Bel-Air Prep’s MVPAnyone who knows my habits knows I’m something of a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air expert. I was always in front of the TV when new episodes aired during the show’s 1990-96 run. In the dark days when we didn’t have cable and all me and my siblings had to watch was local TV and Mom’s VHS tapes, we’d spend hours re-watching Fresh Prince (and Martin and In Living Color) re-runs — which is also why I’ve seen The Five Heartbearts and White Men Can’t Jump about 250 times. And for the last couple of years, given my Smack-driven insomniac behavior, I probably watch at least one Fresh Prince episode per night on Nick @ Nite. All told, I’ve seen every single episode of that show at least 3-4 times, maybe more.
And the entire time, the basketball element of Fresh Prince always bothered me because it was so unrealistic. Naturally, part of Will Smith’s character — the poor kid from Philly moving in with the rich folks in Bel-Air — was that he was an amazing basketball player. Still, chalk it up to the writers either not knowing the game too well or just being lazy, but there’s some issues. (Warning: If you’re unfamiliar with the show, you might not understand 90 percent of what I’m about to talk about…)
1. Will joins the Bel-Air Prep team as a sophomore, in the show’s first season, and from the time he drops something like 30-40 points in his first two games (with zero assists), we’re led to believe he averages somewhere’s around a triple-double: Like he told his barber one time, “I had a mere 32 points, a miniscule 15 rebounds, an insignificant 13 assists.” I’m not too mad at that — it’s been done before — but you never heard of Will taking his basketball anywhere beyond playing for Bel-Air. No AAU, no summer team, nothing. You’re telling me some AAU coach wouldn’t have sunk his claws into a kid like that? There was one hint that Will played AAU, but it was most likely accidental: In the episode where Carlton overdosed on speed, the kid who gave Will the pills asked was he “Ready for the big game this weekend?” Being that this was around the time of Senior Prom, the high school basketball season would’ve been over by then.
2. In the episode where Bel-Air Prep plays Malibu Prep and their star Marcus Stokes (Allen Payne), there’s supposed to be a recruiter from Georgetown in the crowd. Although Will’s team loses, from the clips of the game it looks like he still had 30-something points and carried his team in a battle with another superstar from the talent-loaded Southern California area. And yet, at the end of the episode we’re supposed to believe that Will blew his only chance at getting a D-1 scholarship and Stokes will go on to be a Hoya. But if a school like G’town is looking at Will, would they really be the only school? Let’s say Georgetown only had one more scholarship to offer and Stokes got it. At the very least, UCLA, USC and Cal-Berkley would have known all about Will, not to mention all the Cal State-Fill In The Blanks and UNLV and a lot of other West Coast schools. But you never heard about Will getting recruited to play anywhere else.
Photos. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s official website3. After high school, Will goes to the fictional University of Los Angeles (“Peacocks! We’re marching down the field!”), with no mention of him even considering playing ball. Would a player who was so good in high school not have gotten a scholarship to go anywhere else? The only logical explanations are that, (A) Will just didn’t feel like playing ball anymore, and/or (B) ULA was such a great academic institution that Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv insisted he go there on their dime and focus on school rather than him taking a hoop scholarship somewhere else.
4. How good was Will really? The implication was always that Bel-Air Prep and most of their comp was beyond terrible, and that the only player who ever gave Will a problem was Marcus Stokes over at Malibu Prep; so even if Will wasn’t necessarily killin’ cats in Philly, he could make light work of the rich Southern California kids. Now, in the episode where Will and Stokes played, Will had a daydream where he played 1-on-1 with Isiah Thomas. In that scene you can see that Will and Isiah are the same height, which would be about 6-foot-1. Seeing as everyone on the Bel-Air team was super-short, Will was basically a 6-1 center who also brought the ball up and initiated the offense. Also, consider this: In the episode where Will won some money at the Bel-Air Country Club’s casino night and chose to give it to his little friend Ramon, it was implied that Ramon — who was around Ashley’s age, like 12 years old — was better than Will, who was in high school.
5. On a side note, my favorite thing about TV sitcom basketball scenes is that the court is always like 30 feet long. Fresh Prince was no exception. Will was pulling threes from half-court and going end-to-end in about 2.5 seconds. And don’t forget the 9-foot rims.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Mr. West philly 61st pine st says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHgaRgZCZgk
January 10th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Mr. West philly 61st pine st says:
But wait there is morehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woAnHUPQWMA
January 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Prof. TX says:
The really short court always bothered me too. Somehow the distance from one basket to the other could be covered in about five steps.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Prof. TX says:
In his early days with the Rockets, Horry looked alot like Will Smith did at that time. He used to get alot of comparisons on tv. But people also said that Carl Herrera looked like Bill Duke.
And isn’t ‘pass it to LeBron’ the core offense of the Cavs? Maybe their staff was just a big fan of the show.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Keith says:
WAYYYYYYYYYYY TOO much time on your hands AB. LOL. No, just kidding…Seriously, this was hilarious though. Definitely something to think about. Funny, I was just talking to Christian last night at NRF about the Fresh Prince Bel-Air Prep Courts.
You have to admit, our NRF court resembles it a little bit. LOL.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Austin Burton says:
I know. I can’t even drop my patented corner three because I’d be standing out of bounds.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
GEE ...I got injected with an illegal substance I didn't know about before I wrote this post...dang trainer!!! says:
When a couple of brothas they was up to no good….
I was about to go the way to much time on your hands route as well but then again we all have our vices and mine is much more horrid. Anyway yea I feel like the show should have played on him playing ball more and the times they did it was hilarious. I would have loved to see him and Phil go one on one with him dunking it on Phil or him and Geoffery vs. Phil and Carlton lol.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
bron42 aka Global-4A-Reason says:
well I’d have to go with Will just givin up on ball cuz when he told payne that he let him win cuz he has a kid and what not. Plus in college, your tellin me you wouldn’t go to a smart school and give up playin ball to get in tyra’s pants.
Anyone else ever realize how many chicks got their career started playin wills gf on that show? tyra, the spoiled chick from a different world, the chick from big mammas house, etc…those casting calls must have been crazy.
p.s: when they were taping for alil, they said will was 6′4-6′5.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
bron42 aka Global-4A-Reason says:
but AB, you really need to look into a martin rerun, when they had the nba guys come with GP and larry johnson playin on the other team as ringers.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Austin Burton says:
Nia Long, Jasmine Guy, Tyra Banks, A.J. Johnson (Sharane from “House Party”), Cree Summer (Freddie from “A Different World”), Kim Fields, Vivica A. Fox, Pam Grier, Mari Morrow (”How to Be a Player”), Robin Givens, Elise Neal … Will put in some work on that show.
January 10th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Myrie says:
You wrote a whole piece on the Fresh Prince and didn’t mention Hillary? How dare you?!!?
That Hilary (Karyn Parson I think) sure looked delicious thru all them years. Little Ashley had her moments too when she finally started to show some woman features…
January 10th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
bron42 aka Global-4A-Reason says:
nah, hilary looked her best in major payne
January 10th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Myrie says:
“…HILARY…..YOU BURNT MY LUCKY DRAWS!!…”
Yeah yeah….I forgot all about major payne. barely remember that movie. just damon wayans talking like a fool. but shorty looked like wifey-affair material….
January 10th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
zeitgeist says:
Austin, get some sleep.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Brown says:
Hillary was BOMB on The Ladies Man too. That woman is and always was out-of-this-world hot.
AB, I think Jackie (Tyra Banks) also mentioned something about them playing basketball together back in Philly. Something about how he taught her the jump shot, which she parlayed into a basketball scholarship.
Will Smith might have the sickest list of TV/Movie girlfriends of all time. I can’t even think of one actor who comes close to him.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Myrie says:
Damn….he sure did put in some work! Lovely ladies. I guess Austin wasn’t really watching for the bball references after all.
We should just put Will Smith’s Fresh Prince jersey in the DIME Hall of Fame for his on-air girlfriend rundown. Even Wilt would be jealous.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Risse says:
Brilliant column! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I can’t believe you get paid to research the inaccuracy of the basketball element of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” I’m in the wrong business.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
JRmessiah says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THIS IS THE FUNNIEST POST EVA YO HAHAHAHAH I ALWAYS THOUGHT OF THIS HE WAS PULLING FRM HALF COURT AT EASE AND YEA WILL WAS ABOUT 6′1 BUT NAH IAM SHORE IT WAS ANOTHER PLAYER ON THEY TEAM THAT WAS ABOUT 6′5 OR AROUND THAT
January 10th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Terrell James says:
Word up on the small courts The only decent size court I can remember in a sitcom was the one Urkel and Grandma-ma played on in an episode of Family Matters…and that was outdoors
January 10th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
alberto says:
Will Smith plays for the Spurs and has about 7 championship rings (2 Rockets, 3 Lakers, 2 Spurs). 7 rings doesn’t sound like someone you should be questioning about being a good baller.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Bust Jlaze says:
yo that’s dumb funny…and he had a sick run of ’90s DIMES (albeit 7s or 8s at the most by today’s standards) on that show rite? I always was feelin Nia Long and Freddie from A Different World the most.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Austin Burton says:
Will also had a thing on the show with Garcelle Beauvais and with Stacey Dash.
But no show got more careers started than The Cosby Show. Everyone had a cameo on there at some point.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
doc says:
Bill old ass used to be getting that jello pudding.
January 11th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
JOEMAN says:
Will had Vanessa Williams in the back seat of a limo too!(delivering a baby.LOL) Who was the chick who broke Carlton’s heart, I know there were a couple, but I think there was one that dropped him after breaking his cherry.
January 11th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Dexter says:
Don’t forget Queen Latifah. Haha, she was the finest of them all! (NOT) But a cover girl none the less.
This was a good trip back down memory lane, i think you should next analyze the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” I would appreciate that. LOL
January 12th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Austin Burton says:
The woman Carlton lost his virginity to is named Natalie Venetia Belcon. I always thought she looked like a thicker version of Sade.