The NBA Finals are finally here!  After 80 games and more than a month of playoffs, 30 teams have fallen by the wayside.  Only Los Angeles and Orlando remain.  The favorites -- the Lakers -- are determined to make amends for last year’s embarrassing collapse against Boston.  But don’t underestimate the Magic.  Both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics did -- and look what happened to them.  Do the Magic have enough in them for one more surprise upset?  Do the Lakers have enough guts to gut out a championship?  I can’t wait to see!  It looks like a great series.

 

In tribute to all the teams of this very exciting playoff season, it only seems appropriate to do a film quiz featuring NBA superstars.  Over the years, some of the sport’s best have attempted to parlay their success on the court into a film career.  Think you know all there is to know about these court legends?  Then take the Media Mischief test and see how many basketball pros you can match to the characters they played and the movies in which they appeared.

 

THE CHARACTERS

 

1. Elijah Abel  - sidekick to Porter Rockwell, the fastest Mormon gunslinger in the West

 

2. Hacker Fletcher - a thick-glassed computer hacking nerd whose talent in cracking files helps shorten his prison stay

 

3. Moses Guthrie - a hapless basketball star who goes from losing to winning after an astrologer convinces him to only play with teammates that share his zodiac sign

 

4. Harry - a college basketball scout who develops a romantic interest in a single mother after her talented high school son catches his eye

 

5. Himself - an NBA pro recruited by Bugs Bunny to participate in an intergalactic basketball game to save the looney tunes characters from the clutches of a scheming alien

 

6. Kazaam - a genial genie who rewards a shy young boy with three wishes after the lad releases him from a boom box prison

 

7. Butch McRae - a Chicago sharpshooter being pursued by a college coach who’ll do anything to ensure a winning basketball season for his school

 

8. Roger Murdock - the ace co-pilot of a commercial airliner who bears an uncanny likeness to a famous NBA superstar

 

9. Desmond Rhodes - an A student lured into participating in a cheating scheme after tanking during a big exam

 

10. Jesus Shuttleworth - a top high school basketballer being pressured by his convict dad to accept a deal to play for a college in exchange for a deal to keep the old man out of prison

 

11. Yaz - a flamboyant, tough as nails arms dealer who forms an unlikely alliance to apprehend an evil terrorist

 

12. Max Zamphirescu - a soft-spoken, 7’ 7” Romanian lured to Hollywood and stardom by a fast-talking theatrical agent