Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) have wanted to be professional basketball stars since they were kids. Monica wanted to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, and wear Magic Johnson's number: 32, and Quincy wanted to be like his father and play for the Clippers. However, Monica has to work hard to establish herself, while Quincy was born with natural star potential. As the two struggle to reach their goals of playing professionally, they must also deal with their emotions for each other.
Pete Bell (Nolte), a college basketball coach for the fictional Western University Dolphins, is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning as often as it once did and his successful program needs to attract new star players and fast. But the brightest stars of the future — the so-called "blue-chip" prospects — are secretly being paid by other schools.
Professor Brainard (pronounced BRAY-nerd) is an absent-minded professor of physical chemistry at Medfield College who invents a substance that gains energy when it strikes a hard surface. This discovery follows some blackboard scribbling in which he reverses a sign in the equation for enthalpy to energy plus pressure times volume. Brainard names his discovery Flubber, which is a portmanteau of "flying rubber." In the excitement of his discovery, he misses his own wedding to Betsy Carlisle, not for the first time. Subplots include another professor wooing the disappointed Miss Carlisle, Biff Hawk's ineligibility for basketball due to failing Brainard's class, Alonzo Hawk's schemes to gain wealth by means of Flubber, the school's financial difficulties and debt to Mr. Hawk, and Brainard's attempts to interest the government and military in uses for Flubber.
The film opens with an unsuccessful professional clown, Norman F. Snively, and his dog by the name of "Old Blue," doing a show at a birthday party. Due to the dog causing trouble at the birthday party and both being tossed out of the house, Snively angrily takes him in a kennel to a dog pound, until the kennel falls off his truck. The dog is homeless until he meets a 12-year-old boy, Josh Framm (whom the plot mainly revolves around). After the death of his father, who died in a plane crash during a test flight (indicated in the headline of a framed newspaper article briefly read by Josh), Josh moves with his family from Virginia to Fernfield, Washington. Due to heartbreak over his father's passing, he is too shy to try out for his middle school's basketball team and to make any friends. He instead becomes the basketball team's manager, an absurd offer by coach Joe Barker which he accepts. He practices basketball by himself in a makeshift court that he sets up in a disused allotment, where he first meets the dog, naming him Buddy. Josh soon learns that Buddy has the uncanny ability to play basketball.
The film revolves around an orphaned boy called Fang Shi-jie (Jay Chou), who grew up in a kung fu school and becomes a talented basketball player. Every morning, he is used as a punchbag in a demonstration by the principal of the school. When he uses shaolin iron vest (iron shirt) technique, as to not feel the principal's punches, the principal makes him stay on the streets for one night without dinner. He demonstrates his incredible accuracy to a down-and-out hustler, Wang Li by throwing cans into a bin almost ten metres away. Wang tells him, that if he can throw a coin into his mouth from twenty metres away, he would treat him to dinner. They go to a five-star French restaurant, where Wang Li's daughter works, and eat leftovers. Li convinces Shi-jie to help them make some money for themselves. After eating, they go to a Casino owned by one of Wang Li's old friend's son, Brother Hu. There, Shi-jie wins hundreds of dollars playing darts. The resulting fight causes thousands of dollars' worth of damage. The next morning, before school starts, Bi Tianhao, the principal of Fireball University puts the principal of the kung fu school onto his paylist. Then, after a massive beating by Bi Tianhao's thugs, Shi-jie is expelled. The next night, Shi-jie is once again sitting on the park bench where he met Wang Li, who is still there. On the pretext of helping him search for his family, Wang Li invites him to play basketball at 'First University' as the new star of its basketball team. Meanwhile, Wang Li capitalises on media interest in Shi-jie to make money via interviews and news articles.
Jesus Shuttlesworth (Ray Allen), a top-ranked athlete and student at Lincoln High School in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York, is being pursued by the top college basketball programs in the nation. His father, Jake (Denzel Washington), is a convicted felon serving time at Attica Correctional Facility for accidentally killing his wife (Jesus' mother) by pushing her while arguing with Jesus at the age of 12. The father is temporarily released by the governor, an influential alum of "Big State," one of the colleges Jesus is considering, so that he might persuade his son to sign with the governor's college; if successful he'll get an early release from prison.
Leslie Wright (Queen Latifah) is a straight-shooting physical therapist and die-hard basketball fan who is tired of being a guy's best friend. She and her god-sister, Morgan (Paula Patton), are living together; Morgan dreams of becoming an NBA trophy wife.
Jimmy Dolan (Kevin Bacon) is a college basketball assistant coach who wants to find a new star for his team since he believes this will get him a promotion to head coach at the school. He sees a home video of a prospect named Saleh and travels to Africa to recruit him. Upon arriving in this continent, Dolan finds himself confronted not only with the challenges of basketball but also with the challenges of adjusting to and learning how to live in the midst of a brand-new culture. Though Dolan is initially opposed by Saleh's father who is also the leader of the village, he later agrees to let his son play. Dolan and Saleh both teach each other life lessons before they take the court for one final game with everything on the line. One of the most dramatic scenes in the film involves the instruction of Saleh by Dolan regarding the "Jimmy Dolan Shake and Bake.
Marco Montes est l'entraîneur adjoint de l'équipe de basket de l'Estudiantes Madrid en Liga ACB. Personnage arrogant et de mauvaises manières, il finit par être licencié de son travail après une altercation en plein match avec l'entraineur principal de l'équipe. Parallèlement, son couple bat de l'aile car Sonia, sa compagne, désire un enfant, mais lui tergiverse et fuit cette responsabilité. Un soir, il s'enivre de dépit dans un bar et prend le volant. Il est alors responsable d'un accident de la route. Arrêté en état d'ivresse avancée, il se voit puni d'une lourde amende. Il doit alors choisir entre deux années de prison ou 90 jours de travail d'intérêt général au sein d'une équipe de basket appelée "Les Amis" et constituée de sportifs débutants handicapés. Après un premier rejet de l'idée, il finit par s'y plier à contrecœur, jusqu'à découvrir qu'il peut beaucoup apprendre du monde du handicap. Peu à peu, l'équipe devient de plus en plus compétitive et se qualifie pour le championnat national.
Après des années d’entrainement acharné afin d’intégrer une équipe du tournoi de basketball Rucker Classic, Dax doit faire face à une série de revers, notamment celui de perdre son équipe au profit de son rival de longue date. Souhaitant désespérément remporter le tournoi et empocher le prix, Dax approche un homme, un mythe, le légendaire Oncle Drew et le convint de retourner sur le terrain une fois de plus. Les deux hommes partent à la recherche des membres de l’ancienne équipe de Drew et prouvent qu’un groupe de septuagénaire peut encore remporter la victoire.
Coach Roy McCormick (Martin Lawrence) was once college basketball's top mastermind. His attention began to turn on what endorsement contracts he could secure instead of actually coaching his team. Roy lets his temper get the best of him in most situations. After causing a mishap with a mascot, the board bans McCormick from collegiate basketball until he can show that he can control his anger. Roy's reputation has doomed to him to being unhireable as a long time passes with no job offers. However, McCormick then gets one job offer, to Mount Vernon Junior High School, which was also where he graduated as a teenager. His alma mater's basketball team, the Smelters, is looking for somebody to coach the team, and the headmistress thinks an alumnus of his caliber in basketball would be ideal. Although irritated, Roy realizes he has no other options and accepts the coaching job, figuring this is the way to prove he can control his anger and get back into the spotlight of college basketball. As Roy begins coaching the squad, he gets into an embarrassing situation that he's never been in before and decides, enough is enough. He eventually starts teaching the concepts of basketball to his new team, albeit placing paramount emphasis on sportsmanship. With teaching and learning being done between both Roy and the kids, the Smelters eventually start having success. Unexpectedly, this leads Roy to find what he's been missing this whole time...not a big coaching gig, not high-dollar endorsement deals, and not even his name in lights...but his simple love of the game. Eventually Roy gains a new appreciation for his old school and figures that while it does not lead to big money endorsements, he can earn a comfortable living from this job.
Kyle Watson (Duane Martin) is a talented basketball player who is about to graduate from high school. While he waits to find out if he will receive a scholarship to Georgetown University he finds himself in a difficult dilemma over a playground basketball tournament. He must decide whether to play for and follow his widely beloved basketball coach or Birdie (Tupac Shakur), a local thug in the neighborhood. Flip a homeless man remember playing basketball with Thomas "Shep" Shepard (Leon Robinson)a high school security guard. Kyle is also feeling resentment towards the security guard, because Kyle's own mother is falling in love with Shep.
During a high school basketball game, Odin James (Phifer) scores the basket that wins the game for his team. Later at an awards ceremony, the coach, Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen) presents the MVP award to Odin for his efforts, an award he shares with his teammate Michael Cassio (Andrew Keegan). In giving Odin the award, Duke passes over his son Hugo (Hartnett), Odin's teammate and best friend. At a party celebrating the victory, Hugo plans with school outcast Roger Calhoun (Elden Henson) to go to the school's dean, Bob Brable (John Heard) and tell him that Odin raped his daughter, Desi (Stiles), whom Odin has been dating. Hugo promises Roger that Desi will be his after Odin is out of the way, but Roger is only a pawn in Hugo's ultimate plan to destroy Odin.
Antoine (Kadeem Hardison) and Kenny Tyler (Marlon Wayans), two close brothers, are shown as children playing in a basketball game in the year 1986. Their motto for each other is "A&K: All the Way", created by their mother. Their father, James Tyler, is coaching the team and directs Kenny to take the last shot for the win since they are in deficit, but Kenny passes the ball to Antoine out of fright, who misses. Later that night, Kenny and Antoine are playing basketball in their front yard, where Kenny tries to cheer Antoine up, who is still upset about missing the shot. James tells them that all they have to do is stick together and anything can happen.