What is an NBA event or timeline you’d like to see a high-budget feature film or limited series of?
I think the easy answer that will come up numerous times here would be Malice in the Palace
I personally would love a Pete Maravich biopic
I’d love to see a tv series centered around and nba front office. Think a mix of West Wing and Entourage as far as tone. Dealing with agents, superstar personalities, managing a roster. I think a fictionalized version of a team like OKC would be cool. Their big superstars just left and they have to rebuild and do it their own way.
An NBA version of Moneyball would be sick. Just to watch the ins and outs of a FO
This is basically Ballers but from the team’s perspective
More entourage then west wing but I think you should give this a shot
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14879018/
Running Point is unwatchable! I really really want to like it… I just can’t.
dude I’m right there with you, it’s so fucking bad
This.
Yeah maybe like the build up to making that fucken luka trade happen
The 1992 Dream Team selection process, done in the style of 12 Angry Men.
This would be amazing. I want to know who insisted on Laettner.
you can read this to find out, it’s a really good book
https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Team-Greatest-Conquered-Basketball/dp/0345520491
It could also be like Ocean’s Eleven when they put together the crew lol
“You son of a bitch, I’m in”
-Larry Bird to MJ
It should be Larry and Magic playing 1:1 and MJ walks in the gym.
Gentleman, what I’m about to propose is highly lucrative and highly dangerous.
That would be sick
How gambling ruined the league
We get to see that in real time buddy
its funny how Lebron fans hate on Jordan for gambling yet Lebron is dancing on ads for gambling companies
Tbf, I think if Jordan played these days, he’d spend his summers gambling on stake while streaming it to kick lol. Shit would be the dream sponsorship to him
being a gambler and promoting it is different
yes one only impacts yourself. promoting it impacts many other people
Promoting it is definitely worse
Just a Lil Nasty: Where the Magic Really Happened
The sequel: Lamar Odom. Bringing a whole new meaning to triple double.
Scottie Pippen, starting in college as an equipment manager, playing well and getting drafted rather high and then traded on draft night. Playing next to MJ and Scottie learning early in his NBA career, that he can hang with the goat. Allstar MVP, Olympic gold medal winner on the original Dream Team, also maybe being the best player there. Long contract and being paid silly money, that later was a joke and made him like the 10th best paid player on a NBA champion. Yeah im biased, but this one would imo be worth watching
I’d love a mini-series that chronicles the early Magic (Think ‘92-‘96). You’ll go from a shitty expansion franchise in a city run by a mouse to drafting a generational talent in Shaq to the finals and then back down to earth once he left.
I’d actually like it to follow Pat Williams more than anything as casting Shaq will be a nightmare in itself.
The 30 for 30 on that is one of my favs. I don’t envy whoever would be cast as Shaq
Dwight Howard
Just cast shaq as shaq
I’m biased, but I always thought a movie about the 2016-2017 season from Westbrook and KD’s perspective would be cool. You could start with the playoff loss in 2016 and end with Russ’s MVP and the Warriors’ 2017 championship. I think that dual-perspective would be interesting as they both reckon with the changes in their professional lives. If only they met in the playoffs that year, that would’ve made for a stronger ending.
If you haven’t read Boomtown, it’s an amazing look into OKC and that year.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/boom-boom-bust-and-basketball-in-americas-most-major-minor-city_sam-anderson/18250886/item/34313669
Oh wow, I actually got Boomtown as a gift this year. I’ll have to move it up my reading list. Thanks for the insight!
Breaks of the Game aka Walton getting hurt in 78. I think casting is the only reason it hasn’t already been filmed
Yeah I can’t think of anyone I could believably see cast as Big Red. Truly a one of a kind specimen
Jason Segel? Or maybe that guy who plays Duncan the Tall in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
Jason Segel wouldn’t be a bad pick and he has the basketball background. I think he’s a bit aged out at this point though.
RIP
Breaks Of The Game was so much more than that which is what made it so good. Limiting it to 1 event would limit it.
Bill Russell or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s biopic.
How about a movie about “The Malice in the Palace” there was so much that lead up to that moment, it’s one of the most outrageous things that ever happened during a US professional sporting event. There are a lot of ways to tell that story well.
I’d say there was a lot of context, but not much led up to it. Just some coincidences. If Ben Wallace shoves any other player, nothing more than the typical on-court spat happens.
I think the real story is the aftermath for the Pacers, beginning with the back end of a back-to-back the following night at home when they only had six active players on the roster. The Pacers had a championship-caliber team and lost multiple all-stars to 50-game (or more) suspensions and last but certainly not least, it was Reggie Miller’s final season.
It’s on Netflix under the Untold documentaries
The Clippers trapping DeAndre Jordan in his house
Should be a comedy. Like house party. But DJ didn’t have a choice.
The Rise and Fall of NBA All Star Weekend
The Cocaine Era
Fuck yes. 70s and early 80s has some crazy stories to tell
And to think that the cocaine era in the NBA was before Miami had a franchise.
Pistol Pete’s life is like an absurd greek/shakespearean tragedy that includes an absurd amount of basketball history (I know OP mentioned Pete, but here’s some context for people that don’t really know)
his dad was an early pro and coaching pioneer (big on fast breaks and quick outlet passes) and their dynamic is super complicated (he trained nonstop, including dribbling everywhere, in movie theaters, outside of the car while his dad drove, he once spun a ball on his fingers long enough to make the tips bleed as he just switched fingers because of a bet)
He averaged 44 ppg in college all 3 years (nobody was allowed to play their freshman year) while shooting deep shots for only 2 points. Pete got one of the first million dollar contracts and had to decide between the ABA and NBA. He was ostracized by his teammates because of his contract (and the racial tensions in the country/league)
then his mom committed suicide his rookie year (or maybe 2nd year?). He was constantly injured and more or less forced to play through it for terrible owners that only used Pete to sell tickets and didn’t care if the team was any good
he got into all sorts of mental and substance abuse issues. he famously said early on he didn’t want to play 10 years in the league and then drop dead from a heart attack (this more or less happened just like he said lol)
He brought fancy basketball moves to the mainstream and was one of the first big attractions in basketball
chris paul hitting a huge 3
The Great r/NBA lockout of 2023
Still don’t know who won the title that year 🤷🏻♂️
3 really great crime dramas
The Chris “birdman” Andersen crime story involving the Canadian girl catfishing him.
The night when Jason Williams shot the limo driver
Matt Barnes driving 95 miles to confront Derek Fischer about a girl. Classic
God damn birdman got so many weird cases I’m still finding out about some of them 20 years later
I think a really interesting one could be a dramatization of the “Once Brothers” 30 for 30- the TLDR is that the Yugoslavia national team sent a number of players to the NBA who found themselves at odds with each other once the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing civil wars placed them on different sides of the conflict - Vlade Divac is Serbian, Dražen Petrović and Toni Kukoc are Croatian, etc.
Love an in depth Bill Russell biopic
The Warriors 73-9 season culminating in a 3-1 collapse. I just think there would be a whole story to tell about prioritizing the regular season, the decision to get KD, etc..
The first ever NBA Legends game or whatever that game where 50 something former players suit up.
There’s so many directions you could take such a film. Comedy, drama, even a biopic.
The entire Kawhi scandal once its finalized and hopefully stern (or I guess Silver) punishment is doled out.
I could definitely see that being an FX series like the Lob City one. God the Clippers have been a mess for 40 years
Bubble season.
Just a complete unfiltered deep dive into how the teams and league operated and organized everything, all the players from different teams hanging out, the random businesses they started (Jimmy Butler’s $20 coffee), and all the hyjinx players and staff got up to trying to get around covid restrictions. Either smuggling items in, women in and out, family and friends, etc.
It would be even more artistic if they never showed any basketball courts like all the drama was in day to day stuff.
Bunch of rich guys hanging in a resort being pampered. Where’s the drama?
That time LeBron James yelled at Stephen A. Smith and made him cry.
Linsanity
You can stream a feature length doco about that on YouTube or Vimeo.
I want to see a Kobe Bryant biopic.
You have his rise with the 3-peat, the issues in the early-to-mid 2000s, his redemption with the 2 rings against the Magic & Celtics. You can even show people’s reactions from after he passed to end it.
Will it be similar to the Michael Jackson biopic in that it stops before the controversial stuff?
No, but it could show his redemption arc where he won the Olympic gold, and 2 finals back-to-back-to-back
Does winning stuff make him less of a rapist?
That’d be a pretty short one
The conversation between Pop and Demar when Demar’s dad died. Like a My Dinner With Andre kind of movie. Or just the Pop biography where it has the best snippets of all of his famous off court mentoring.
Also the sit down with LMA after his first year in SA.
And the reportedly heartfelt meeting with Tim and Admiral to keep Timmy a Spur
Nosferatu 2 : can’t kill with Silver what is Silver
OG Anunoby done as a silent film.
I’d love to see a film that explores the trend of Hollywood folks using Reddit to find ideas for movies.
I have always thought the NBA should have like an animated series that follows the history of the nba and all the cool different stories.
My personal favorite would be Wilt, Elgin, Oscar, and West all coming short to Bill Russell time and time again in the 1960s
Short film about the Mavs-DAJ saga. The frantic driving and texting, the chair on the doorknob… give us everything!
The Tim Donaghy scandal
Rozier
The Portland jailblazers
I’d love to see a film on the build up to the 1983 draft
Also, build up to the 03 draft with LeBron, Melo winning the college title, etc… would be fun
Kobe and Shaq
Recency bias and my own bias over being a Knicks fan since I was 10 years old, but this Knicks run was definitely dramatic. But, then, they dominated so much in the playoffs, I wonder if there’s enough drama for a traditional film arc?
The 2004 (I think that’s the year) Lakers team that was LOADED with aging stars and fell in the Finals seems like good fodder, as does their ill-conceived attempt to recapture I guess that same vibe with Nash and Howard.
Gimme a bubble doc!
Wilt.
100 points. 1000 women.
The ABA-NBA merger, from a year before to a year after (1975-1977).
Focus on some of the star players who made the jump from the ABA to the NBA, like Dr. J, Moses Malone, George Gervin, Artis Gilmore, and Dan Issel.
They made something like that back in the late 00’s. Followed some team from Michigan with a player coach and some guy they picked up from the Celtics.
I’d love to see a Larry Brown biopic. Brilliant coach who frequently got bored with his teams, then fleeced the owners time and time again.
A drama around the point shaving scandals and following witch hunt in New York back in the day could be neat.
Why did MJ retire during the 90s
WE already have a movie of why he did-it was clearly to stop an alien invasion and to save our beloved Looney Toons characters.
Funny you say thing because what sparked my idea to post this question was a thought I had about how cool of a scene you could write about the “I’m back.” fax
The final years and the moving/sell process of the sonics
true crime style investigation of the paul pierce wheelchair incident
The bubble
The events leading up to the actual merger that formed the league in 1949 and how the old guard of the BAA proceeded to screw many of the people in the new league.
Pistol pete has a movie, its old but good
Rodman and the Spurs miniseries
Documentary on the Luka trade
NBA Bubble from the perspective of the cleaners of the hotels.
I want them to finish the damn Lakers show. Why tf would you end it like that?!
Naz Reid
actors playing NBA players hasn’t translated well imho.
I would like to see the match fixing of referees like Tim Donaghey for example. It would just be interesting to see how the refs schemed together and accomplished it
The 80’s Lakers….oh wait, these fuckers ended it on a Celtics title.
Knicks - Leon Rose management and building the champion with Dolan as an owner and NY market. 8 episode seasons, film season 1 and 2 together. Release 3 months apart. Film 3 and 4 together, release after 12 months.
Less basketball, more front office drama showing the Knicks, Spurs, Thunder, Pacers locker rooms.
Moneyball but Sam Presti
The merger with the ABA .
The story of how James Harden got his jersey retired at Dreams.
Retired Dreams: A James Harden Story
Edit. Do it in the style of Air where you never see James Harden full on but just like the back of his head. And the story is told from the perspective of the club owner/managers and dancers.