Jordan's 'Space Jam' dunk tops list of best sports movie moments

By: Nate Mattise

Posted: 3/18/08

March Madness is here, and that means highlights galore: Morrison crying, Laettner hitting turnarounds, Jim Valvano looking for a hug. If you follow sports, you know the drill.

That's precisely where the problem lies. ESPN recently ran its "Greatest Sports Highlight" competition, and it was captivating… if you're a hardcore sports fan.

In light of this, it's time for some sports highlights everyone can enjoy. Introducing the "Greatest Sports MOVIE Highlight" competition. The rules are simple.

1. Only one highlight per movie or franchise allowed. This prevents the contest from being littered with too many moments from the "Major League" series or "The Sandlot II."

2. Highlights must be sports-related so they can be judged on things like circumstance and degree of realism. This also eliminates non-action, over-emotional moments like Adrian coming out of the coma in "Rocky II."

3. No "Miracle." This won the ESPN competition, and now other highlights deserve their moment in the sun. While we're at it, I'm also eliminating Disney channel original sports movies and the "Air Bud" franchise. The 7-10 spare pick up in "Alley Cat Strike" is the best of that bunch, and that isn't even on the "Brink" of placing well in this competition.

Based on those parameters, here's how the selection committee of one thought this would play out. If you're wondering, the tiers are based on how good each of the "Mighty Ducks" movies were. No one likes old ducks so naturally we start with…

"D3: The Mighty Ducks"

Daniel E. Ruettiger making a special-teams tackle in "Rudy"

The Jamaican bobsled team crossing the finish line with its sled on the four members' shoulders in "Cool Runnings"

"Rudy" is one of a select group of movies men will admit to crying over, but the film's climax is just a special-teams tackle.

It's incredibly moving how the team can unite a country and turn the world into Jamaican fans, but they wiped out so badly they needed to physically lift their sled to the finish.

"D1: The Mighty Ducks"

Julie "The Cat" Gaffney coming cold off the bench to stone Gunner Stahl in a shoot-out, winning the Junior Goodwill Games for the U.S. in "D2: The Mighty Ducks" Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez hitting a baseball exactly into Scotty Smalls' mitt out in left field in "The Sandlot"

These highlights are on the brink of success, but the bottom line with is that we're dealing with kids. They need another film before they become pseudo-Olympians.

Regardless of how old you are, it's unbelievable if you can hit a baseball so accurately that a kid with a large brimmed fish hat can catch it.

As for the other highlight, picture how unreal it would be for a goalie to come off the bench in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals then stone the other team's best shooter. Julie "The Cat" does that, just change the location to the Junior Goodwill Games.

"D2: The Mighty Ducks"

Rocky knocking out Drago (and communism) in "Rocky IV"

International competition at its finest. It's hard to imagine Rocky not coming out on top in a sports movie-moment competition. You have the genre's ultimate underdog turned champion in a hostile communist environment and a 'roided-up, robotic machine for his Soviet opponent. Yet in one slow motion moment of glory, Rocky lands the shot that takes down Drago and a decade's worth of Cold War tension.

Champion:

Michael Jordon dunking from half court, while being hung on by aliens, to save Earth from destruction in "Space Jam"

No contest, this is the winner. The game is on the line, the Toon Squad is down a basket, and the fate of the planet rests in the hands of our generation's greatest athlete. Gigantic Monstars gang tackle MJ at mid-court as the clock winds down. It looks hopeless. Think the second half of our Big East tournament game.

Yet, like he's proven again and again, Michael Jordan is clutch. He hits the trademark tongue waggle, allows his arm to become part cartoon and literally dunks from half court. This isn't jumping from the free throw line - this is 10 to 20 feet back.

The bottom line is, when Michael Jordan puts his name in a bracket, he wins. He did it 26 years ago at UNC. But rest assured, "Space Jam" is next in my Netflix queue so I can watch number 23 do it again.

Nathan Mattise is a weekly pop-culture columnist for The Daily Orange where his columns appear on Tuesdays. He has tried to hit a 7-10 split by spinning the ball with one finger and pushing it. Apparently Disney lies when it comes to sports and basic physics. He can be reached at nzmattis@syr.edu.