I went to a movie premiere a few weeks ago. Well, it wasn’t necessarily a premiere and it wasn’t necessarily a movie either… So I’m not sure what I did. I guess I paid $12 bucks to see a television show before it was broadcast. They did take it to Sundance, if that means anything…
So what’s the deal? It was the premiere of an ESPN documentary in their 30 for 30 series titled Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks directed by Dan Klores.
What is 30 for 30? It’s ESPN’s 30th anniversary, and to commemorate the milestone have commissioned 30 documentaries by 30 filmmakers on unique topics. Only a handful of titles have aired so far, but they’ve been great pieces so far. I saw one on Jimmy the Greek that was pretty good… One on how the University of Miami came to actually have a contending football team… One on Muhammad Ali vs. Larry Holmes… And a pretty good one on the USFL. There’s one about the Baltimore Colts marching band, but I haven’t seen that one yet. So far, they’ve been good topics, and great 2-hour (with commercials) documentaries.
So this film is set to premiere on Sunday March 14th on ESPN with many re-broadcasts soon thereafter.
It’s about a basketball player named Reggie Miller, and the rivalry that sprouted between him and the Knicks and a very specific Knick fan – Spike Lee (yes, the filmmaker). It also talked about the rivalry known as “the hicks vs. the Knicks” which I was somewhat unaware of back then.
To be honest, I can’t be that subjective about much of this. Why, because I was a Pacer fan back then… (I didn’t hate the Knicks… Just John Starks)
Notice the past tense in my admiration for the Pacers and the NBA? Yeah. Because I think the NBA has degenerated into a piece of crap sports league with no leadership among the athletes or the administrators. It doesn’t help that the Pacers have turned to crap since the departure of Reggie Miller from the team…
But this piece details a fun time for Indianapolis when the Pacers had a good squad, the NBA had great match ups, and the NBA had a good proportion of college graduates.
So you may or may not be interested in this… It took me back to a time when I liked a sport, had a home team that I respected, and have fond memories of that time in general. There’s a pretty good amount of comedy in the piece based on what actually happened and some new details.
So I’ll gladly watch it again, and may try and purchase it to have. Watching Miller score 8 points in under 20 seconds to win a playoff game by two is a thing of beauty.