Air Jordan just isn't the GOAT of basketball but in my opinion is the WOAT of acting when it comes to NBA players - yes I have him over Shaq. He and Shaq are one line/cut actors that end up exaggerating every line which makes editing a scene painful and watching the scene even more so. What I mean by one line/cut is you can tell the "actors" can't deliver a scene of dialogue so they are directed to deliver the script line by line with the physical actions to go with it. Then they will either cut to another person speaking or a shot of action to prevent multiple lines of dialogue to be given by the NBA stars.
Bleacher Report did an interesting feature on who they thought were the 5 worst NBA actors. They were more generous with Air by placing him at 4 but all you have to do is watch those Hanes commercials with Charlie Sheen and MJ's hitler mustache. I thought it was also unfair to place KD at 3 when we haven't even seen his movie Thunderstruck yet.
- Shaq
- Dennis Rodman
- Kevin Durant
- Michael Jordan
- Wilt
With all of this criticism I will praise a few performances by NBA players. It's not that they were great or even that good in these films but due to the challenge of the role and/or type of movie or supporting cast & director, I'm going to give these guys a thumbs up.
- Kareem Abdul Jabbar - Airplane (Zucker Bros)
- Ray Allen - He Got Game (Spike Lee)
- Allan Houston - Black and White (James Toback)
- Anthony Mason - Celebrity (Woody Allen)
- Marques Johnson - White Men Can't Jump (Ron Shelton)