WHITE MEN CAN'T DUNK

WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP (1992)
dir: Ron Shelton

WHITE MEN CAN'T DUNK
Cracked #274, September 1992
w: Link Pershad (anagram?)
a: Walter Brogan

Sports comedy about Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson), a former college basketball player who is constantly beating streetballers fooling them by pretending to be a country bumpkin. One of his regular opponents is Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes).

Stan Mikita's Donuts is a reference to a fictional chain from Wayne's World named for a hockey player.

After a day of his making them think he isn't a good player because he's white and everyone calling each other names to psych each other out, Billy goes back to the hotel where he lives with his girlfriend Gloria (Rosie Perez) because they are on the run from someone he owes a gambling debt to. She's boning up on facts from The World Almanac in hopes of getting on Jeopardy. Sidney comes to made a proposal. They would con other street players for money and win every time by Sidney picking Billy as a partner, and other players thinking he's incompetent but not realizing he's a ringer. Billy realizes he can pay off his gambling debt this way.

It turns out Sidney set Billy up. After a few winnings, Sidney deliberately plays badly and loses for them, and the opposition were his friends who later turned what they won over to him. Gloria finds out about this, is upset, and tells Sidney's wife Rhonda (Tyra Ferrell). The women will forgive the men if the men make up and team up for a two-on-two tournament, for which the prize is $5,000.

They win the tournament but Sidney still thinks white men can't jump (he said the title! Drink!) and bet on that, and Billy loses. Gloria is upset that he squandered his share of the money, but makes up for it by getting her on Jeopardy.

Sidney's apartment is burglarized and he needs to get money. A game is coming up against two of L.A.'s biggest players, he known he can win with his and Billy's athletic prowess, but Gloria insists Billy give up gambling and get a real job, but he disobeys her to play anyway. He and Sidney win, he pays off all her debts, she leaves him for betraying her, and Billy and Sidney continue playing streetball as partners.

There are caricatures of Joe Pesci, Jason Priestley, and Luke Perry