In the scene where Bob Cousy shoots baskets, he was told to just keep shooting them as he talks to Nick Nolte, regardless of whether the baskets went in or not. But Cousy never missed, prompting Nolte to ad-lib his reaction.
For the filming of Pete's team versus Bobby Knight's, the filmmakers had the teams play two games, from which they took bits and pieces to assemble what is seen in the film. Unlike the screen version, Knight's team prevailed in both games, as he had instructed his players to treat the games as real, and play as hard as they could. Knight also refused to wear make-up while on camera.
At the end, Neon and Butch McRae, played respectively by Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway, leave school early to play pro ball. In real life, O'Neal and Hardaway left school early and played in the NBA, furthermore, as teammates. Having seen Hardaway's talents on the set of this movie, O'Neal, who had been drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in 1992, persuaded the Magic to pick Hardaway in the 1993 NBA Draft. On draft day, the Magic successfully traded number one overall pick Chris Webber to the Golden State Warriors for Hardaway, who had been selected third by the Warriors, and three future first-round draft picks. With O'Neal and Hardaway on their roster, the Magic posted the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference in 1994-95 and overcame the Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen (the last playoff series the Bulls lost with Jordan on their roster - he had only come out of retirement that March) and the Pacers with Reggie Miller to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. They would go on to get swept by a Houston Rockets team including Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, who repeated as champions.
William Friedkin's decision to cast basketball players, such as Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway as the basketball players, was rooted in the director's sentiment that actors make for unconvincing athletes in most sports films.