This latest batch of 15 films from ESPN’s fine “30 for 30” documentary series ranges far and wide to bring together the work of acclaimed filmmakers along with NBA star Steve Nash and others. It’s a worthy successor and addition to Volume 1’s 15 films, released late last year and still available. Scandals and failures are examined in John (“Boyz N The Hood”) Singleton’s “Marion Jones: Press Pause,” the story of the great American sprinter and long jumper who fell off the Olympic pedestal when she was convicted of lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs; Jonathan Hock’s “The Best That Never Was,” the sad tale of Marcus Dupree, the heavily recruited University of Oklahoma running back whose injury-plagued career never reached its expectations; Thaddeus D. Matula’s “Pony Excess,” a study of the early-1980s scandals that killed football at Southern Methodist University; and “The Two Escobars,” Jeff and Michael Zimbalist’s story about the connection in Colombia between narcotics and soccer, as embodied by Medellin cartel outlaw Pablo Escobar and Andres Escobar (no relation), the captain of the national team who was murdered after his own goal in the 1994 World Cup led to the United States team defeating Colombia.
Stories of unusual friendships can be found in NBA Entertainment’s “Once Brothers,” on Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac, two NBA stars from Yugoslavia whose long friendship was changed irrevocably when their country split apart and Divac’s Serbia and Petrovic’s Croatia went to war, and in Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern Winters’ “Unmatched,” on the rivalry that turned into a lifelong friendship between tennis stars Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova.
| On DVD |
| ‘ESPN Films 30 for 30 Gift Set Collection, Volume 2’ |
| » Studio: Team Marketing |
| » Price: $74.95 |
Other notable documentaries in the series include Steve Nash and Ezra Holland’s inspirational story about Terry Fox, a Canadian amputee who ran the length of Canada to raise funds for cancer research.
