James Worthy
Worthy's real career happened on a basketball court rather than a screen. He spent all of it with the Los Angeles Lakers, won three championships, made seven All-Star teams, was twice named to an All-NBA team, and was voted most valuable player of the 1988 finals. The nickname Big Game James followed him, and the league later put him on both its 50th and 75th anniversary sides. He is routinely ranked among the best small forwards the sport has produced.
On screen he appears as himself, which is how most great athletes enter a film catalogue. The Last Dance, They Call Me Magic and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar portrait Minority of One all use him as an interviewee rather than a subject.
It is a narrow filmography, but the three titles between them cover the era he played through, and that is the useful thing about him as a talking head. He was in the room, on the floor, and on the losing end of enough of it to be honest about the rest.
Movies (1)
TV (2)
Where to start with James Worthy
Take They Call Me Magic first. Worthy played alongside its subject for most of his career, so his contributions carry the weight of a colleague rather than a commentator, and the series is the best single account of the Lakers team he played on.
Kareem: Minority of One is the more serious film, a portrait of a difficult and thoughtful man that cares more about his politics than his hook shot, and Worthy is one of the voices placing him as a teammate instead of a monument.
The Last Dance is the famous one and the one where he sits furthest from the centre. It is a Chicago story, and his appearances are there to explain what the other conference looked like from inside it, which is a small role in a very good series.