Gene Hackman, center, stars in "Hoosiers."

LeBron James’ quest for another NBA title has been put on hold by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

With the NBA season postponed and March Madness canceled until next March, the Beacon Journal sports department is offering you the next best thing, our choices for the best basketball movies to pass your time.

This is the third in a series of suggestions of the best sports movies to watch while you wait for real sports to return.

Michael Beaven

“Hoosiers”: The Hickory Huskers turn into a gritty underdog team going up against larger schools in the Indiana high school basketball state tournament. The season starts out rocky as players have a tough transition to Norman Dale, a knowledgeable coach with a temper. Parents butt heads with Dale, but the coach with college experience sticks to his guns and encourages his guys to pass the ball for a good shot. I love the team play in the film, the conversations between Dale (Gene Hackman) and Wilbur “Shooter” Flatch (Dennis Hopper) and Jimmy Chitwood’s jump shot. Shooter is an alcoholic, but his decision to run the Picket Fence play is pure genius. “Now, boys, don’t get caught watchin’ the paint dry!”

Honorable mention: “Blue Chips,” “White Men Can Jump,” “Space Jam.”

George M. Thomas

“He Got Game”: In his filmography, director Spike Lee owns a number of underappreciated films. This might be the No. 1 move in that category. “He Got Game” works for myriad reasons. The primary one being Denzel Washington as the patriarch of a family torn apart by obsession. But there’s plenty other things to recommend as Lee deftly balances looks at the legal system, absentee fathers, college hoops recruiting as he follows the odyssey of hoops prodigy Jesus Shuttlesworth (a very young Ray Allen) as universities and their alumni fall over him in an effort to get him to sign with their school. Topping it off, the governor offers his father Jake (Washington) a shorter sentence if he can get Jesus to sign with his alma mater. It’s a film that still holds up today for most of its performances (there’s a reason Allen had a significantly better hoops career in the NBA) and Lee’s signature but subtle blistering social commentary.

Honorable mention: “Glory Road,” “Hoosiers,” “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.”

Marla Ridenour

“Hoop Dreams”: This proved to be the hardest category for me, baffling since college basketball is my favorite sport. (I guess I know what I need to catch up on during the pandemic.) Since I didn’t want us all to write about “Hoosiers,” I rented “Hoop Dreams,” the 1994 documentary about Chicago-area high school players William Gates and Arthur Agee, which was rated the No. 1 sports movie of all time by Vulture.com. I won’t go that far, but it certainly pulls back the curtain and exposes the game. While it follows the careers of Gates and Agee, the revelations on the issues of race, poverty, drug abuse, family dynamics, recruiting and the failings of the educational system shine through. By the end of the three hours (hang in there at the beginning), I found myself taking sides — player vs. coach, player vs. the best friend who is not good for him, player vs. his troubled father. There are some riveting basketball moments and fascinating shots from the inside at the elite Nike camp where Dick Vitale speaks. Perhaps most notable is that the young men’s tale holds up decades later.

Honorable mention: “Hoosiers,” “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Shaq and Dale” (an ESPN film).

Ryan Lewis

“Glory Road”: This tells the story of Texas Western’s incredible run through the 1966 NCAA Tournament using a starting lineup of all black players coached by Don Haskins, played by Josh Lucas in the film. This movie is terrifically balanced between its humor and more tense situations, along with some cool in-game effects to showcase the playing style and the gyms from the 1960s. Jon Voight as legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp is also strong. There are several basketball movies that almost always come up before this one, which is fine and probably deserved, but I’ve always found Glory Road to be underrated.

Honorable mentions: “Space Jam,” “Hoosiers;” “Coach Carter.”

Scot Fagerstrom

“Hoosiers”: Who doesn’t love an underdog? Throw in Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper and you really can’t go wrong. The story of the high school basketball team from tiny Hickory, Indiana, and its journey through a difficult season with new coach Norman Dale (Hackman) all the way to the famous Indiana state tournament is a true-life-is-better-than-fiction epic. The demons of Hackman (a failed college coach with a temper) and Hopper (who plays Shooter, the alcoholic father of a player who becomes an assistant coach) add the human element. The classic scene in which Dale pulls out a tape measure to show his team that the basket is the same height and the foul line the same distance from the basket at the big-city arena as it is in Hickory sets the stage for his team’s battle with the big-city school for the state title.

Honorable mention: “Glory Road,” “Space Jam,” “He Got Game.”