30 for 30
- Thread starter CJM
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I like the 30 for 30 series as a whole, but I thought the Vlade piece (Once Brothers) last night was spectacular. What an amazing use of sports as a lens to look at an unbelievable human tragedy. Vlade really did well as the narrator. I felt for him and the reconciliation at the end seemed genuine and not forced at all. Just imagine if ESPN used their worldwide power to do stuff like that on a more regular basis.
Agree with the two above posters. Really well done. I always like Divac, but now I've got an even better appreciation for him and his story. He comes off as a very thoughtful, bright guy.
I've told this story before on SOSH somewhere but when I was in college I interned at CBS Sports. We were covering a Seton Hall game one day at the Meadowlands and as we arrived, the Nets were just finishing up a morning shoot around. I watched Drazen Petrovic go from elbow to elbow and just shoot jump shots while somebody rebounded for him. To this day it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in person, sports wise. He must have taken 100 shots and hit over 95 of them. At one point he hit something like 44 in a row. Granted it was just from the elbows and nobody was guarding him, but he went back and forth between shots and with ease hit nothing but the net...over and over and over again. I've never seen anything like it and I'm sure it was something he did on a regular basis.
Btw, next week is Tim Richmond's piece. The story of his life and death is crazy (HBO Real Sports ran a segment on it once). If done well, it could be amazing.
I've told this story before on SOSH somewhere but when I was in college I interned at CBS Sports. We were covering a Seton Hall game one day at the Meadowlands and as we arrived, the Nets were just finishing up a morning shoot around. I watched Drazen Petrovic go from elbow to elbow and just shoot jump shots while somebody rebounded for him. To this day it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in person, sports wise. He must have taken 100 shots and hit over 95 of them. At one point he hit something like 44 in a row. Granted it was just from the elbows and nobody was guarding him, but he went back and forth between shots and with ease hit nothing but the net...over and over and over again. I've never seen anything like it and I'm sure it was something he did on a regular basis.
Btw, next week is Tim Richmond's piece. The story of his life and death is crazy (HBO Real Sports ran a segment on it once). If done well, it could be amazing.
Just a heads up for Comcast customers, "Four Days in October" is now available "On Demand" under Sports/ESPN
Add me to the list of people who thought the Once Brothers piece was outstanding. In what could have easily been a contrived film, Vlade Divac comes across as an engaging, intelligent and sincere narrator.
For those of you who have followed the NBA for a while, especially the Eastern Conference, you will be reminded about how much Drazen Petrovic's star was ascending when he died. I would have loved to see what he would have done over the next few seasons with a then effective Kenny Anderson and Derek Coleman.
That said, this 30 For 30 was riveting. Catch it if you can.
For those of you who have followed the NBA for a while, especially the Eastern Conference, you will be reminded about how much Drazen Petrovic's star was ascending when he died. I would have loved to see what he would have done over the next few seasons with a then effective Kenny Anderson and Derek Coleman.
That said, this 30 For 30 was riveting. Catch it if you can.
Agreed, finally watched this after it has been sitting on my DVR for the past few weeks. Really nice blend of NBA and historical commentary. It really is a shame we couldn't see Petro hit his full stride.
So the 04 Sox thing was the first of these I've watched, and then we watched the Divac-Petrovic episode, which was without a doubt one of the finest documentaries I've ever seen. Are they all this good? For someone who is late to this party, are there others I should make a point of watching?
Seek out the ones on Colombian soccer, Ali/Holmes, Miami football, and the USFL. Almost all are worth a watch except probably the Navratilova/Evert piece.
I thought the Jordan one was pretty weak as well. Nothing really caputred me like most of the others have.
The Steinbrenner one also sucks. The ones you name are very good, though, and well worth watching.
The Loyola Marymount/Hank Gathers one didn't get much publicity (I don't think it was the best made from a cinematic perspective), but I enjoyed it very much.
Was Comcast able to expunge Lenny Clark from the film? Otherwise, even with Simmons, it's one happy lump in the throat experience.
I'll also add that the one about Len Bias was very good. Jimmy the Greek was pretty good also, but not great.
Its really an incredible series. Kudos to Sportsguy.
My favorite one was actually the Two Escobars about the Colombian soccer team. I had no idea that shit was going on with that team when I watched them in the World Cup that year. Very well done and powerful.
Last night's program on Tim Richmond was great. Only caught the last 1/2, but will go back and watch the whole thing.
It was okay but it could have been much better. They should have dealt more with his marriage and the women he infected.
HBO Real Sports interviewed his model/actress wife and some other women a few years ago and it was some pretty crazy stuff. Basically said that he pursued them vigorously, only to have sex with them once or twice, take them out in public to show his heterosexuality, infect them with AIDS, then not see them anymore. His sister denied this last night but the guy was a pretty horrible human being because by all accounts because he knew he was killing people (if you believe the 60 Minutes and HBO pieces).
Yes to the Escobars doc. That was amazing. I liked the Bias episode, but did not feel as though it conveyed much new info.
Also really like the Matt Hoffman episode. Probably b/c 1) I was fascinated by BMX riding as a kid and 2) knew that The Condor existed but had no idea how single-minded he was in his pursuit of big air.
Tupac/Tyson episode was thought-provoking and had its moments, but the poetry slam interludes ruined the flow. On the positive side, the poetry slams made me smile as I thought about some of the hippie chicks I dated in college.
I'm sure that would have been compelling as well, but this was produced by NASCAR, was more image piece/hero worship and did well in that area. Considering how NASCAR apparently treated him before and during his illness it was amusing how they still danced around the AIDS issue even after all these years. Like most good documentaries it gave me a lot of good information and made me want to learn more, where things can be more fleshed out.
My father has a friend who is a huge, diehard NASCAR fan for over 30 years. He was good friends with a couple of the drivers in the 70s and 80s so I asked him out of curiosity if Richmond was a closeted homosexual (that's what the old HBO piece implied). My father's friend then threatened to punch me in the face "for asking such a stupid question." So...you make an excellent point.
I'm not a big Nascar fan - my tastes run more towards F1 and my first love, CART (how I miss you). But I find it fascinating how NASCAR, to this day, has no idea what to do with Tim Richmond. He was maybe Nascar's first big Northern star, but they've had plenty of Northern stars since then (including Alan Kulwicki, who was positively beloved). But they haven't got a freaking clue what to do with Tim Richmond, and I'm not sure that's entirely because he may have infected some people with AIDS.
They probably would've needed another 30 minutes to tackle that.
If he proposed to his model/actress wife on Sept. 10, 1986, and he found out he had AIDS three months later, Richmond very well could have infected others for eight-plus years unknowingly. And if he took AZT, the drug used to treat AIDS, one of the side effects is impotence. So basically, it comes down to whether one believes Richmond knew he had AIDS before December 1986, when his family alleged Richmond found out, and whether one believes someone would pass on AIDS treatment to do that.
Never did see the "60 minutes" or HBO pieces. The most I saw of those was what "30 for 30" showed the other night.
Just watched the Vlade-Drazen episode. Normally, the "let's make up in front of the cameras" angle is really awful bc it's so phony, but in this case, the feelings were so intense, there was no denying that everyone, from Kukoc to Petrocic's mom, was really talking about this for real. Very moving stuff.
Tonights 30 on 30 might be the second best, closely behind Four Days in October. It's about Marcus Dupree and it's incredible. The story itself is fascinating, and they're doing a great job telling it.
Watch it if you've missed it. I like this one more than Two Escabars.
Watch it if you've missed it. I like this one more than Two Escabars.
I had never heard of this guy before tonight.
This is riveting.
EDIT - Seeing him talk about his brother is brutally heartbreaking.
This is riveting.
EDIT - Seeing him talk about his brother is brutally heartbreaking.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. I am so thankful for these documentaries for introducing me to people and stories that I've never paid attention to before. I thought there was no way this story would hold my attention, let alone for two hours, but it was so incredibly worthwhile. Wonder how he would have turned out under any other college coach then stupidhead Switzer 
I don't get these. I've feel like I've watched so many now and none seem to have the ability capture my attention for an hour, the two exceptions being Ricky Wiliams and Vlade/Petrocic, but in general they all seem like they are HBO-lite. The one tonight is a subject I generally love and I was told it was one of the best, yet it was really blah.
You're nuts. I think many of them have been really well done, and the one tonight was fascinating to someone like me who knew very little about the subject.
I think you might be in the minority on this one. Maybe we are all biased because documentaries and movies on sports topics are generally not of great quality? But I think the vast majority of these have been very well done, and I only got to catch a few minutes of tonights episode and immediately DVRd the replay.
...and equally fascinating to someone like me who remembers the saga very well, but only knew what the (much less pervasive) media reported at the time.
Wow, that did nothing for you? You have a hard hard heart.
Another home run for this series. I vaguely remember Dupree (I'm 39) but now I know. What a story.
I remember Dupree. I was a little kid but I still remember how much of a huge deal he was. A true "can't miss" athlete. But I forgot all about him after he left Oklahoma and I don't even remember him coming back and playing in the NFL. I thought this was another fantastic job...the story had to be told, it was like a Hollywood movie - the greedy agent/reverend, the crazy uncle, the disabled brother and the immature, naive man child athlete.
And how about those runs in high school? Unfuckingbelievable.
And how about those runs in high school? Unfuckingbelievable.
I vividly recall much of the Dupree story. The recruiting war, at least what little we were hearing about it through AP & UPI syndicated releases, SI blurbs, and an ESPN still in its infancy with regard to football coverage, was insane. Of course, we weren't getting any of the stuff on all the backroom dealing. And seeing how all that played out was fascinating tonight.
His signing with the Breakers was fairly big news in Boston because the team had originated here, playing home games at BU's Nickerson Field in its only season there, and had only recently relocated to New Orleans. Dick Coury had been the coach here, and ex-Pats receiver Randy Vataha was still the GM. So there was definitely a rooting interest for Dupree in New England.
The knee injury was the worst anyone had seen in football since Gale Sayers, and would remain such until Napoleon McCallum's.
His signing with the Breakers was fairly big news in Boston because the team had originated here, playing home games at BU's Nickerson Field in its only season there, and had only recently relocated to New Orleans. Dick Coury had been the coach here, and ex-Pats receiver Randy Vataha was still the GM. So there was definitely a rooting interest for Dupree in New England.
The knee injury was the worst anyone had seen in football since Gale Sayers, and would remain such until Napoleon McCallum's.
Love the quote someone had that it was looking at the field in was like seeing 21 high school players and Jim Brown.
That was truely outstanding. Maybe the best of the series. I'm roughly Dupree's age, and remember him very well. A beast. Kind of a bigger, stronger Eric Dickerson. If he had bit more inner-drive, and less of a nit-wit for a college coach, there is no telling what he would have accomplished. I think he would had shredded the ncaa rushing records. The fiesta bowl after his freshman year, which was covered so well in the doc, was almost a perfect microcosm of the guy. He rushes for something like 245 yards, on 19 carries, and it was almost a soft game, due to the conditioning issues he had coming of X-mas break. You literally see the long runs he had in the game were just a hair less explosive than they were earlier in that season. He gets caught from behind on a couple of them that he would not have just few weeks before. In the end, I came away liking him a lot. His very poignant thoughts on his brother, and the fact that he seemed like essentially a simple, not in a derogatory way, country guy, who seems mostly at peace with himself. A good soul. Not a tragic figure.
Every time I think I've just watched the best 30 for 30 in the series the next one supersedes it. I was 12 when Marcus Dupree was a freshman at Oklahoma. I had limited knowledge about him and wondered why he suddenly disappeared. Now I know. What a story. This series shows what ESPN can be when it wants to shine.
That was a fan-freakin-tastic 2 hours. Like a few of you, I was old enough to vaguely know about Dupree, but being in New England certainly didn't follow the saga all that closely. Didn't recall the injury or the comeback (seeing that first run with the Rams was remarkable).
I was struck by how at-peace he seemed with how things turned out. Especially in talking about when he was cut by them Rams. Although you could certainly see a twinge of regret when he saw his old H.S. films ("who is that guy?").
Just a great, great documentary.
I was struck by how at-peace he seemed with how things turned out. Especially in talking about when he was cut by them Rams. Although you could certainly see a twinge of regret when he saw his old H.S. films ("who is that guy?").
Just a great, great documentary.
I was too young to remember Dupree, but like everyone I also greatly enjoyed the documentary. The part that really sticks out to me is that as fans, we focus on athlete's performance above everything else, and tend to begrudge players who 'make it' the money they earn. The opposite side of that are guys like Dupree - guys who have assloads of talent and confidence on the field, but don't have the ability to handle the business pressure (Dupree comes of as a laid-back country folk type, and from the documentary let his career happen around him and let others make a lot of decisions for him - the Rev. handling his money, decisions on where to play, etc.) and media, travel, and all the other extraneous thing that come off the field. It also shows how not effectively managing your career in sports can end disastrously if some career-ending injury occurs.
You could do a whole series of 'where are they now?' type documentaries and I think every one of them would be awesome. This one was exceptionally compelling because Dupree's talent even just in old videos is obvious.
The juxtaposition of the Dupree biography last night with the continued stories of Cam Newton I heard this morning on sports radio really struck me. Big time college football is as much a cesspool now as it was in Dupree's time.
Agreed, though I was left wondering why no other team picked him up. Does anyone on this board remember seeing DuPree play for that Rams in that preseason?
Overall an amazing 2 hours. Great story, great characters ("there is always an uncle" or a father in the case of Cam Newton), and a wonderful reminder of the fleeting nature of athletic greatness. Who knows what this guy would have done given the advances made in reconstructive surgery over the last 15 years. And maybe a slightly better ear for sycophantic advice. Listening to Reverend Fairley and reflecting on the path he led this kid down left me with a sick feeling in my stomach.
I just saw the trailer for Pony Exce$$, the 30 for 30 about SMU football in the 1980s. It looks interesting despite the presence of Skip Bayless.
http://blog.dlpentertainment.com/30-for-30-trailer
http://blog.dlpentertainment.com/30-for-30-trailer
Just watched the Fernando Nation one. Pretty good, did a good job of capturing Fernandomania and what a hero he is (and still is) to a lot of Latinos down in LA.
a 6 DVD box set containing the first 15 documentaries comes out on DVD tomorrow - $49.99 at Best Buy
Personally, I can't wait for "Pony Exce$$". I'm not old enough to have watched that story unfold in person, but the idea of a college football powerhouse being given the NCAA's "Death Pentalty" is just absolutely fascinating to me. The program went from being the elite alma mater of a #2 overall pick in the NFL to being an absolute mess, destroyed by the NCAA. 23 years later the program is still trying to pull itself out of the gutter.