FILM · 1998
He Got Game
18 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (18)
- #001
The original script for the scene in which Jesus and Jake play for the letter of intent required Jesus to win 15-0. However, Spike Lee encouraged the players to actually play. When the matchup between Ray Allen and Denzel Washington began, Washington scored four points while the crew shouted and cheered from the sideline. Allen was furious and started hitting ten straight points, at which point Lee declared that Allen had won and the scene (and the game) was over.
- #002
Spike Lee initially wanted Kobe Bryant to play Jesus Shuttlesworth. Although Bryant liked the script and the idea of working with Lee, he had just finished his rookie year in the NBA (the 1996-97 season) and had airballed several shots in the Lakers' brutal playoff loss to the Utah Jazz. Bryant therefore planned a training program to help him maintain his strength over the longer NBA seasons (a major adjustment given Bryant's progression from high school to the pros). After Bryant turned down the role, saying the summer of 1997 was too important to spend on the film, Lee immediately called Ray Allen, who accepted the lead role right away.
- #003
It was the first Spike Lee film to open at number one in US box office receipts.
- #004
Ray Allen and Spike Lee talked about making this film an effective sequel, and Allen said he imagined Jesus Shuttlesworth (like Allen himself) nearing the end of a successful professional career. As part of his interest in such a project, when Miami Heat players were allowed to wear special jerseys with nicknames or initials as part of an NBA promotion, Allen's jersey read "J. Shuttlesworth" on the back. Lee immediately and happily posted a photo of the back of Allen's jersey on Instagram.
- #005
It was shot between July and September 1997.
- #006
Hill Harper plays a high school kid in the film. At the time, Harper was 31 years old.
- #007
The two women with whom Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen) has a threesome in his Tech University dorm room are played by the real-life adult film porn stars Chasey Lain and Jill Kelly.
- #008
In addition to the many coaches and players appearing as themselves, three of Jesus's teammates at the time of the film's release were played by NBA players Travis Best, Walter McCarty and John Wallace. Another NBA player, Rick Fox, played Chick, who shows Jesus around Tech University. As of 2014, Fox has quite a few acting roles, but this film was the only on-screen role for Best and McCarty, while Wallace has just one more acting role, in another Spike Lee film, Bamboozled (2000).
- #009
Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury were among the NBA players considered for Jesus Shuttlesworth. However, neither wanted to attend the deal-breaking auditions for director Spike Lee.
- #010
Rosario Dawson was 18 years old and still a virgin when she shot a sex scene with Ray Allen in this film. In fact, the actress later admitted she did not have sex until she was 20.
- #011
It was the first major theatrical film that Spike Lee wrote and directed but in which he did not appear, even in a small role.
- #012
The film opens with a montage of people playing basketball in the US, people from every background. This is set to Aaron Copland's "John Henry," about a black man who, in American folklore, raced and beat a steam-powered machine (a railroad) but died immediately afterward with his hammer in his hand.
- #013
Themselves and two basketball players appear in the opening montage. Agee and Gates were the subjects of the critically acclaimed documentary Hoop Dreams (1994), which follows two young men from Chicago chasing their dreams of becoming professional basketball players.
- #014
It was Ray Allen's first film.
- #015
The music for this film includes music by Public Enemy and Aaron Copland. The former is a hip-hop group that contributed original songs to the soundtrack. The latter composed instrumental pieces not arranged solely for the film and was in fact included posthumously.
- #016
Both of the schools to which Jesus narrows down his choices (Big State and Tech University) are fictional.
- #017
In a recent 2025 interview on "WTF," Spike Lee gave more detail about the one-on-one father-son scene in the film: "Denzel played JV at Fordham when P. J. Carlesimo was the coach, so in his mind, Denzel never told me this, but in his mind he was not going to lose eleven to nothing. And he started hitting some lucky shots and Ray Allen is looking at me like, 'Spike, this is not what the script calls for,' and instead of saying 'CUT,' he's giving me the technical sign, saying 'Timeout, timeout,' but it made the film better."
- #018
It was Kim Director's film debut. She would go on to appear in Spike Lee's feature films Summer of Sam (1999), Bamboozled (2000), She Hate Me (2004) and Inside Man (2006), and would also play a recurring role in She's Gotta Have It (2017), a series created by Lee.
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