NBA players do more than their fair share of acting on the basketball court -- faking injuries in order to catch a breather, pleading innocent after committing hard fouls, and feigning interest during regular-season blowouts are just a few of the tricks of the trade -- so it seems logical that they'd transition easily to the world of filmmaking. But is that always the case?
Below are a few notable examples of roundball stars who've made the leap to the big screen. (We've only included players who've appeared in films as characters other than themselves, which thankfully eliminated Space Jam from consideration.)
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For this racy 1998 drama, master of subtlety Spike Lee drafted Nets swingman Allen to play Jesus, a prized high school basketball recruit who becomes his incarcerated father's sole hope for salvation. After receiving mostly positive reviews for his performance, Allen wisely opted to return his focus to the basketball court, where he would eventually impart his dramatic skills to Celtics teammate Paul Pierce.
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Steel is what Iron Man might have looked like, had it been made for a tenth of the budget and with star Robert Downey Jr. replaced by the 7 '1", 350 lb. Shaq Daddy. That is, crappy. Along with Kazaam, this ill-advised comic book flick effectively shut the door on O'Neal's movie star aspirations -- once cited as a motivating factor behind his decision to sign with the Lakers.
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In between trysts with the 20,000 women he supposedly bedded, Wilt the Stilt somehow found the time to battle Arnold Schwarzenegger in this 1984 sequel to Conan the Barbarian. Amazingly, Chamberlain isn't even the most formidable figure in the film -- that distinction belongs to model-actress Grace Jones.
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James Toback's meandering ensemble drama featured a credible performance from Houston as a college player who agonizes over a bookie's offer of $50,000 to throw a game -- an impressive feat, considering that the Knicks' famously overpaid shooting guard earned a little over $876,000 per game during his injury-plagued final season in the NBA. Houston was ultimately upstaged in the film, however, by fellow professional athlete Mike Tyson, whose sexually charged scene with Robert Downey Jr. is the stuff of legend.
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Kareem earned a permanent place in cult movie history for his role opposite martial arts legend Bruce Lee in the 1978 flick Game of Death. The novelty of watching a seven-foot center battle the diminutive Lee fades a bit, however, once it becomes apparent that he only knows two or three moves. Much better are Kareem's comedy chops, which he displayed in the Zucker Brothers' 1981 classic, Airplane!
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The most prolific baller-turned-actor on this list, Fox's interest in the craft dates all the way back to 1994's Blue Chips. His first major non-basketball role came on HBO's gritty prison drama OZ, in which he played a drug-addicted, cello-smashing ex-Laker. Fox has worked sporadically since injuries forced his retirement from basketball in 2004, most recently appearing in the Tyler Perry dramedy Meet the Browns. Let's hope he scores more roles -- if only to save us from his dreadful "analysis" during Lakers telecasts.
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As part of his long, painful post-City Slickers slide, Billy Crystal co-wrote and starred in this regrettable 1998 comedy opposite the 7'7" Muresan, a Romanian-born player who owes his gargantuan frame to a rare pituitary gland disorder. In real life, Hollywood native Crystal is a long-time Clippers fan, which tells you just about everything you need to know about the former funnyman.
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The colorful, combustible Rodman parlayed his penchant for on-court theatrics into a career in Hollywood, making his big-screen debut opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in the 1997 box-office flop Double Team. Despite this, he managed to land a leading role (co-starring with unfunnyman Dane Cook) in the action-comedy Simon Sez, which grossed almost $300,000 during its brief theatrical run in 1999.
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