Screenwriting : Sports Scenes by Luke Fuller

An action scene is all of the exciting parts that show character and change the direction of the story... and none of the full stuff.

I would suggest that you read a bunch of sports scripts, and do what they all do but not what only one or two do.

I had similar problems a while back when it came to writing breakdancing scenes - still not fully resolved...

Personally I'd do some play by play,a montage,cuts to people on the bench the coach the crowd maybe individual spectators who are supporting characters.I might even consider doing verbal exchanges on the court or while the protagonist is doing a free throw a verbal exchange with a flashback and some slow motion footage or something.Basically anything that will serve the plot and character development in an interesting way.Boxing movie scripts may be worth taking a look at.

When writing it, be vague about the action but focus on the character revelation or plot movement. This should be true of every scene, not just sports action scenes.

A sports scene doesn't need to be choreagraphed in a spec script; that will be sorted out later in the production phase.

What you need to focus on is the conflict and how that conflict reveals your characters. What is this scene telling us about your protagonist? How does it fit into the story as a whole? Those are the important details at this point. Hope that helps. :)

I've done this before. I use a combination of the commentators (if that's part of your script) and I'll use very very quick concise all caps lines to explain in the quickest clearest way what is happening. Never allowing myself to go into compound sentences.