5 Best and Worst NBA Players That Have Gone Hollywood

When it comes to Hollywood, there's only an extremely small percentage of people that will actually make it to the big time. For every lead role in a movie playing alongside Rob Schneider, there are thousands of up and coming actors or actresses that are chomping at the bit for the role that they think could be their breakthrough role.

Not only do they have to compete with each other, they also have to compete with the veteran actors that immediately get the nod by those casting the roles.

However, not everyone has to work that hard. Sometimes Hollywood will turn to sports to find their lead actor or just a part for a simple cameo. Unless it's a movie focusing on one particular league, casters will usually pick up a personality on the court that is well-known by the masses outside of sports.

It's the reason why you'll see Shaquille O'Neal in cameos, because the producers of the movie know that Shaq is a personality on the court and is also a character that people can relate to.

Sometimes these athletes can surprise us with acting skills that would make you think it was their job, but the majority of the time these players make it look a lot more difficult than it probably should be.

We honor those that have entertained and embarrassed us by listing five of the best and five of the worst NBA players that have gone Hollywood.

5 (best). Patrick Ewing

Making commercials like the one he did for Snickers is basically enough for Patrick Ewing to crack the top five of the best performances by an NBA player in a role.

I didn't realize Ewing was still capable of making backboards explode after only a decade worth of retirement.

He also has one of the funniest lines in 'Space Jam'. After his talent was taken away, Ewing sees a shrink where he is asked a question about his performance in other areas outside of basketball.

I remember watching that scene when I was little and completely ignoring it. Now I see it and wonder what other messages this movie was attempting to convey to other seven year olds.

5 (worst). Shawn Bradley

Of all the players the movie 'Space Jam' had to cast, they had to get 7'6" center Shawn Bradley to be considered an All-Star?

Funny, I didn't think Bradley had any talent to contribute.

I wasn't buying it. All his cameo did was make me feel bad for the one monster that got his powers. Instead of getting dunked on by Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett as he did in the NBA, it was Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck doing the damage this time around.

4 (a). Julius Erving

It's basically like any other basketball movie you'll ever see. The team that movie is centered on is really bad, then something amazing happens, and then they end up winning the championship in the span of a few months.

However, none of those movies ever had a surprisingly good actor in Julius Erving in it. Erving plays Moses Guthrie, the star of the Pittsburgh Pythons, a team that can't win games and with a roster that wants nothing to do with the franchise anymore. Guthrie is the only one that wants to stay around though because of how high he played.

Soon, the water boy makes his entrance and does some weird voodoo with astrology that composes a team made up of only those born under the sign Pisces. Nobody believes it works until it actually does start working and then they win the championship which saves the franchise.

It's a cookie cutter concept for a movie, but Dr. J and Harlem Globetrotters' star Meadowlark Lemon keep this movie from fading into obscurity.

4 (b). Gheorge Muresan

Being cast next to Billy Crystal is bad enough, so Gheorge Muresan is already starting out in the red.

The movie 'My Giant' basically consists of Crystal starting out as a no-nonsense businessman who's just too busy to pay attention to his family because he's so busy with business. One day though in Romania where Crystal is overseeing a movie, he crashes his car and when it appears that all hope is lost, the 7'7" Muresan comes to save Crystal from the wreckage.

Muresan plays a monk, of course, and is taken by Crystal to be in his movie. The two travel overseas back to the United States and go on a bunch of wild and zany adventures.

Director Michael Lehmann thought this would be a good concept for a movie with the tall Muresean and the short Crystal, but the critics didn't and it's currently a 19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

3 (a.) Ray Allen

Who would have guessed that Ray Allen was actually a decent actor? He could have easily been overshadowed by co-star Denzel Washington, but Allen held his own and it's a surprise that he hasn't tried to pursue any more work.

The two played a father and son role in the movie 'He Got Game' directed by Spike Lee. It consists of Washington playing Jake Shuttlesworth, the father of Ray Allen who plays Jesus Shuttlesworth, a high school phenom that is attempting to pick what college he should attend.

Jake is in prison for killing his wife and Jesus' mother and was granted parole for a week by the state's governor so that he may convince his son to play for the governor's alma mater. In return, the governor would reduce Jake's prison sentence. Of course, that's going to be a difficult task considering that Jake murdered the mother of the son he is attempting to reason with.

It's a touching story and one of Lee's and Washington's finest roles. The movie has an 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and famed film critic Roger Ebert even declared that Allen, "is that rarity, an athlete who can act".

3 (b.) Dennis Rodman

OK, before you take a look at that clip starring Dennis Rodman from the movie "Simon Sez", please be warned because it could induce seizures and might make you change your overall opinion on your favorite NBA personality.

Think it could get uglier? Rodman's co-star in the movie was Dane Cook. The movie is rated a 16/100 of Metacritic for obvious reasons.

Rodman's casting has been suspect at best, as his most recent movie was in 2008 in a film called "The Minis". If you're wondering what it's about, you probably could have guessed that it's a movie consisting of the five-time champion playing basketball with little people. They couldn't even land Verne Troyer or Wee-Man to save the movie either.

Among his other instances on the big screen include "The Comebacks", "Coming Attractions" and "Double Team" with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

2 (a.) Michael Jordan

Starring in one of the greatest feature films ever created gets you a pass. I bet Michael Jordan never has to wait at any restaurant in Los Angeles after this Oscar fueled, acid trip of a movie known as "Space Jam".

Alright, maybe I'm getting a little overzealous here when declaring "Space Jam" as the greatest movie ever created, but this was a childhood classic to anyone that enjoyed the Looney Tunes and basketball as much as I did.

If you haven't seen "Space Jam" then get to it right now, I'll wait. The movie basically consists of aliens stealing the talent from a number of NBA All-Stars so that they may take on the Looney Tunes in a basketball game. The Looney Tunes then enlist the help of Michael Jordan as the two teams meet up in an epic battle with quite possibly the greatest ending to a basketball game you could possibly think of.

Oh, and Bill Murray's in it too if you didn't want to watch it already.

2 (b.) Metta World Peace

I didn't want to watch "Dancing with the Stars" at all, but I couldn't turn down watching Ron Ar-err I mean Metta World Peace make a fool of himself.

My prediction prior to the dance was that Artest would be somewhat decent considering that his footwork was enough to be recognized as one of the best perimeter and individual defenders in the league. Rick Fox was one of the first ball players on the show and he wasn't half bad as he made it though a couple of eliminations.

He did the cha-cha and got a 14 out of 30 points, the lowest score of all the dancers.

Artest was kicked out after one dance and for good reason because he was as abysmal as his Los Angeles Lakers were against the Dallas Mavericks.

1 (a.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Gheorge Muresan and Shawn Bradley have proven that being tall isn't enough to make you funny. It turns out that you actually need talent, just like in the NBA.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar happened to be a little of both. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar's appearance in the movie "Airplane"is by far the funniest cameo from any NBA player in a feature length movie. He plays co-pilot Roger Murdock in a movie where he and the rest of the pilots succumb to food poisoning and it's up to a passenger on the plane to save the flyers from certain death.

Abdul-Jabbar had too many hilarious moments in the movie with none better than the conversation that he has with a kid. For some reason, Abdul-Jabbar appears to be concealing his identity as he continues to tell the kid that he's not the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from the Los Angeles Lakers.

Eventually, the kid tells him that his dad says that Abdul-Jabbar doesn't even run up court except when he's in the playoffs. That's when Kareem breaks characters and begins yelling at the kid exclaiming, "Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes."

Abdul-Jabbar has also been featured in a couple TV shows and was even on Jeopardy!, but his second best appearance in a movie would have to be in the movie "Game of Death" where he's an evil karate master that fights Bruce Lee.

1 (b). Shaquille O'Neal

I'm a little hesitant to see Shaquille O'Neal work with the crew on TNT. Maybe O'Neal is just funny on the court and in interviews because judging his track record when it comes to movies, it's going to be an absolute train wreck.

O'Neal has always come across as a personality that you could love no matter what. He was hilarious on and off the court, but that perception quickly faded amongst the masses once O'Neal decided to take his talents to the big screen.

He started out in the movie 'Blue Chips' where he's a player on a college team where Nick Nolte is the coach, so it wasn't that terrible of a start. Once O'Neal became a star though, it got ugly as he starred in the movie 'Kazaam' where he plays a genie that helps out a bullied youth. The concept was terrible, the plot was terrible, and even those were overshadowed by O'Neal's horrid acting.

For some reason though, O'Neal kept getting roles with the movie 'Steel' coming out next year. It's the worlds biggest ripoff of 'Ironman' as O'Neal struts around in a metal suit to combat the forces of evil which happens to be a gang in this case.

Once directors saw 'Kazaam' and 'Steel', O'Neal starring in a movie was no longer going to happen. He played himself in 'Freddy Got Fingered', 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', and 'Scary Movie 4' with his only other role coming in a bit-part in the movie 'The Wash' starring Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

It only gets worse though as O'Neal is slated to be in the upcoming movie 'Jack and Jill' which consists of Adam Sandler playing himself and his sister.

God help us.