Entertainment
The Best Black Sports Movies Ever Made
Black sports movies combine the thrill of competition with athletes' desire to fight against oppression. The top Black sports movies range from completely fictitious comedies to compelling real-life documentaries. This is a list of the top Black sports films featuring everything from When We Were Kings to Love & Basketball to The Hurricane.
What movies will you find on this list of the best Black sports films? You might vote Hoop Dreams to the top. Documentarian Steve James followed two African American high school basketball stars as they set out on their quest to join the NBA. The movie examined all of the factors that contribute to the future of these young men including race, social class, education, and skills. White Men Can't Jump bridged the racial divide as Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes played a pair of b-ball hustlers who are out to make a quick buck. Other good movies featured on this top Black sports movies list include Ali, He Got Game, and Drumline.
Which Black athlete movies deserves the top spots on this list? Help us decide by giving your favorites a thumbs up. And be sure to check out our list of the best movies about racism.
Ranked by
- 1Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Ri'chard, Rob Brown
- Released: 2005
- Directed by: Thomas Carter
In 1999, Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to his old high school in Richmond, California, to get the basketball team into shape. With tough rules and academic discipline, he succeeds in setting ...more - 2Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Donald Faison
- Released: 2000
- Directed by: Boaz Yakin
In Virginia, high school football is a way of life, an institution revered, each game celebrated more lavishly than Christmas, each playoff distinguished more grandly than any national holiday. And ...more - 3Chadwick Boseman, Nicole Beharie, Alan Tudyk
- Released: 2013
- Directed by: Brian Helgeland
42 is a 2013 American biographical sports film directed by Brian Helgeland. The powerful story of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), the legendary baseball player who broke Major League Baseball’s ...more - 4Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron
- Released: 2009
- Directed by: John Lee Hancock
Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a homeless black teen, has drifted in and out of the school system for years. Then Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her husband, Sean (Tim McGraw), take him in. The ...more - 5Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard
- Released: 2000
- Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) are two childhood friends who both aspire to be professional basketball players. Quincy, whose father, Zeke (Dennis Haysbert), plays for the Los Angeles ...more - 6Duane Martin, Leon, Tupac Shakur
- Released: 1994
- Directed by: Jeff Pollack
A high-school basketball star (Duane Martin) is torn by loyalties to a drug dealer (Tupac Shakur) and an ex-player (Leon). - 7Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Milla Jovovich
- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Spike Lee
Jake Shuttleworth (Denzel Washington) has spent the last six years in prison after accidentally killing his wife during a violent domestic dispute, leaving his son, star basketball prospect Jesus ...more - 8Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols
- Released: 2006
- Directed by: James Gartner
After being appointed the new coach of the 1966 Texas Miners, Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) decides to build a team based on talent rather than race. The conservative townsfolk balk at the new racially ...more - 9Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez
- Released: 1992
- Directed by: Ron Shelton
Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) is a white basketball hustler who banks on black players underestimating his skills on the court. When he pulls one over on Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), his victim sees ...more - 10Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight
- Released: 2001
- Directed by: Michael Mann
With wit and athletic genius, with defiant rage and inner grace, Muhammad Ali forever changed the American landscape. Fighting all comers, Ali took on the law, conventions, the status quo and the war ...more - 11Wayne Knight, Theresa Randle, Danny DeVito
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Joe Pytka
Swackhammer (Danny DeVito), an evil alien theme park owner, needs a new attraction at Moron Mountain. When his gang, the Nerdlucks, heads to Earth to kidnap Bugs Bunny (Billy West) and the Looney ...more - 12Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson
- Released: 2015
- Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) never knew his famous father, boxing champion Apollo Creed, who died before Adonis was born. However, boxing is in his blood, so he seeks out Rocky Balboa ...more - 13Dennis Quaid, Rob Brown, Clancy Brown
- Released: 2008
- Directed by: Gary Fleder
Born into poverty, Ernie Davis (Rob Brown) overcomes many obstacles to get into Syracuse University's football program. Under the guidance of Coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), Davis becomes ...more - 14Leon, Doug E. Doug, Malik Yoba
- Released: 1993
- Directed by: Jon Turteltaub
Four Jamaican bobsledders dream of competing in the Winter Olympics, despite never having seen snow. With the help of a disgraced former champion desperate to redeem himself, the Jamaicans set out to ...more - 15Denzel Washington, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger
- Released: 1999
- Directed by: Norman Jewison
Denzel Washington is Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a man whose dreams of winning the middleweight boxing title were destroyed when he was arrested along with another man for the murders of 3 people in a ...more - 16Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana, Orlando Jones
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Charles Stone
Set against the high-energy, high-stakes world of show-style marching bands, "Drumline" is a fish-out-of-water comedy about a talented street drummer from Harlem who enrolls in a Southern university, ...more - 17Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo
- Released: 2007
- Directed by: Sylvain White
After his brother's death, a troubled but gifted street dancer enrolls in Atlanta's Truth University. As he tries to concentrate on his studies and woo a pretty classmate, he finds himself in the ...more - 18Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, Kevin Phillips
- Released: 2007
- Directed by: Sunu Gonera
In 1970s Philadelphia, Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard), who is driven by a love of competitive swimming, fixes up an abandoned pool building with the help of a janitor named Elston (Bernie Mac). But when ...more - 19LeVar Burton, Norman Fell, Tom Bosley
- Released: 1984
- Directed by: Richard Irving
The life story of Jesse Owens. - 20Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Steven Caple
In 1985, Russian boxer Ivan Drago killed former U.S. champion Apollo Creed in a tragic match that stunned the world. Against the wishes of trainer Rocky Balboa, Apollo's son Adonis Johnson accepts a ...more - 21Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji P. Henson
- Released: 2010
- Directed by: Harald Zwart
When his mother's career results in a move to China, 12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) finds that he is a stranger in a strange land. Though he knows a little karate, his fighting skills are no ...more - 22Shad "Bow Wow" Moss, Morris Chestnut, Jonathan Lipnicki
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: John Schultz
Fourteen year old, hoops-loving Calvin Cambridge (Lil' Bow Wow) has a dream: to be a famous basketball player -- to mix it up among the NBA's greatest. But in a game dominated by giants with ...more - 23Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Don King
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Leon Gast
On October 30, 1974, perhaps the most famous heavyweight championship boxing match of all time took place in Kinshasa, Zaire: the "Rumble in the Jungle" between champion George Foreman and challenger ...more - 24William Gates, Arthur Agee
- Released: 1994
- Directed by: Steve James
Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white ...more - 25Rhea Perlman, Fredro Starr, Carol Kane
- Released: 1996
- Directed by: Steve Gomer
White gym teacher Phyllis Saroka (Rhea Perlman) takes over the coaching of an inner-city high-school basketball team. She begins the enterprise with the simple goal of earning money to open her dream ...more
