It's the perfect time to watch Love & Basketball

'tis the (March Madness) season

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for any amount of time, it won’t shock you to learn that I’m not super into sports. I like going to games, I enjoy having them on TV in the background as I read, and as a former band kid I love everything about football season. But I don’t, you know, understand sports and that’s fine with me. You can still have fun with something even if your understanding of it is rudimentary at best. My only sports philosophy is that I’m always rooting for Ohio (Ohio Against the World might as well be my personal motto).

So I don’t necessarily gravitate towards sports movies, but it was still weird that I hadn’t seen Love & Basketball yet. I loved Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights, and I’ve enjoyed a lot of Sanaa Lathan’s other performances (Brown Sugar, Something New, and of course her most notable performance as Woman Who Possibly bit Beyoncé). And yet I’d never seen Love & Basketball, a film everyone loves. One that’s in the Criterion Collection! What better time to watch it than now, when March Madness is underway and my bracket is already destroyed because I just chose Ohio teams and Dayton already got knocked out?¹

Let’s get one thing straight: this movie is amazing. This movie is perfect. I can’t say enough good things about this film or possibly even communicate my feelings with words but I will try because that’s the entire point of this newsletter (and also of course I already told Hollis the whole plot).

Love & Basketball, like most romances, technically has two main characters: Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps). But this is Monica’s story—if this was Goodreads, someone would complain that this is women’s fiction, not romance. It’s about her journey.

The film is divided into four quarters (yes, like sports) and starts when the two of them are children and Monica’s family moves into Quincy’s neighborhood. Quincy and his friends are playing basketball when Monica, wearing a baseball cap, asks to play. They say yes, only for her to do a classic reveal where she takes off her hat and she’s a girl. And she still smokes them, until Quincy knocks her to the ground and she scrapes her face, giving her a scar. This semi-violent meet cute sets the tone for their relationship (highly competitive and Monica is slightly better than Quincy).

In high school (second quarter!), Monica and Quincy both play basketball. Quincy’s father is a professional basketball player and Quincy has always wanted to be like him. His dad is Dennis Haysbert, also known as the deep voiced guy from the Allstate commercials and the male lead in Far From Heaven (I have to mention Todd Haynes once per newsletter, sorry). Quincy wants to play on his dad’s team and have his dad’s number and he’s doing all this with the support of his parents. Monica, meanwhile, idolizes Magic Johnson and is pursuing basketball despite her parents. Her dad is kind of a non-character, but her mom is Alfre Woodard and she is stealing the hell out of all her scenes. She’s a stay-at-home mom who just wants Monica to be girlier, like her sister Regina Hall (Regina Hall is barely in this movie but of course she’s luminous, and this is my periodic reminder that everyone should watch her in Support the Girls, a perfect film). But Monica can’t help it! She doesn’t want to do her hair or wear a dress, she wants to be too aggressive on the court and get fouled repeatedly.

But wear a dress she must when she attends the school dance with one of Regina Hall’s college friends as her date. Quincy attends with Gabrielle Union, who tried to use Monica to ingratiate herself to him (she passed a note to him through Monica basically saying she wanted to sleep with him, which Monica referred to as “sending her coochie through the mail”…iconic). They may be there with other people but that doesn’t stop them from sending each other sultry looks across the dance floor!

Since Monica and Quincy live next door to each other, they have a habit of communicating via window like they’re in Taylor Swift’s You Belong with Me Video (Quincy even quietly leaves his house and sleeps on her floor when his parents are fighting, which is unbearably sweet and one of those little details that the films excels in…they really are friends first). Monica discovers that she has a letter from USC and climbs outside to open it with Quincy, who bailed on his date with Gabrielle Union, completely ignoring a coochie sent through the mail in favor of spending time with Monica. USC wants her, which is great because so does Quincy and also he’s going to USC.

Third quarter: Quincy is basically the BMOC while Monica is getting constantly yelled at by her mean white coach, a woman whose manner was so strange that I looked her up to see if she was actually a basketball coach. Nope, she’s an actress! She was just committed to giving a unique performance, which I appreciate. Anyway, the rest of the team hates Monica and she’s down in the dumps about it, while Quincy is getting autograph requests and a lot of female attention.

And then his dad Dennis Haysbert drops a bomb on him real casually. He’s like, “Well, be careful about all this attention you’re getting, particularly from the ladies, because someone might try to entrap you with a paternity suit which is what’s happening to me right now.” Quincy is like, “…what?” and Dennis Haysbert is like “Whoa, you don’t think I actually impregnated another woman, do you? But also, I didn’t.” A lot of women are referred to as hos in this film, which I found charming. Do people use that word anymore? I wouldn’t know, I’m 37.

Quincy goes home to find his mom totally blitzed by the pool, and he’s like, “wow I can’t believe some lady is trying to frame dad! Oh well! I believe him implicitly!” And then his mom shows him the photos she received from the private investigator she hired to catch his dad cheating. He cheated and, what’s worse, lied to Quincy about it!

Quincy talks it over with Monica, as he always does, but then she has to get back to her dorm because she has an 11 pm curfew. One of her mean teammates injured herself in the last game, but Monica can’t start if she misses curfew. This is obviously a huge deal for her, and Quincy could totally call her or talk to her in the morning, but instead he’s like, “No, I need to be by myself.” Uh-oh, we’ve got a toxic male lead red flag!

Monica ends up winning the game for her team, and EDITED TO ADD: I had a explanation here of what happened during the game where I tried to be vague but I messed that up and wrote something even more confusing, and I’ve now heard from multiple people who kindly explained to me how basketball works. That is very nice of you but unfortunately I won’t remember anything you said, which I know for a fact because Hollis just came downstairs and explained again what happened and it truly was in one ear and out the other. Logically I should be able to remember this but I can’t, so instead I’ll just say the team won and it was because of Monica. I hope this doesn’t sound snarky; it’s genuinely very nice of anyone to try to explain basketball to me!

Her mean coach is like, “Monica, my office, now,” and Monica assumes she’s in trouble. But instead, her coach is like, “I only ride people like that when I see potential.” She has potential! Everyone was only mean to her because they knew she was great (or, in the case of her teammate who’s now on crutches, because they were jealous). Monica’s riding high!

Except that Quincy’s not at the game. She meets up with him later at a party, where he’s like, “Hmm, couldn’t make it” and then gets mad that she went out to celebrate afterwards with her team. Quincy! He’s drunk and dancing with other girls. As viewers, we know that Quincy is hurting from the revelation about his father that called his entire life into question: if he modeled himself after his dad, then what does his dad’s infidelity mean for him? What’s he doing at this school? What’s he doing in basketball?

And, crucially, what’s he doing with Monica? When Monica comes over to see him later, another girl shows up and Quincy invites Monica to go out to dinner with them. Like, he’s taking some random girl out and presenting it as if it’s no big deal. But it is! When she confronts him later, his defense is, “I took that ho to Burger King.” Okay! Quincy, I think you know that the quality of the dining establishment isn’t the point here.

Monica is upset, promising that she can make up for whatever she did (you did nothing wrong, Monica!), but Quincy breaks up with her. And I hate him. He sucks! I’m sorry you’re reeling from Dennis Haysbert’s lies and cheating but that’s no excuse, Quincy!

And now we’re in the fourth quarter. It’s 1993 and Monica and Quincy are both out of college. Quincy is struggling in the NBA (oh yeah, he dropped out of school to go pro to really stick it to his dad, which was obviously a terrible decision). Monica, meanwhile, is playing basketball in Spain as part of the International Women’s Basketball Association. One part of this movie that I found really moving was when her college teammates talked about how they wanted to keep playing after college, but it would never be the same as all of them being together at school. And when they talked about how their only option to keep playing was to go overseas, I was confused. Why was no one talking about the WNBA? Why did Quincy keep joking that Monica was going to be the first woman in the NBA? And then I googled the WNBA and it was founded in 1996. Monica has literally no way to play basketball professionally post-college unless she goes overseas. What a wild time!

Monica’s still talented, but Quincy is faltering, and he tears his ACL on the court. At the hospital, Dennis Haysbert shows up and we learn that he hasn’t spoken to Quincy in years. Quincy’s mom is there with a new haircut and a new man—she has moved on. Quincy is still mad, understandably, and his dad admits that he could never be the man he wants Quincy to be. It’s sad!

Monica shows up to visit Quincy for the first time in five years (a torn ACL really brings people back into your life), but then Quincy’s fiancé TYRA BANKS shows up. That’s right, Quincy is engaged to flight attendant Tyra Banks and Monica is shocked. She’s kind of having a crisis because she wants to stop playing ball and now her ex is engaged to Tyra Banks? It’s too much.

Monica gets a job at her dad’s bank and attempts to walk in heels (she’s sporty! Everyone knows sporty women can’t do heels!) and tries to pretend she’s not in love with Quincy. This is especially ridiculous because a) Quincy broke up with HER and b) even in the 1990s, the phone worked both ways. He could’ve called her at any time, including before he proposed to Tyra Banks, and yet he did not (okay he did call her a couple of times but he should’ve tried harder). Also remember how he tried to hold her back in college? What if she had stayed with him and missed her curfew and not started? Would she even have the career she did?

Perhaps Monica needs to remember what Shakira learned the hard way (image via my beloved People)

Monica attempts to talk it out with her mother Alfre Woodard, but their conversation devolves into the two of them yelling and Alfre Woodard slapping Monica. Okay, I have to admit: I cried during this scene. The two of them let out everything and it was clear that they hadn’t communicated their entire lives. Monica thinks Alfre Woodard is pathetic for devoting herself to being a stay at home mom instead of starting the catering business she occasionally mentioned (she’s rolling a pie crust into dust during this entire conversation). But Alfre Woodard says that her main priority was being around for her family—she mentions being there when Monica was getting ready for her big high school dance, and how that was way more important to her than having a job. It’s so clear that these two people just don’t understand each other and desperately want the other’s approval—Alfre Woodard never tried to fully understand Monica’s love of basketball, while Monica never appreciated what her mom was able to do for her. They both just wanted more from each other and they never talked about it and now there are years of resentment.

It made me so sad, and it points to one of the reasons this movie is markedly better than most romances made right now. The main story is between Monica and Quincy, but there are so many side characters who feel like their stories exist off the screen, and their interactions with Monica and Quincy have major repercussions. In other words, no one is there to just be a sassy best friend or a one-note villain. All Monica can see in her mother’s life is something she doesn’t want: sacrifice at the altar of family. But Monica wants a family too, as her loneliness in Spain teaches her. She just also needs to follow her career. In other words, she wants love and basketball.

At some point in here, Regina Hall had a baby and the family is all spending time together when Alfre Woodard is basically like, “Monica, is there a reason you haven’t told Quincy you’re in love with him or are you just being a giant chicken…?” She may not understand Monica’s love of basketball but she does see her!

So Monica shows up at Quincy’s bedroom window, because he’s home while Tyra Banks is out of town. His wedding is mere weeks away, and Monica is like, “Well it turns out I have to quit playing basketball internationally because I don’t love it without you.”

Instead of realizing that Monica is the best thing to ever happen to him, Quincy is mad. And insulting! He does make one good point, which is that this isn’t a good time to confess your love to someone (Monica is like, “I should’ve done this weeks ago” but I would argue that even that wasn’t early enough…try months! Years! Pre-engagement, perhaps!). However, Quincy is being a little baby about this because all he did was try to call Monica twice over the course of five years and then give up. Try harder, dude!

He's being such a jerk to her but Monica is determined, so she falls back on the one thing she knows: she challenges him to a game. The prize? His heart.

It’s an intense game. She loses. I felt the tears well up in my eyes. And then…and this is such a good line, such a good scene, that I couldn’t believe I’d never seen it before…Quincy says, “Hey.”

(You know how much I love a good “hey” in a movie.)

Monica slowly turns around. Quincy says, “Double or nothing.”

He holds out the ball. They walk toward each other. THEY KISS! Wow. What a scene.

And then. And then! We see Monica playing in the WNBA, which exists now, with her hyphenated last name on her jersey. She and Quincy are married, and he’s where he should be: at the game, supporting her, holding their daughter on his lap! She’s living her dream and she has a family—she has it all. Love and basketball. I’m genuinely tearing up typing this. Yes, Quincy really sucked for a while there, but he figured it out! He realized that basketball wasn’t even his thing anyway, that he was mostly in it because of his dad. And he finally got over his ego. I love him now. Basically all I want out of a male lead in a romance is for him to support his superstar girlfriend/wife.

Whew! What can I say, I love basketball now. And I learned so much from this movie—certainly not the mechanics of the game, but a little bit about the formation of the WNBA. And a lot about how great Alfre Woodard is. I had the time of my life watching Love & Basketball, and I’d love to hear all your thoughts. What are your favorite scenes? Your favorite lines? The times you got maddest at Quincy? Also what do you think his conversation was like with Tyra Banks (this is essentially the plot of the upcoming Emily Henry book Funny Story)? Let me know, and I’ll see you soon. Double or nothing. xo

1. I know I said I don’t really follow sports super closely but it’s possible, maybe even preferable, to fill out a bracket based on vibes.