- Retired NBA great Kevin Garnett told Business Insider that he was one of the players Spike Lee approached for the starring role in his 1998 movie "He Got Game," which went to Ray Allen.
- Garnett said that he "didn't have any confidence" to consider playing the lead in a movie.
- He said Lee was persistent and Garnett finally passed when the director asked him to do a screen test.
- However, Garnett has acting talent, and he shows that off in the upcoming movie, "Uncut Gems."
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Ray Allen played the lead in Spike Lee's classic 1998 basketball fable "He Got Game," but originally the director had another NBA legend in mind for the part.
Kevin Garnett - an NBA Finals champ with the Celtics, MVP, and one of the greatest power forwards who ever played - said that Lee really wanted him for the role of high school phenom Jesus Shuttlesworth.
"First time they brought it to me I ignored them because I'm a super shy guy," Garnett told Business Insider while promoting the movie "Uncut Gems" (out in limited release December 13 and nationwide Christmas day), in which he plays a version of himself. "I didn't have any confidence so I didn't really take him seriously."
But Garnett said Lee was persistent in trying to nab him - and for good reason. In the movie, Shuttlesworth is going through the decision to attend college or go straight to the pros. Garnett went through the same thing, deciding in 1995 to go from high school to the NBA and becoming the first player to skip college and go pro in 20 years. It paved the way for many others.
"So I'm on vacation and my agent went with me and he told me, 'Spike is really adamant that he wants you, but there's one thing, he wants you to screen test,'" Garnett said. "I wasn't confident in an audition, I was like, 'What? This is my story.' When I read it I was like, 'This is me, why do I have to audition for something that's technically me?'"
According to Garnett, him declining to do a screen test led to Lee moving on.
Garnett wasn't the only NBA star Lee went out to.Kobe Bryant told Sports Illustrated in 2013 that he was offered the Shuttlesworth role by the director. And according to a 2018 The Undefeated story looking back on the movie, Lee also tried to get Stephon Marbury and Tracy McGrady.
Though Garnett, who retired from the NBA in 2016, admits today he wasn't ready for acting back in 1998, he shows in "Uncut Gems" he has talent. In the movie, he becomes obsessed with an uncut black opal that celebrity jeweler Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) lets him borrow after having a huge night during a Celtics playoff game. Garnett steals every scene he's in.
Allen gives a great performance in "He Got Game," but it's interesting to think how Garnett would have played the role opposite Denzel Washington, who plays Shuttlesworth's father in the movie.
However, Garnett says he's done with acting after "Uncut Gems." Well, maybe.
"Unless I play a villain," he said. "I want to be a villain and I want to be killed early [in the movie] so I don't have to stick around."