ESPN's 30 for 30

[Suicane75]

Just caught the NC State one last night on demand and holy crap was that powerful. Nova/Georgetown is my earliest memory of college basketball so even though I knew what had happened here, it was something else to see for pretty much the first time. I loved the way they interspersed the 83 stuff, with the 93 stuff, with the present stuff.

The whole thing really gave me a whole new insight to Valvano, especially the violations stuff, and how he was genuinely a real good guy.

I did notice that they kept talking about there not being a shot clock at that time, yet in one of the clips of the ACC tourney you can clearly hear one of the announcers say "7 seconds left on the shot clock", which was kind of odd.

Easily one of the better 30 For 30's I've seen so far. In fact it was so draining, that when it was over I started to watch Silly Little Game just to even me out a little and instantly remembered how much I hated that one when they started doing the reenactments. Just annoyed the hell out of me. They have all the main players right there to tell the story, and instead they decide to these goofy recreations. Annoyed the fudge out of me.

[stevew]

The last half hour of the NC State one is pretty hard to watch. It's really shitty the way that all went down with the cancer. I never really knew about the ESPY's thing.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

I did notice that they kept talking about there not being a shot clock at that time, yet in one of the clips of the ACC tourney you can clearly hear one of the announcers say "7 seconds left on the shot clock", which was kind of odd.

The clip was odd, but the shot clock wasn't adopted until three seasons later (85-86).

The other odd thing they didn't really touch on as they went to the NCAA tournament was that the 3 point line was an ACC only experimental rule for the 83 season. It was not NCAA wide.

[Suicane75]

And it was much shorter than it is today, correct?

[digamma]

Longer actually. Was initially a 45 second clock.

[digamma]

oh, wait, you mean the 3 point line? Yes, it was 17'9".

[Suicane75]

yeah, 3 point line was what I meant. Was so bizarre watching 'highlites' of teams holding the ball for 2+ minutes.

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by digamma

The clip was odd, but the shot clock wasn't adopted until three seasons later (85-86).

The other odd thing they didn't really touch on as they went to the NCAA tournament was that the 3 point line was an ACC only experimental rule for the 83 season. It was not NCAA wide.

I think they experimented with a 30 second clock in '83. Yes - just found a NY Times article about it - in the article they said they turned the clock off the last 4 minutes of the game and it was only used for conference play (unless the non-conference team wanted to use it as well).

[digamma]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

I think they experimented with a 30 second clock in '83. Yes - just found a NY Times article about it - in the article they said they turned the clock off the last 4 minutes of the game and it was only used for conference play (unless the non-conference team wanted to use it as well).

That makes sense. I think that clip was from an ACC game.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Just watched Survive and Advance. Easily surpasses Fab Five as my favorite piece so far.

[Scoobz0202]

I even had a reminder in my phone to finally record it and forgot to do so after I read the reminder. Damn it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Speaking of the 3 point & shot clock experiments of the mid-80s. Here's a pretty good blast-from-the-past article about all the confusion it created initially. From SI 1983

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...0494/index.htm

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Great stuff here.......

Clint Malarchuk and his 20-year road to recovery, in the latest from the 30 for 30 documentary series - Grantland

[Suburban Rhythm]

John Spano / Islanders 30 for 30 airing now. Really good so far.

[BishopMVP]

I can't figure out how to embed it, but Yahoo!'s comedy team might have just completed the greatest 30 for 30 homage ever - http://screen.yahoo.com/sketchy/

[Suicane75]

Just caught up on a bunch of these, really liked the Spano one and the Ben Wilson one. I thought both of them did a great job not just with the main subjects but in taking you into the era they occurred. They both also gave you some subplots without veering too far off course.

Elway To Marino was so damn awesome. When you think about all the little things that happened that day that could have changed the course of NFL history. What if the Raiders get the #5 pick for Howie Long & Kenny King? What if Fouts doesn't sign. What if the Cowboys trade White for Elway. What if Baltimore isn't so screwed up.

Thought the Connors one was fun, not particularly compelling or anything, but fun.

Did not like Ghosts Of Ole Miss. I felt like the story was trying to serve too many masters. I almost felt like the story of the football team was shoehorned in to make it a sports documentary while at the same time taking away from the story of the riots. The whole thing just felt off.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

I can't figure out how to embed it, but Yahoo!'s comedy team might have just completed the greatest 30 for 30 homage ever - http://screen.yahoo.com/sketchy/

I just about lost it at Foghorn Leghorn.

[cartman]

That was a pretty good 30 for 30 looking back at the whole Kerrigan-Harding saga. Twenty years on and Harding still is in denial.

[CU Tiger]

Man...I want to believe Tonya...I really do but she didnt do herself any favors there.

On a related note...my teenage self probably sacrificed 25,000,000 unborn offspring to her...and now I want to coyote ugly my arms off just out of principle.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Man...I want to believe Tonya...I really do but she didnt do herself any favors there.

On a related note...my teenage self probably sacrificed 25,000,000 unborn offspring to her...and now I want to coyote ugly my arms off just out of principle.

You definitely should.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Originally Posted by cartman

That was a pretty good 30 for 30 looking back at the whole Kerrigan-Harding saga. Twenty years on and Harding still is in denial.

I laughed at this episode way more than I probably should. Every time Tonya boo-hooed over what "happened to me!", I giggled.

[Suburban Rhythm]

DOLA

Because my kids watch Full House all the time, I noticed an odd similarity between 1994 Tonya and early 90's Kimmy Gibbler

[JPhillips]

I had no idea how fucked up her childhood was. Her mother should have been in prison.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Man...I want to believe Tonya...I really do but she didnt do herself any favors there.

On a related note...my teenage self probably sacrificed 25,000,000 unborn offspring to her...and now I want to coyote ugly my arms off just out of principle.

Did you have one of these up on the wall?

[stevew]

I hate how ESPN schedules this show after events that always run long. I missed at least 15 minutes of the Harding thing.

I just figured out I needed to add 1.5 hours to the end of each recording, but it's still annoying.

[Senator]

The Von Erich 30 for 30 is in Feb.

[Julio Riddols]

Ooh, that ought to be pretty heartbreaking. Talk about a tragic family.

[Suicane75]

Julio, have you seen the Von Erichs documentary? Not the one done by WWE but the other one. Talk about heartbreaking.

[Thomkal]

a true tearjerker of an episode:

Watch Brian Scalabrine's Fake ESPN '30 for 30' Trailer | Bleacher Report

[Suicane75]

Just watched the Harding one tonight. There's so much there to feel sympathetic for her about, and then she kills it by being so stubborn.

Also caught the Bosworth one and thought it was excellent. I'm guessing his shoulder wouldn't have held up no matter what but there are so many what if's if he had just done things differently. Really felt bad seeing his son break up and start crying.

[Suicane75]

Internet went down tonight so I burned through Bad Boys, Requiem For The Big East and Slaying The Badger. All were excellent though the Big East one really made me sadly nostalgic.

[sabotai]

Recently watched Requiem For The Big East, as well as Playing For The Mob. Both were really good.

[Suicane75]

Rand University was a clunker. Completely glossed over stuff, was way short. Just felt like it wasn't even gonna bother trying to explain things that didn't fit the narrative of poor Randy.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Rand University was a clunker. Completely glossed over stuff, was way short. Just felt like it wasn't even gonna bother trying to explain things that didn't fit the narrative of poor Randy.

"I was just there at the fight to stop the other kid. All I did was stomp on his neck twice, barely nothing at all." Umm...

I did rate it well above the Allen Iverson one - I agree the narrative was completely one-sided, but at least it had a solid amount of old footage and interviews with some of the principals (Moss, Howard, Singleton).

I'm interested to see how The U part 2 turns out - it'll be a fun trip down memory lane to see all that talent in highlights, but there really wasn't the same cultural meaning behind that team as the original '80's Hurricanes. I'm guessing it'll be clunky and weaker than the first one.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

"I was just there at the fight to stop the other kid. All I did was stomp on his neck twice, barely nothing at all." Umm...

Yeah, that was exceptional.

[RainMaker]

Basically the documentary tried to say that racism caused Moss to stomp on the neck of someone, push the Mother of his child, smoke a ton of weed, and not follow Judge's orders. Randy isn't responsible for anything of course. The town made him do it!

[Suicane75]

And don't forget the other guy who got ran out of baseball cause he smoked some pot.

The thing is, there's probably a story there about blacks being over prosecuted, but I wouldn't know, because everything was only alluded to.

[cartman]

The "I Hate Christian Laettner" one last night was pretty good.

[HomerSimpson98]

Phenomenal. Wojiehowski's (sp?) book on the Duke-Kentucky game is a must-read for those of us fortunate enough to have lived that during its heyday.

[cartman]

I had forgotten about Laettner stomping on the chest of the guy in that game. He shouldn't have even been on the court to make that famous shot.

[PurdueBrad]

I am a Duke fan and, actually, a Laettner fan and I thought it was a terrific and very fair portrayal overall. One of my favorites.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

I had forgotten about Laettner stomping on the chest of the guy in that game. He shouldn't have even been on the court to make that famous shot.

I wish this would have happened during the age of Twitter.

[BishopMVP]

Not quite 30 For 30, but Showtime's Iverson documentary was much better than the 30 for 30. This one was actually about AI, not the filmmaker.

[miami_fan]

Just finished listening to the 30 for 30 podcast series about Donald Sterling. The Sterling backstory was fascinating. I don't know if Shelly Sterling was supposed to come off as innocent, but if that was the intent they failed.

[Bobble]

If someone isn't working on a 30 For 30 about A.B. And The Insane Shenanigans then fire everyone at the 30 For 30 offices.