Space Jam 2: 5 NBA players who should be Monstars

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Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images /

Point Guard: Chris Paul

Honorable Mentions: Kyrie Irving, Diana Taurasi, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, John Wall

Damian Lillard and John Wall are great, but they’re not popular or screen-friendly enough to make the cut. Russell Westbrook would be terrific in a movie like this, but to be perfectly honest, a Monstar version of Russ would actually be less intimidating than the real version of Russ, so that rules him out.

Stephen Curry is an obvious choice given the history between LeBron James and the Golden State Warriors, and there’s no question the best team in basketball needs to be represented here. However, we also don’t want the Monstars to just be a recreation of the Dubs, James’ personal living hell — especially since he’s supposed to win in this movie. Even so, Curry is great on screen and so popular he might be the toughest exclusion on the list.

Since it’s 2018, and people are finally catching on that the WNBA is great basketball, we have to include the G.O.A.T. Diana Taurasi on here. She’s still good enough to be a formidable force on the court, her tenacity and competitive fire would be great personality traits for one of the aliens and it’d send a terrific message to America’s youth to have the first female Monstar. If the sequel does give the Monstars a bench, Taurasi had better be the designated sixth woman.

However, there’s no denying the heavy-hitters in this category are Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving, two personal buddies of LeBron, even after the latter forced his way out of Cleveland. The friendship and respect is still there though, and if the Monstars are looking for a point guard with lightning-quick handles, isolation scoring and commendable acting skills (Uncle Drew was better than expected), Kyrie could be their guy.

However, given LeBron’s friendship with Chris Paul, his proven on-screen presence in State Farm commercials and the fact that he’s still a damn good point guard, CP3 gets the final nod. We don’t want to go all in on members of the Banana Boat, but Chris Paul makes the most sense from a basketball perspective and an acting perspective.