Stephon Marbury claimed that the movie He Got Game was about him: "It doesn’t take rocket science to figure that one out"

Before Ray Allen got the role of Jesus Shuttlesworth in the iconic movie ' He Got Game ', Filmmaker Spike Lee had many NBA players in mind to play the part. The list included Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, Derek Anderson, Walter McCarty, and Allan Houston.

Lee and the movie's producers contacted each one of them, inviting the players to try out for the role. Many of them auditioned but ended up getting rejected. Then, some declined the invitation. One of those was Stephon Marbury , who refused to interview for the role because he believed that the movie was about him.

"It's pretty obvious who they were doing the movie on, " said Marbury. "It doesn't take rocket science to figure that one out. Who else are you doing it on? What other player …?"

It did look like a Stephon Marbury story

There were eerie similarities between Shuttlesworth and Marbury. Both were from the projects of Coney Island. Like Marbury, Shuttlesworth was the top HS player in the country who had plenty of colleges going after him.

But Lee denied Marbury's claim. The Academy Award-winning director said that Coney Island is a basketball-crazy place and the Shuttlesworth story isn't unique as it happens to many kids from the area, including Marbury.

"I just didn't feel that I needed to audition to be me," insisted Starbury. "Because I know that the movie was about me."

Kobe was Spike's first choice for the role

Before Spike began casting, he first offered the role to Kobe Bryant. But the then-young star from the Lakers turned it down because he wanted to focus on the next NBA season rather than film a movie.

"When you look at actors and what they have to go through, and the downtime that's involved in that, it's just too much. I wanted to play ball. I wanted to work out and train all the time. There was also a lot of pressure on me coming out of high school to perform well … I needed all my resources dedicated to preparing myself for the season. I didn't really have time to do a film," Kobe later explained .

With Marbury and Kevin Garnett turning down the invitation, Lee ended up picking Allen and he turned out to be the right man for the job. Despite not having previous acting experience, Ray Ray was a fast learner during the eight-week acting crash course. The movie flopped at the box office, but Allen's acting was given a grade of 'A'.

Related: “I was really nervous” - Spike Lee explains why he was so scared to meet Larry Bird in person for the first time