Blue Chips is a 1994 drama film about basketball, directed by William Friedkin, written by Ron Shelton and starring Nick Nolte as a college coach and real-life basketball stars Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway as talented finds. It features cameos from noted basketball figures Bob Knight, Rick Pitino, Nolan Richardson, Bob Cousy, Larry Bird, Jerry Tarkanian, Matt Painter, Allan Houston, Dick Vitale and Jim Boeheim, as well as Oscar-winning actor Louis Gossett, Jr. Pete Bell , a college basketball coach for the fictional Western University Dolphins, is under a lot of pressure.... His team isn't winning as often as it once did and his successful program needs to attract new star players and fast. But the brightest stars of the future — the so-called "blue-chip" prospects — are secretly being paid by other schools. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate after a losing season. A school booster, greedy "friend of the program" Happy , will stop at nothing to land these star high school players for Western's next season.
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| Release date: | February 18, 1994 |
| Directed by: | William Friedkin |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 108 Minutes |
| Producer: | Wolfgang Glattes, Michele Rappaport, Ron Shelton |
| Music by: | Jeff Beck, Jed Leiber, Nile Rodgers |
| Screenplay by: | Ron Shelton |
| Estimated budget: | $9,000,000 |