find a rope in the dark and a way out of the hole that his life has become after being pummeled by loss. Basketball factors in as that rope, with Affleck’s former high school standout character finding renewed purpose as a fiery and sometimes unorthodox leader of young men.
8) Teen Wolf

Michael J. Fox is a teen who is also a wolf. I’m not sure what’s not to like here. His character, Scott Howard, turns into an extremely athletic mythical beast. This is a harmless, if not ridiculous classic. And there’s something to be said for that kind of movie getting made in 1985 and still being true today. This is definitely the most “cult classic” of the films listed here, but there’s a particular affection for this movie, which actually sparked an equally-ridiculous MTV show in 2011.

7) Space Jam

Listen: Space Jam is not really a great movie. When you take away the nostalgia for it and a banger of a soundtrack, much like The Mighty Ducks, the bones of the plot are a bit bare. But it’s hard to hate a movie that puts Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny with equal billing on a movie poster. There’s a reason LeBron James has been hounded for years to make a sequel to this 1996 blockbuster: people love the idea of the best player in the game getting sucked into a cartoon vortex. If anything, it’s still the only logical explanation for Jordan deciding to play baseball for a few years.

6) Above The Rim

Above The Rim plays out as a battle for one young man’s soul, standing out as an excellent showcase for the acting talents of Tupac Shakur, whose character, Birdie, does his best to steer the film’s protagonist, Kyle (Duane Martin) off his course as a basketball prodigy with college ball in his future. The film is also a tremendous showcase for ‘90s hip-hop (due to its iconic soundtrack) and a film that aimed for authenticity when showcasing streetball culture.

5) He Got Game

Spike Lee’s ode to basketball is a classic. Denzel Washington’s turn as Jake Shuttlesworth is a great performance and a dynamic role, and an appearance from Ray Allen as his son, Jesus, is a fun surprise for those coming to the film for the first time. This is another movie that settles on a plot involving a five-star high school recruit, but the tale of Shuttlesworth coming to grips with his father’s incarceration for killing his mother is compelling and well-executed here. It’s not the apex of Lee’s or Washington’s career in cinema, but it’s certainly worthy of this list.

4) Blue Chips

Nick Nolte is a conflicted college basketball coach in this 1994 film that has some legendary performances from actual NBA players. Shaq and Penny Hardaway appear as players here, while Rick Pitino and Larry Bird pop up as well. Compared to the kind of scandals that have engulfed college athletics these days, getting a tractor pales in comparison. But the story here is strong, and it’s got some of the best actual basketball scenes out of any movie on this list.

3) Love And Basketball

Basketball is the thing that brings Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps’ characters together and the thing that tears them apart in this smartly-executed, years-spanning love story from writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood. Impeccably cast with familiar faces sprinkled in throughout, the film is careful to really examine the strains and isolation of both being a heralded athlete and someone who feels like no one else believes in their dreams. The pressures of living up to both your parent’s expectations and legacies is also explored, but while it sounds like a lot is going on, Love And Basketball doesn’t get bogged down, injecting enough gentle and intimate moments of connection that you never lose sight of the point or find yourself not rooting for the pair at the center of this story to get out of their own way and into each other’s arms.

2) Hoop Dreams

Maybe the best basketball documentary ever, filmmaker Steve James tells the story of two basketball prospects — William Gates and Arthur Agee — trying to launch basketball careers to get themselves out of inner-city Chicago. The movie follows both players for four years as they go through high school hoops, recruiting and school issues and try to stay on track despite the outside pressures of their lives. This film got an Oscar nod for best film editing, and pouring over all the footage of their stories to weave this one together into a cohesive picture certainly seems worthy. This is a must-see.

1) White Men Can’t Jump

This is a great basketball film that happens to be a lot of fun, playing around in the worlds of trash talk and pick-up ball while leaning heavily on the strength of the uneasy partnership between Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson’s characters (with Rosie Perez thrown into the mix to steal every scene she’s in, as per her usual) and the grift at the heart of that partnership. Everyone loves a film about a good grift and White Men Can’t Jump certainly delivers. Written and directed by sports movie master Ron Shelton, White Men Can’t Jump furthers the truth he also highlights in Bull Durham: that sports can be the foundation for truly great relationships, but the trick is in making those relationships interesting and entertaining.