Have People Been Watching These ESPN 30 For 30 Documentaries?
Have people been watching these 30 for 30 documentaries on ESPN? I was kind of expecting them to suck because usually ESPN isn’t very good at this type of shit, but almost all of them have been excellent including last night’s on Len Bias. Just incredibly sad. Like after watching it I didn’t know who I felt worse for. The Bias family, Red Auerbach or me as a Celtics fan because of what we missed out on. I mean Len Bias was fucking unbelievable. Like Jordan good. He would have totally carried the torch from when Larry Bird retired and we’d probably have like 22 World Championships by now. It also illustrated just what a brilliant guy Red was. I mean how the fuck did we have the #2 pick coming off an NBA Title? I’m sure there is a simple answer to that, but it still seems ridiculous. In fact at Len’s funeral Red spoke and said he had been scheming for 3 years on how to get him. I guess he truly was playing chess while everybody else was playing checkers huh? Seriously I’d like to see Phil Jackson pull that off.
Anyway the thing that really jumped out at me when I watched this was just what a strong family Len Bias came from particularly his mother. They handled this tragedy better than you’d ever expect anybody to be able to handle something like this. And for some reason I never knew that his younger brother who was also awesome at basketball was murdered a couple years after Len died. Just gruesome luck. I mean I don’t even know how you go on as parents when not one but two tragedies like this hit you, but like I said his mom is as strong as it gets.
And yes I know this whole 30 for 30 thing was Bill Simmons idea. Brilliant job by him. Just brilliant. Nobody ever said he’s not worth every dime that ESPN pays him. Long story short if you haven’t been watching these documentaries I highly and I mean highly recommend them. Click here to to see the schedule of when they air.
The reason they don’t suck is because the only thing ESPN has to do with them is airing them. All the rest is independent film makers.
The Bias one was excellent, as they’ve all been.
Still, you’d think a Celtics would know how Red ended up with the2nd pick in 1986. He traded Gerald Henderson to Seattle in 1984 for their ’86 first round pick, with an eye on drafting Bias.
Pick up a book once in a while. Start with John Feinstein’s book about Red called “Let me tell you a story.” Classic Red anecdotes for like 350 pages.
The Bias one was run of the mill. Felt like just another ESPN segment and added nothing new.
In order best to worst:
1. Gretzky trade
2. Ali/Holmes fight
3. USFL (even if Simmons was way off about the Breakers)
4. Baltimore Band
5. Bias
i am a horse
rear admiral picking the gretzky one first…shocker. I loved USFL one.
As a Canadian I am looking forward to the Terry Fox one by Steve Nash – http://30for30.espn.com/film/into-the-wind.html
Hard to believe how much emotion that name still brings out in Canadians of all ages.
Gretzky one told everyone’s candid story with the wisdom gained in 20 years. Bias one told me nothing new.
USFL one actually made it look like people here cared (we didn’t). They must’ve figured Simmons had a throwback so all of Boston loved the Breakers.
Phil Jackson has never been a Gm, but Jerry West was and Just for the record, The lakers pulled off a similar deal a few years prior to the Bias deal. They came off a NBA championship and then got the number one pick in the draft- James Worthy.
Bias grew up in Prince George’s County in Murderyland, it’s a rough rough place up there!
Hope ESPN airs these in Europe as well, really looking forward to seeing these. Especially the one about Iverson is supposed to be great.
phil and red should never even be in the same discussion. red not only won all those rings as coach, put played a direct role in several more titles. phil simply signs on with the best player in the league at that time… kinda like shaq has seemed to do at times
Agree, these all have been great.
I unlike alot of you had no idea about anything that went on with Bias, Im in my mid 20′s and live on the west coast. So to me it went into great detail.
I didn’t see the gretzky one, but loved the usfl one as well.
Lakers suck but they did trade away Vlade Divac for Kobe Bryant.
The USFL one – Small Potatoes – truly showed what an asshole Donald Trump was, and still is. This league COULD have made it, had it stayed in the spring, and reduced to less then 50 teams, which is what it seemed to have.
Gretzky’s show – King’s Ransom did a great job of depicting the rise of American hockey, and the demise of the Oiler dynasty.
Ali/Holmes was just sad – from my point of view it showed to me that Ali was already punch drunk and delusional. I would rather remember him for what he did socially and in his prime in the ring, not the mess he became at the end.
Now, last night’s episode —really was intense. I am a lifelong C’s fan, and remember like many of the readers here what a long term effect this had on the team. Scott Van Pelt’s “one big thing” yesterday described how Kennedyesque this tragedy was, and that something so great can be gone so easily. Just a tragic loss for many folks, yet its great to remember how broad these events become, and how profound tragedy can be.
I only saw the USFL one. Thought it was great. Amazing the QBs that started there.
ESPN Classic put out some good shows when they did the top 100 athletes.
Looks like the Simmons war machine got to the pres.
i was always a trouble maker. after bias died i got the same hat and stated buying coke on the weekends. he taught me a lot.