anybody gonna check this out?
http://30for30.espn.com/

bill simmons has been pushing this pretty hard and, sportswise, i have confidence in him, so i am gonna check out at least a few.

First one is:
"A King's Ransom"
http://30for30.espn.com/film/kings-ransom.html

Quote :

"On August 9, 1988, the NHL was forever changed with the single stroke of a pen. The Edmonton Oilers, fresh off their fourth Stanley Cup victory in five years, signed a deal that sent Wayne Gretzky, a Canadian national treasure and the greatest hockey player ever to play the game, to the Los Angeles Kings in a multi-player, multi-million dollar deal. As bewildered Oiler fans struggled to make sense of the unthinkable, fans in Los Angeles were rushing to purchase season tickets at a rate so fast it overwhelmed the Kings box office. Overnight, a franchise largely overlooked in its 21-year existence was suddenly playing to sellout crowds and standing ovations, and a league often relegated to “little brother” status exploded from 21 teams to 30 in less than a decade. Acclaimed director Peter Berg presents the captivating story of the trade that knocked the wind out of an entire country, and placed a star-studded city right at the humble feet of a 27-year-old kid, known simply as “The Great One.”"

10/3/2009 9:47:18 PM

in before page 2

10/4/2009 1:45:08 AM

Fuck Bill Simmons.

10/4/2009 4:24:02 AM

nobody?

wow...

10/4/2009 1:31:11 PM

I'm interested in this, hopefully they show it again bc i probably won't get to see it Tuesday.

10/4/2009 9:30:03 PM

Peter Berg directing first ep. He did an excellent job with Friday Night Lights

10/5/2009 12:05:07 PM

I'm interested...

I saw an excerpt of the Gretzky episode and it looked real interesting. I was too young to remember when that went down but I'm sure it had to be comparable to Jordan being traded from the Bulls in his prime. There were people crying all over the place.

10/5/2009 12:09:43 PM

I almost made this thread a few weeks ago... I'm looking forward to these, especially the USFL one

10/5/2009 12:09:53 PM

Are they gonna do the Brent Gretzky story too? How The Not As Great One scored 4 career goals compared to his little brother's 2,857 goals

10/5/2009 12:43:29 PM

Looking forward to the Bartman one, the Fantasy Football one, and the Ice Cube one

10/5/2009 1:01:19 PM

This series isn't defintely dvr worthy. Since they are mentioning the explosive growth of the nhl shouldn't they mention the gross overexpansion and that 50% of the league is nearing bankruptcy?

10/5/2009 11:25:19 PM

^you have anything to back that figure up? I know some of you would love to not hear about hockey the 30 seconds they give it on sportcenter

10/5/2009 11:27:04 PM

Dammit imeant to type IS dvr worthy damn you blackberry and your coffee stained vegas buttons wo the ability to shift the backspace cursor

10/5/2009 11:27:32 PM

^no, I was referring to your "fact" that 50% of the league is facing bankruptcy. Fact is most teams have been having record attendance plus increased ratings

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=417969

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/61172

so besides the coyotes what else you got?

10/5/2009 11:40:18 PM

its pretty commonly known almost half the league is on the brink. Canes are considered one of them. Of course the other teams arent letting it be known right before the season starts, these are privately owned organizations. Do some research on google, this isnt a conspiracy theory i just made up.

10/5/2009 11:51:32 PM

just because the canes have had recent troubles doesn't mean they are bankrupt. Seriously one poorly managed team in the middle of arizona doesn't mean the league is going under. Unless of course you have talked to the owners yourself and have learned something I don't. The NHL is better than ever, putting up record ratings and a higher attendance than the NBA

[Edited on October 6, 2009 at 12:12 AM. Reason : grammar]

10/6/2009 12:12:02 AM

Its a niche sport

When your games are on Versus, you're not a big deal

10/6/2009 12:13:17 AM

who is wayne gretsky

did he play for the raiders?

10/6/2009 12:14:44 AM

He was a Saturday Morning Cartoon hero!

10/6/2009 12:50:48 AM

Jordan and Gretzkey I got, is the other one Bo Jackson?

10/6/2009 8:50:14 AM

It will be replaying on espn2 at 11pm EST.

10/6/2009 9:48:01 AM

^^^
yeah bo jackson! on the intro he does a crazy wall run for a catch! i had forgotten about that show!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px5njG8ikvo

[Edited on October 6, 2009 at 11:57 AM. Reason : !!!]

10/6/2009 11:55:18 AM

no i really meant to say its dvr worthy. i have high hopes i dvr'ed the series already.


i like the nhl. used to love it 10 years ago. then lost interest, then got it renewed by how much better the league play is these days.

Remember when the NFL almost died in '93 or so as a sport? SI ran a cover story which had a Jet (?) knealing down and saying the death of the NFL. Same shit happened to the NBA in the late 90's.

Now its happening to college basketball and football, they just arent interesting anymore.



But from a financial standpoint it doesnt matter that the NHL is putting out a great product right now. Everythign is leveraged and current revenues cant beat debts due. The league is slowly bankrupt, that doesnt have any negative connotations for the game itself. In fact, it probably means cheaper tickets, better hockey, better fan experience. That's business 101. Competition for survival is bad for owners and current debtholders, not fans of the goods.

10/6/2009 7:36:36 PM

wasn't bad

I thought the golfing parts of the documentary were kind of awkward for some reason, maybe because Berg is a goofy fuck

10/6/2009 8:58:48 PM

Very interesting stuff. This one piqued my interest enough that I plan to check out the others, for sure. A great idea all around, and especially nice they're avoiding "ESPNing" it.

No stupid countdowns or brackets. Getting real, interesting stories that deserve telling instead of the same stories we've all heard about for the past few years.

I'm looking forward to the rest of these.

10/6/2009 9:09:07 PM

I'm definitely looking forward to more.

I thought that was was very well done. Pretty intense, too. I also enjoyed the fact that I got to hear a This Will Destroy You song while watching Gretzky highlights.

10/7/2009 3:07:07 AM

Next week's looks pretty cool, though I am PUMPED for week three as it's a Maysles project.

10/9/2009 5:11:26 AM

Finally got around to watching the Gretzky one. Really good.

10/12/2009 7:08:43 PM

Quote :

"I'm sure it had to be comparable to Jordan being traded from the Bulls in his prime. There were people crying all over the place."

A) Jordan was on the wrong side of 30 even after the first episode after the 93 season and B)Traded??? Reinsdorf(sp?) owned the White sox as well and I don't think you can trade between sports, especially if it's the same owner, that would be some interesting paperwork.

[Edited on October 13, 2009 at 9:52 AM. Reason : .]

10/13/2009 9:51:15 AM

Silly bitch, he was talking about a hypothetical

10/13/2009 9:55:52 AM

^ well in that case, Jordan hadn't won any titles at 27. He also wasn't the face of a nation, maybe the face of the sport, but not like Gretzky was to Canada, where he won 4 titles and too many to count MVPs by the time he was 27. Jordan at 27, not really. That's actually when Jordan's career took off from an off the court perspective to me. Usually, I guess, most people consider the prime of their career to be 25-29 in basketball, but too each his own. It's probably more of an accomplishment to Jordan that he was dominating the league after playing baseball for two years and then owning guys 10 years younger than he was, but for most guys, MVPs dont happen much after 34 unless you're Jordan, maybe Kareem??

[Edited on October 13, 2009 at 10:44 AM. Reason : .]

10/13/2009 10:42:18 AM

I too would like to see actual evidence that half the league is going bankrupt. I thought the Oilers sorted their stuff out, and Nashville is staying put. Other than that, I have no idea who is struggling to stay afloat, though I wouldn't mind, say, moving the Panthers to Hamilton.

And considering the money Fox paid to outbid CBS for the NFL in '93, I call BS on the NFL almost dying (a SI article doesn't mean anything, might have been talking about something else other than the business side).

[Edited on October 13, 2009 at 12:51 PM. Reason : ,]

10/13/2009 12:48:35 PM

From things I've read, I always thought the NBA was in more trouble than the NHL financially

10/13/2009 12:54:58 PM

The NHL is pretty stable right now. The NBA is the one that has a lot of teams on the verge of bankruptcy, and that is something they will have to address when their CBA expires in a couple of seasons. Neither league is really "in trouble", though.

I don't know where that whole half the league going bankrupt thing came from. I thought about responding to it earlier, but that's not really the topic of this thread I guess.

10/13/2009 2:39:02 PM

Bump...The one on Ali tonight was really good. I can't believe how messed up he looked/sounded before that fight. The sports world just seems night and day from ~30 years ago. Today in our most popular "physical" sport Kickers can flop for game changing penalties and QBs like Brady complain if a pinky finger taps them. Ali NEVER should have been allowed in that ring. But I guess one thing has remained constant in 30 years, greed.

I missed most of the Gretzky one but have seen every one since and these are very interesting documentaries. Would recommend to every sports fan.

10/28/2009 1:42:09 AM

Been DVR'ing these and watching when I get a chance...I'd forgotten how many motherfuckers played in the USFL back in the day

10/28/2009 3:56:55 AM

The USFL and the gretzky films were great. Have the Ali one on DVR, but I haven't gotten to watch it yet.

10/28/2009 8:39:00 AM

shit my bad for the Len Bias thread.

11/4/2009 10:05:56 AM

I always forget to watch these

11/4/2009 10:13:21 AM

I like how they compared his death to the Kennedy assassination in the form of, "You remembered exactly where you were when you heard the news." Although I don't think it's quite on that level (I would probably put Kennedy and 9/11 on the same level)...its pretty close.

It's also the first time I've seen them relate the Bias death with the crack down on drugs at the same time. I've never seen that parallel. And I've read a pretty in-depth article on that situation involving the Tribble guy...that dude was bad-fuckin news. He tried to come off as a victim in the situation...and to a certain extent he was...but he was involved in some shady shit around that time.

11/4/2009 10:16:36 AM

so i missed where the greek's voiceovers are coming from, did he have an audiobook or just some previous interview?

11/10/2009 10:05:12 PM

I also was wondering who was voicing this

11/11/2009 5:11:26 AM

It was an actor doing the voice over. Not sure where the dialogue was coming from though.

11/11/2009 10:46:19 AM

ttt

12/12/2009 11:26:37 PM

bump

4/27/2010 9:39:44 PM

it's no "The U"

4/27/2010 9:44:57 PM

both the Iverson one and Run Ricky Run were fucking PHENOMENAL

Run Ricky Run completely changed the way I felt about him (not that I hated him before, just didn't really respect him)

4/27/2010 9:48:59 PM

Wonder if this shit's coming out on DVD

[Edited on April 27, 2010 at 9:51 PM. Reason : not that I'd buy it, but it seems like some people would]

4/27/2010 9:50:49 PM

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=30+for+30&x=0&y=0

4/27/2010 9:53:11 PM

yeah i was about to say, i think they are

i remember getting some kind of survey from ESPN awwwwwwhile ago asking if I would buy those kind of DVDs

4/27/2010 9:54:39 PM