30 for 30 running thread

Re the John Spano 30 for 30: LOL @ Fleet Bank.

 

Just caught up on a bunch of 30 for 30s the past couple of days.

- "No Mas" was really interesting, as someone who wasn't alive for the original events. It was interesting to see Duran still not really giving a clear answer after all these years, but it makes me wonder if he even knows himself what happened at this point. If you tell a lie to yourself enough, you eventually think it's true, after all.

- Agree with others who said that "Free Spirits" was mostly covering the same ground over. If you've read "Loose Balls," then a lot of it will be really familiar, and they even interview Terry Pluto for the documentary. The best stuff was the Costas audition tape and game calls, plus the game footage. I hadn't really seen that before, although in a Simmons' podcast, he said they did show a few of the old ABA Spirits games in that 3 a.m. slot on ESPN Classic from time to time.

- "Big Shot" was fascinating, since I hadn't heard of the story before and I didn't educate myself ahead of time. Getting Spano on camera was a great break for them, and amazingly, I thought they did a decent job of humanizing him given the scope of his lie. Agree with others that Bettman came off looking like a clown. It's also odd that Spano was brought up as the reason why leagues now did much bigger background checks on owners, except that within a decade Frank McCourt would buy the Dodges.

 

Yep, because the contract called for "visual media" rights, which to them, also means international broadcasts, NBA TV money and other stuff that wasn't around in the 1970s.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2012/09/07/could-the-greatest-sports-deal-of-all-time-get-even-better/

I didn't see the show, so I don't know if it was mentioned in it or not, but a funny thing is, during the 80s, they were willing to accept a new deal with the NBA where they would have received something like $40 million. Only they and the NBA couldn't agree on the number of years that the money would be paid out, so the old deal continued.

 

That's an excellent point... but apparently it didn't make or break Duran's career, since, as they showed, he went on to win a handful more titles. I wish they would have shown the two of them together a bit more. The part at the beginning of the show, with Leonard saying something to the effect of "We'll finally hear once and for all what Duran was thinking" had a little bit of a "Geraldo opening Capone's vault" feel to it.

 

I think Duran enjoys not saying anything because he knows how much Leonard is upset with the fight being about Duran and not Ray.

 

I definitely got that feeling. It also seemed like he gave every excuse except, "Well you really beat the shit out of me."

 

Oh man, this Connors 30 for 30 vaults to near the top of the best of 30 for 30s... and not necessarily for the story of Connors' run during the '91 US Open. If you are a sports fan and any kind of tennis fan, that story has been told countless times over the past 20 years.

But the last quarter of the show, with glimpses of Aaron Krickstein's mental state during the Connors match, as well as his post playing days, is GREAT stuff. So well done.

There is kind of a spoiler I won't mention here, but man, that was good stuff. What a great documentary.


I can really do without Chuck Klosterman as a commenter. I know he's popular on these boards. He sucked in the Bo Jackson 30 for 30, and he blows here. Sit the fuck up when you're being interviewed, for chrissake. Carillo, both McEnroes, and Patty Connors are terrific sources of information. The others didn't add much, IMO.

 

Klosterman is awful.

 

I was a Jimmy Connors fan as a kid and found this really interesting. Like how you are rooting along with everyone as Connors makes his run, but at the end, he comes across as an ass based on the Krickstein information (which was just fascinating, how that one match pretty much destroyed him).

Note to future docs: Don't use Mad Dog Russo as a "source." And I kept thinking Klosterman was on a psychiatrist couch.

Anyway, use people who were there or covering the event, not the toadies.

 

The early 90's tennis and casual (fan) wear are going to go down as some of the worst fashion in America, ever. Lots of bright colors and geometric shapes on clothes, and it isn't aging well.

 

That was a great documentary, but what was up with that guy standing up and yelling his takes into the mic in the radio studio?