MovieChat Forums > Space Jam (1996) Discussion > who were the players whose skills were t...

who were the players whose skills were taken?

posted 13 years ago by deathrays
9 replies | jump to latest

just caught the last half hour of this on tv.. and i guess it shows my ignorance of famous basketball players, but i was curious as to who were the players at the end getting their abilities back from the glowing basketball? I recognised a couple - charles barkley, patrick ewing, but i was really curious about the shorter guy. Not to be mean or anything but he just looked so short next to the other guys, especially that giant white guy. who is/was that guy?

[–] zdougherty 13 years ago

That's Muggsy Bogues, standing at only 5'3 he's the shortest basketball player to ever play in the NBA.

[–] Iberian_Wolf 13 years ago

so you took the time to come to imdb forum to ask this question BUT you couln't take a few secounds more to read the cast on the front page?

[–] Caralho_Voador 13 years ago

The short one was indeed Muggsy Bogues. The tall white guy was Shawn Bradley, who is 7'6" and played for the 76er's, Nets and Mavericks. The other three were Charles Barkley, Larry Johnson and Patrick Ewing.

[–] crazyforblondes 13 years ago

I always thought it was funny that they stole Shawn Bradley's talent (or lack thereof). All of the Monstars grew so his height wouldn't have been a factor.

[–] toxicnapalm 12 years ago

His power goes to the big dumb blue alien doesn't it? Lol

[–] IoannesImprovidens 11 years ago

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to who they chose for the "Monstars." Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkeley are both hall of famers, the rest of them were journeymen at best.

It's funny that they picked Mugsy Bogues who's the shortest player in NBA history, and Shawn Bradley who's one of the tallest. It think they wanted a visually diverse group of "monstars" so they picked players who contrasted well in size and build rather than genuinely looking for the best players around (OR the best actors). Also it seems like they maybe picked Shawn because they wanted a token white guy and Larry Bird was A. already in the movie and B. retired.

If they wanted a freakishly tall token white guy they could have gone with Gheorghe Muresan who actually is THE tallest NBA player in history.

If I had been making this movie I probably would have used John Stockton as both token white and token short guy. Granted he was 6'1'' but that's well below NBA average height but he was genuinely considered one of the greatest players of all time (as opposed to Mugsy and Shawn, with all due respect to them).

[–] jwtaber 11 years ago

I think all the players were represented by agent David Falk, an executive producer for the movie.

[–] ShrunkenHeadonKnightBus 10 years ago

like they maybe picked Shawn because they wanted a token white guy and Larry Bird was A. already in the movie and B. retired.

"Larry isn't white, Larry's clear."

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[–] hovaoc149 9 years ago

i found it hilarious that the monstars actually managed to steal Shawn Bradley's "talent'.

Are you kidding me?