EOn June 8, the film premiered on Netflix. Hustle (Claw, in Spanish), in which Adam Sandler returns to make a sports film as he did in the past with Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy and the new version of The Longest Yardwhich was among the most viewed on the platform in the week since its premiere.
Sandler has now moved on to the world of basketball, playing Stanley Sugarman, a scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who travels the world looking for the next great promise. On a trip to Spain after the death of the team’s owner, which brings him back to travel after a few days as the team’s assistant coach, he finds himself in a street game at Bo Cruz, the diamond in the rough that he was looking for so many years and for which he decides to risk everything to take him to the NBA.
The movie has caught a lot of interest among basketball fans as multiple NBA players and personalities appear in Hustle, but it has left a big question: Is Bo Cruz really a player?
Who is Bo Cruz, ‘La Boa’ and ‘El Misil’ in the movie ‘Hustle’?
The player of the Spanish National Team and the Utah Jazz of the NBA, Juancho Hernangomez, plays Bo Cruz in the film. Cruz is a player who as a young man was about to travel to the United States, but his partner became pregnant and stayed in Spain to take care of their daughter, so he works as a bricklayer and at night he goes to Barcelona looking for matches and challenges in which you earn a few more euros. There he finds Sugarman and convinces him to try his luck in the tests prior to the Draft, where they encounter all kinds of difficulties.
In real life, Hernangómez came to the NBA in the Draft del 2016, picked #15 by the Denver Nuggets. In his career, the Spaniard averages 5.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 0.6 assists, starting only 66 of 297 games in his career.
In 2022, Hernangómez played for three teams: Celtics, Spurs and finally the Jazz.with whom he played in the six games of the first round series against the Mavericks of Luka Doncic, one of the stars who plays himself in Hustle.
‘Hustle’: NBA stars appearing in new Netflix movie
Hernangómez is one of multiple NBA players to appear in the film, though most play himself and have cameo roles. Two other key characters are Anthony Edwardsof the Timberwolves, who plays Kermit Wilts, a University of Kentucky prospect who becomes Bo Cruz’s nemesis. Kenny Smith, the former player and current TNT analyst, plays Leon Rich, an agent and friend of the Sugarman. Boban Marjanovic plays a Serbian prospect and Moritz Wagner to the German player Haas.
Supposedly working with the 76ers, multiple players and staff who were with the team when the movie was shot appear, such as Matisse Thybulle, Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris, Seth Curry, Dave Joerger y Doc Rivers. Also playing an important role is Philadelphia legend Dr.J. Julius Erving.
Trae Young, Jordan Clarkson, Khris Middleton, Aaron Gordon, Kyle Lowry, Seth Curry, Luka Doncic, Aaron McKie, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Dirk Nowitzki, Brad Stevens, Sergio Scariolo, José Calderón, Leandro Barbosa, Álex Abrines and Maurice Cheeks also appear in the film, while the streetball legends, “The Professor” (Grayson Boucher) “Bone Collector” (Larry Williams) and “Main Event” (Waliyy Dixon) are also in the film.
Are Bo Cruz and Stanley Sugerman based on real people?
Taylor Materne and Will Fetters, the screenwriters of Hustle, they stated at the time that they were not based on any real players for the character in the film. Sandler’s character, Stanley Sugarman, is also not based on any real life character.
