'She Got Game' Is the Sequel That Needs to Happen...So We Made It with Women

It was an unforgettable scene: a born-and-bred New York film influencer and a future Seattle basketball legend chopping it up on the Coney Island courts. Raining threes, rolling cameras, spinning ferris wheel. 

Except this wasn’t 1998, and Spike Lee was busy finishing his new film. Ray Allen was nowhere to be found. Come to think of it, there was hardly a man in sight. 

Here we had music-video director Va$htie and Seattle Storm star Jewell Loyd powering Bleacher Report’s 2018 #BRMovies package with a 20th-anniversary transformation of He Got Game—one of our favorite sports movies of all time—into She Got Game.

Because right here, in this very moment, we can all agree that basketball, movies and women rule. And for all the fun B/R has with sports and culture every day, this time we decided to go all-in. You already know Jesus Shuttlesworth; now is the time for Faith Mothershed.

Of course, the short film above is really a reimagined trailer. But to make a three-minute movie preview (even a fake one) still takes an army—and in this case it was an army of 70-plus people...95 percent of whom were women. 

With locations ranging from the B/R NYC office to a reinvented Big State office to our reimagined Shuttlesworth family apartment complex, the #BRMovies team made She Got Game just for you.  

Asking an athlete to become a movie star overnight is no small feat. But Jewell worked with an acting coach and showed a range of on-screen emotion you’re more likely to see from Rosario Dawson than a former No. 1 overall WNBA pick. (Click here to read more from Jewell IRL and watch a behind-the-scenes video.)

Bringing everything into focus were B/R’s own writer/supervising producer Karin Hammerberg and producer Vanessa Casal-Onate, plus cinematographer Christine Ng, whose credits include shooting Lee’s own refreshed Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It and the Emmy-nominated HBO film Everything Is Copy. (Scroll down to meet the rest of our cast and crew.)

We wish all production crews—for three-minute videos, two-hour films and five-season Netflix shows—could be more representative of society. (And that change is underway.) We wish more sports fans—for one-minute highlights, two-hour games and the entire WNBA season ahead—would follow female athletes. (And we’re trying hard to make that happen, but we’ll try harder every day.)

Jesus Shuttlesworth himself once said you’ve got to try to shake things up: “Basketball is like poetry in motion. Cross the guy to the left, take him back to the right, he's fallin' back, then just J right in his face. Then you look at him and say, ‘What?’”

So we’ve got faith. Faith that She Got Game represents its own little part of ongoing movements, from filmmaking to sports culture and society—and the powerful places in between. We hope you’ll enjoy our new favorite would-be sequel (and spot every Easter egg), plus posters from more sports movie reboots you deserve, then share your favorites with the hashtag #BRMovies.

Thanks for watching,

Courtney Andrialis-Vincent
Senior Director, Premium Video
Bleacher Report   

Faith Mothershed	Jewell Loyd
Mom	Yolonda Ross (The Chi)
Young Faith	Kayciblu Wright
Big State Coach	Catherine A. Callahan (Billions)
Boro State Coach	Lin Tucci (Orange Is the New Black)
HS Coach	Rich Reisman
WNBA Player	Cappie Pondexter
Ros Gold-Onwude	as herself
Shaquille O'Neal	as himself
Candace Parker	as herself
Markelle Fultz	as himself
Young M.A	as herself
Filayyyy	Jesse Jones
Ebro	as himself
Michael Wilbon	as himself
Tony Kornheiser	as himself
Alexis Morgan	as herself
Va$htie Kola	as herself
Rachel Nichols	as herself
Lance Fresh	as himself
Omar Raja	as himself
Susan Price Thomas	as herself
Megan Ryte	as herself
Bobbito Garcia	as himself
Director	Va$htie Kola
Writer	Karin Hammerberg
Supervising Producer	Karin Hammerberg
Producer	Vanessa Casal-Onate
Executive Producer	Courtney Andrialis-Vincent
Director of Photography	Christine Ng
Editor	Mike Kattenburg
Editor	Craig Cobb
1st Asst Director/Production Mgr	Alexia Oldini
2nd Assistant Director	Dayna Schutz
Casting Director	Stephen Vincent
Camera Operator	Janice Min
1st Assistant Camera	Cai Hall
2nd Asst. Cam/Digital Imaging Tech	Neicy McFadden
Production Designer	Jimena Azula
Set Dresser	Rocio Gimenez
Set Dresser	Emily Chomuik
Set Dresser	Lauren Nester
Makeup	Tai Lotson
Hair	Eric Williams
Costume Design	Rose Garcia
Wardrobe Assistant	Missy DiPiero
Gaffer	Maria Cabra
Grip	Natalia Majette
Electric	Anna Cocuzzo
Grip	Moe Larena
Flex/Swing	Julia Gowesky
Sound Mixer	Sarah Myers
Composer	Patrick Noth
Boom Operator	Hayley Wagner
Music Mix	Mike Navarro
Sound Design	Matt O'Connor
Colorist	Sage Velastegui
Creative Manager, Post Production	Fred Widland
Creative Director	Lance Becker
Graphics	Jessica Dorricott
Graphics	Kate Strassman
Junior Editor	Scott Owsley
Quality Control	Gracie Leavitt
Quality Control	Erica Patten
Quality Control	Susan Turek
Production Assistant	Hannah Sheinkopf
Production Assistant	Claire Holl
Production Assistant	Lauren Rossi
Production Assistant	Rhiannon Collins
Production Assistant	Ana Turner
Production Assistant	Janill Urbino
Production Assistant	Jake Marshall
Production Assistant	Jonathan Bound