11 Facts About White Men Can’t Jump

With the news that White Men Can’t Jump will be … can’t jumping back into theaters courtesy of Kenya Barris, who created ABC’s hit Black-ish, we thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit some facts about the original 1992 film, starring future True Detective Woody Harrelson and future vampire hunter Wesley Snipes.

The film’s leads were almost Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves

Washington turned the film down to do Malcolm X, and despite demonstrating his athleticism later in The Matrix, Reeves was apparently so uncoordinated on the court that he “almost broke my neck going up for a layup,” actor Cylk Cozart told Grantland.

The debate still rages over who was the better ball player of the film’s leads

The entire cast went through a fairly grueling boot camp to be able to convincingly play street ball hustlers. Some of the pros involved in training say Harrelson was better, though Snipes maintains he beat Woody one-on-one every time they played, according to Grantland.

This was one of Stanley Kubrick’s favorite films

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Along with Mary Poppins, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Jerk, among others.

Writer and director Ron Shelton was a regular street basketball player in L.A.

“Not until I announced I was making this movie did the guys I was playing with for years know that I was the guy who made Bull Durham,” he told Grantland in 2012. “I was just a guy who had a lot of game for a white guy.”

Biz Markie was a consultant on the film’s “your mama” jokes

Regrettably, his contribution — which you can read here — was left out of the film to preserve its rating.

You can still buy a cycling cap like Wesley Snipes’

Well, in a different color, anyway. Hurry up, there’s only one left on eBay.

The filmmakers lowered the hoop for Harrelson to be able to dunk on it

While he was in his trailer, evidently. The poor guy still thinks he did it all by himself. (Or at least he was telling people that as of 2012.)

The director made up a budget gap by betting on a shooting contest with a studio exec

“I got in a shooting contest with a studio executive because we were a half-day behind and he was giving me some grief,” Shelton recalled. “I was like, ‘Let’s shoot for 15 grand. If I beat you best out of five, you give us the 15 grand and we’re back on schedule. If you beat me, I’ll shorten a half a day someplace to catch up.’ I hit the last shot for the win.”

Woody Harrelson brought the cast of Cheers on the set for a visit …

… and George Wendt (Norm) sank a jumper on actor Ernest Harden Jr.

The filmmakers needed protection to shoot in some of L.A.’s rougher neighborhoods

“We shot the Watts Towers, we shot in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the city using the Fruit of Islam as our security,” Shelton told Filmmaker Magazine. “They would go into neighborhoods ahead of us and navigate the gang turf wars and all that so we would know exactly where we could shoot safely.”

Snipes and Harrelson had been teammates before

The duo played high school football players in 1986’s Wildcats, starring Goldie Hawn.