Surely, audiences won’t have to wait long before they can enjoy Will Ferrell sports comedies about jai alai, water polo and Australian rules football. And if viewers are really lucky, then all three of those movies will be funnier than Semi-Pro. Lazy and erratic, Ferrell’s basketball flick stumbles through even the easiest of comedy lay-ups as it recycles a familiar set of sports-movie clichés and adds the few retro-’70s signifiers left over from Anchorman (which basically means cheese fondue and a Patti LaBelle cameo).

The star is all-screaming-all-the-time as Jackie Moon, the showboating leader of the Flint Tropics, a lowly team with an uncertain fate as its league prepares to merge with the NBA. He’s a one-note buffoon even by Ferrell’s standards, which may explain why the movie runs out the clock with much tedious business about old has-been Monix (Woody Harrelson), young hotshot Coffee Black (Andre Benjamin) and a runaway bear.

Though the dialogue is big on f-bombs, the humour’s only mildly raunchy, one of many indications that no one’s sure about the game plan here. Such is the level of confusion, a bit part by genuine ’70s refugee Jackie Earle Haley generates more laughs than the contributions of usually reliable supporting players like Rob Corddry and Andy Richter. None of this bodes well for the next movie that requires Ferrell to wear tube socks.