Edward Norton, who did receive an Oscar nomination the same year for 'American History X,' was a fan. Those who have seen it may have caught it on TV or home video first.

It had a $25 million budget, the same as 'The Shawshank Redemption' (which it name-drops), but it didn't have the benefit of an Academy Awards push and a theatrical rerelease behind it, as 'Shawshank' did. Though it holds solid 81% and 83% critic and audience scores, respectively, on Rotten Tomatoes, 'He Got Game' failed to break even at the box office in 1998. Another sports pro turned actor, Jim Brown, plays one of his parole officers, and they keep him on a short leash - or in an electronic ankle tag, as the case may be. Lee had already made one epic with Denzel Washington in 'Malcolm X.' This film marked their third collaboration including 'Mo' Better Blues,' and they would team up again for a fourth time in 'Inside Man' before Lee gave Washington's son, John David Washington, his breakthrough in 'BlackKklansman.' Here, Washington's character, Jake Shuttlesworth, is a pawn of the prison-industrial complex, who can only hope to pass the ball to the next generation.

'He Got Game' begins with a musical overture and a flow of impressionistic images that set the stage for a sports movie with the scope and lyricism of an American epic. In 'He Got Game,' when NBA star and first-time actor Ray Allen looks the viewer in the eye and says basketball is 'like poetry in motion,' he might as well be talking about Spike Lee's filmmaking aesthetic and the fluidity of Barry Alexander Brown's editing. The Pitch: A convicted felon receives one week of parole to convince his son, the nation's #1 high school basketball prospect, to play for the governor's alma mater.

Big time willie he got game