Legendary Sports Movie Characters and Their Star Athlete Equivalents

Kyle Bandujo, co-author of a new book about sports movies, breaks it down.

Which classic movie character is most like Shohei Ohtani? / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Kyle Bandujo and Rick Bryson have successfully mixed sports and pop culture in a new book called Movies with Balls: The Greatest Sports Films of All Time, Analyzed and Illustrated. The two dive deep into more than two dozen iconic sports movies with wit and humor. The book is a nice addition to any coffee table and features the smooth reading and honest-to-goodness fun that's become harder to find on the internet today.

Bandujo, who also hosts Big Screen Sports: The Sports Movie Podcast, huddled up with Sports Illustrated to look at some classic sports movie characters and who they remind us of in the current sporting landscape.

Roy Hobbs, The Natural - Shohei Ohtani

This one is a layup, truly two peas in a pod and the greatest talents of their day. Hobbs and Ohtani are two-way talents, but each have had their time on the mound interrupted by injury, with two Tommy John surgeries for Shohei, and a gunshot to the stomach taking Hobbs off the mound.

On that same note, both guys consort with unsavory characters--Hobbs with his would-be assassin, and Shohei with his gambling translator. Off the mound, they each possess a beautiful left-handed swing and light-tower power, but spent years out of sight (Hobbs after leaving baseball for 17 years due to being shot, Ohtani because he spent six years playing for the Angels). -KB

Neon Bordeaux, Blue Chips - Shaquille O'Neal

What a match this is. They even look similar.  Bordeaux operates in the paint as a muscled-up 7-footer with elite athleticism and monster dunks, but off the court showcases a goofy jokester side that we all have associated with The Big Diesel. It's pretty easy to see a scenario where Neon would've left Western U, went to the NBA, won a few titles, made the Hall of Fame, and spent his post-playing days asking Charles Barkley "Where they headed, Chuck?" on Inside the NBA. -KB

Peter LaFleur, Dodgeball - Pete Rose

One of the things that stands out during a Dodgeball rewatch is that the player-coach of the Average Joes is certainly not on the up and up. One has to understand that it was 2004 and we had just gotten our first taste of the antihero era of show-making so even the "good guy" is playing fast and loose with the financials and betting big on his scrappy underdogs to win it all. He chooses to go full Pete Rose and find his way out of a financial jam after consulting Lance Armstrong as moral compass. Again, 2004!

LaFluer also would have 100 percent been a staple of the trading card circuit, signing autographs for impressionable kids who remembered the championship game from the Ocho and couldn't see their hero in the real Dodgeball Hall of Fame. -KK

Happy Gilmore, Happy Gilmore - Jon Rahm

Now, obviously the first thought of "Who's the best Happy Gilmore comp?" leads directly to Bryson DeChambeau. The insane driving distance, the goofiness, desire to do things their own way in the game of golf, that does add up. But, in terms of personality, Happy is all Jon Rahm.

Tell me you can't see Jon Rham getting on all fours and screaming bloody murder at a golf ball after a missed putt, or fighting a game show host during a testy pro am, or even beating the hell out of a clown at mini-golf. They also both clearly like receiving big checks. If Happy and Rahm were ever matched together on a Sunday, you'd need the National Guard on-site as a precaution. -KB

McReynolds, Everybody Wants Some - Bryce Harper

If for some unfortunate reason you haven't seen this movie, please stop reading the post and fix that. It may very well be the best baseball picture out there and people simply do not talk about it enough. McReynolds is, just speaking frankly here, the absolute coolest. A sweet-swinging lefty that has the most confidence you've ever seen who is just daring someone to test him so he can take things up to 11 and prove a point.

Everyone on the field knows full well that he's always the best player on the field and, more than that, he's a born leader by example. McReynolds knew exactly what McReynolds was going to be when he was five years old and Harper has similarly been destined for greatness. - KK

Rachel Phelps, Major League - Billy Beane

Honestly, this might be an insult to Rachel Phelps, who invented Moneyball over a decade before the '02 A's (and Michael Lewis) popularized the concept. However, when you think "GM who won with a box of scraps," you do think Billy Beane and the Moneyball A's (even though those A's had the AL's best left side of the infield and best rotation, but I digress. Scott Hatteberg, Chad Bradford, things of that nature). Rachel Phelps does more with less, handpicking a spring training invite list that includes a future ace pitcher plucked from prison, a Cuban defector with 80-power and a penchant for voodoo, and a team leader & reliable backstop tracked down in the Mexican League--all for league minimum. Phelps hand built a team (let's not bring up why) that made the playoffs with what was most certainly the lowest budget in baseball. That's something the Rays and A's dream of. -KB

Shane Falco, The Replacements - Sam Darnold

Everyone loves a comeback story, and Falco & Darnold are two of the best. Falco washed out of his first try at pro football, haunted by a nightmare performance in the Sugar Bowl and put into the fire too early in the league. Darnold literally saw ghosts during his ill-fated Jets tenure, and while he wasn't yet out cleaning boats, he was stuck playing QB for the Panthers, which lately has been the NFL equivalent of cleaning boats.

All these guys needed was a second chance (or for Darnold, a 4th chance) to helm a team and prove their worth. Falco took the scab Sentinels to the playoffs, and at time of writing, Darnold has the Vikings sitting at 4-0. - KB

Dean Portman, The Mighty Ducks 2 & 3- Jacob Trouba

In researching this we became aware that the actor who portrayed the ultimate hockey bad boy, Aaron Lohr, grew up and married Idina Menzel. Was this common knowledge? Good luck going about your day with that new information.

Anyway, pretty standard here. A hockey player that will get a shot in whenever he can. Looking back, Fulton Reed was sort of a gentle giant compared to Portman. In any group of Bash Brothers there is one that's simply bashier than the next (Jose Canseco). -KK

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