Former Slam Dunk Champ Desmond Mason & The NBA’s Best Actors

I always figured that if Desmond Mason ever became known for something outside of the NBA, it would be as an artist. The former slam dunk champ was always a great painter, but apparently wants to try something else. Mason says he will play a resident of an insane asylum in a comedy movie called “Just Crazy Enough.”

Tulsa World writes:

Mason described his role as a “pretty big part.” He said his character speaks only in cliches and won’t hold a normal conversation with anyone.

“Throughout the course of the movie, they are asking me a bunch of questions and we are going through a lot of stuff and I am answering with random cliches that mean nothing,” he said.

Mason is excited – and intimidated – by his first acting job aside from commercials. Basketball players get accused of acting if they “flop” while trying to draw offensive fouls, but Mason contends he doesn’t have that kind of acting experience.

“I got (accused) a couple of times,” he said. “But I would always go to the (opposing) coach and say ‘look, I took a solid shot in the chest.’ I had no problem telling a ref or a coach that because I didn’t flop. I wasn’t a flopper. Coach (Eddie) Sutton didn’t allow that anyway.”

One of the greatest what-ifs ever is what would’ve happened to He Got Game if Spike Lee had actually casted Allen Iverson instead of Ray Allen (or even what if Lee had decided to actually film an ending that wasn’t completely awful?)? Would it have been a better movie? How good of an actor could Iverson be?

Allen wasn’t too bad in the flick – although the scene where he’s scolding his kid sister in her room is glaringly atrocious – but he was helped by playing a role that’s familiar to him. The same holds true for My Giant and Gheorghe Muresan, even though this scene will always be hilarious. But who knows how we would’ve judged their performances if the movies had been about a boy genius or a bank robbery.

If you were casting a movie – a film outside of the normal boundaries for an athlete – which NBA players do you think could fill a role? My top 10 are:

J.J. Barea because he would fit right in.
Shane Battier because he would study every trick in the book, and research his part obsessively
Joe Johnson because I would want to see if he could change his facial expression
Derek Fisher because somehow he would always find himself in the perfect role
Stephen Jackson because I could absolutely see him in a movie like Fight Club
Darko Milicic because, as Rasheed Wallace once said, he would make the terrorists in Collateral Damage look like teddy bears
Chris Paul because he would keep everyone else happy, and all of his movies would normally exceed expectations
Vince Carter because Half-Man, Half-Amazing could probably pull off Two-Face
Andrea Bargnani because I want to see what kind of mob boss he could be
-and Manu Ginobili because he’s used to it

Which NBA players have the most potential as actors?

Follow Sean on Twitter at @SEANesweeney.

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.

Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.

×