Basketball Movie Review
Celtic Pride
Two Celtics obsessives kidnap the opposing team's star during the Finals, which is either a terrible crime or the logical endpoint of 1990s sports-fan comedy.
Not a good basketball plan, not a great movie, but exactly the kind of deranged NBA-era VHS artifact a proper culture shelf should preserve.
Movie details
1996 · 1h 30m · Comedy
Director Tom DeCerchio
- Damon Wayans — Lewis Scott
- Daniel Stern — Mike O'Hara
- Dan Aykroyd — Jimmy Flaherty
- Judd Apatow and Colin Quinn wrote the story and screenplay for Celtic Pride, which Tom DeCerchio directed for release in 1996.
- Damon Wayans plays fictional Utah Jazz All-Star Lewis Scott, kidnapped by two obsessive Boston Celtics fans during the NBA Finals.
01
The Take
Celtic Pride turns fan entitlement into a kidnapping plot and then spends the movie discovering that its supposed villain is a more functional adult than the two Boston lifers holding him hostage. The whole thing is broad, very 1996 and far more interesting now as a snapshot of sports-fandom mythology than as a comedy premise.
02
Does the Basketball Hold Up?
The NBA identity does most of the work. Boston Garden nostalgia, Celtics obsession and a fictional Utah star create a recognisable league world even when the basketball itself is secondary to the hostage farce. Damon Wayans at least looks like he belongs around the game.
03
Best Basketball Moment
The Finals context surrounding the kidnapping, because the joke only works if you accept that these two men have let basketball fandom erase every remaining adult boundary.
04
Ball Cred
The movie is built around Celtics fandom and a fictional NBA Finals opponent, with Damon Wayans playing All-Star shooting guard Lewis Scott opposite Daniel Stern and Dan Aykroyd.