dumb things about this movie

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1) You mean there are not people on earth who don't worship the almighty dollar???!!!!! Seeing the ridiculous antics of the rich and famous in the media (including suicide attempts), there may be a few people left on earth who want to keep their heads on straight. Maybe just maybe he could see the path that he would be headed down by falling for the money that was being thrown at him. Some of the scenes seem to show that he if he let money blind him, he could end up on drugs, tangled up and owing the mafia, and who knows what else. He was getting schooled and he was realizing everyone was only interested in all much money they could make off him. Maybe he decided to be levelheaded and make is own decision about his life. Imagine that. He had a father in jail and responsibility to his little sister. He may have actually thought of someone else besides money and himself. This is impossible to believe????

2)Excuse me? Every person from the projects has tats and talks like an illiterate boob??? Just because you are used to watching stereotypes on TV doesn't mean everyone is like the idiots you see getting arrested on TV or the stereotypical characters some idiot screenwriter dreams up.

3) He's in jail because he's poor and had lousy legal representation.

4) The name was symbolic. Try to think a little and figure it out. There were major "hints" all through the movie.

5)Interracial sex is a fact of life, since the beginning of time. Spike Lee has never been personally known to squire white women around, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors. Spike is usually making some sort of statement about the races in his movies.

6) Actually high school students looking like they are 30 is not so unusual nowadays. I worked in the school system and never saw such old looking young people in my life. When I was a teen, teens looks like teens. Girls have boobs at 9. Boys are shaving at 13. Not so unrealistic at all. Never saw so many teen girls with flabby bellies and big behinds. The poor freshman were petrified at how old the seniors looked.

7) A light skinned black woman saying that is not unusual at all, but since you get all your information about blacks and other races from the media, you wouldn't know that or understand it. I mean just what does having light skin have to do with being white in this country anyway. If you are not obviously white, you are black grown up in black culture and absorb the attitudes of that culture, you don't hang on the fence. Maybe she doesn't want her son to be a stereotype (black man chasing white women). Do you really think that light skinned black people like white people just because they have light skin???!!!

8)Yeah once again you know nothing about black people except what you get on TV and the movies. Yes, black children can darken considerably as they get older. Just like white kids who have blonde hair when children can be brunettes when they are older. Happens all the time. My own kid was very light skinned when born, lighter than me or my husband and did not look like the products of two black parents. The nurses and doctors were very confused that he was ours. His skin color is now quite dark and he looks like nothing from when he was a kid.l

Things didn't necessarily not make sense, they just didn't fit your narrow-minded ideas of how things are.

Gees you really have no friends do you?

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1) I don't think it was that crazy in 1998 for him to choose college over the NBA. The rule of top picks going pro wasn't the default yet- the fact that it's a lot of money probably occurred to him, but then again there are probably very few top prospects for whom money isn't an issue (as most are lower-middle or lower class). Kobe and KG went pro, but there were also many top prospects who did not go pro during the late 90s.

2) Back then the thug/gangster image hadn't yet totally taken over the NBA like in its present form. Of the players still around from that era, very few had tattoos or cornrows. If the movie was made today, it would look strange if Jesus didn't have at least a few tattoos, but back then it would make him in the norm. Go back and watch college bball games from that time to confirm. I mean, they were barely out of the short shorts at that point.

3) Jake was in jail to set up the conflict with coming back into Jesus's life at his most crucial point. His crime removed Jesus's mother from his decision-making process. Therefore, Jesus has no real role models he can turn to from his "past life." Everyone else (except Aunt Sally) has come along after he's already on the track to the NBA and are tainted by all kinds of influences. Additionally, without his parents to filter everything, we get to see the full range of pressures operating on the character, from the sleazy girlfriend, to the relatives, the coach, the sports agent, the college visit, the local drug dealer, etc etc. Without his parents around, all the leeches start to come out of the woodwork.

4) Jake explains that Jesus is named after Earl Monroe's playground name, not his later nickname "The Pearl." Jake mentions that the white media edited his Jesus nickname for public consumption (a bit of editorializing by Lee but then again when doesn't he editorialize). Up until this conversation we are led to believe that his father named him Jesus because he wanted him to be a savior or some divine ballplayer. This is reinforced because everyone in his neighborhood and all the coaches/media endlessly play off his name. After the conversation on the beach we realize that his father is his last connection to a life where he isn't defined by where is going to play ball. His father still remembers him as the little kid on the playground.

5) Having attended a big state college I can confirm that the behavior of some of the women at my college certainly was very similar to that portrayed in the movie. A very small subset of girls at my university (largely white middle class) basically served as groupies for the primarily black, lower-class basketball and football players. His friend mentioned he knew one of the girls- so what I took from the scene was these are part of the group of girls that serve as groupies and that isn't representative of the whole campus.

As to whether the scenes are too much, the sex is a big part of college recruiting- I've seen 18 year old basketball recruits out at bars surrounded by 20 year old college chicks. At a suburban or rural school these girls are more likely to be white and upper middle class. It's just a demographic thing.

Hiring strippers/escorts is also a common recruiting tactic. His friend even says "names aren't important," after giving two stereotypical stripper names. None of it was real- including the showy presentation at the basketball court and the cheesy, slimy coach played by Turturro.

The college can't pay him- so they are throwing everything else they can at him. In a movie about the pressures of college recruiting on young black athletes I would be shocked if this point wasn't emphasized.

Also, among the black community the idea of a successful man "abandoning" black women to date/marry whites is a very controversial subject and Lee probably also wanted to acknowledge that debate at the point where Jesus, who has lived his whole life in a very narrow world, is suddenly being thrust into a much bigger one.

6) That is really a subjective complaint. From what I've seen, bigtime college stars tended to look a few years older than other students of their year. I'm not sure why. It is also common for much older stars to play teenagers in teen movies.

1. He did it to save his father.

2. So what?

3. A black man from the projects gets off easy for accidentally killing his wife? Sure.

4. Hey genius, in the Spanish language the name Jesus is commonly given. Many Americans have that name. It's not that strange.

5. You're right on here. Spike was clearly trying to make it an issue.

6. I agree. But then again, LeBron looked about 30 when he was in high school.

7. She was mixed as others said.

8. Well, whatever. You're nitpicking.