He Got Game review from the Bill Simmons archive. I tried searching for Ray Allen game winners yesterday but He Got Game is on YouTube so I got caught up watching that. And tonight I remembered reading a Simmons review of it a few years ago.

You need to play for something in these things, so they decide to play to 11 for Jesus’s letter of intent to Big State (or else he’ll go to Tiny College). Supposedly, the script called for Jesus to win the game 11-0, but Spike encouraged them to play for real … and Denzel ended up scoring the first basket. And then another. And another.

(Whaaaaaaaaaat??????)

If you know the background behind the scene, it’s mesmerizing to watch — Denzel trash-talking and prancing around, Allen quietly fuming, and then the tide turning, with Allen taking over as the older man wears out. Best of all, Spike keeps the camera back so we can see everything unfold — an NBA star trying to avoid being embarrassed, a Hollywood star trying to earn respect, tensions mounting with every basket. And everything fits the framework of the actual characters, just a father and son finally able to communicate on some level. What a scene. Even Coach Reeves’s first game against Hayward in “The White Shadow” pilot wasn’t this good.

(P.S. Bill Simmons gave in and has a Twitter account now: sportsguy33. His current tweet links to a Where Amazing Happens parody that he requested in his latest column: Slow-motion of Dwyane Wade’s drive at the end of Game 5 of the 2006 Finals when the referee called a foul from about forty feet away, followed by the Mavericks reactions. Question: if you throw a Mavs jersey on Oden and teleport him to the 2006 Finals, does he foul out during warm-ups?)