Righto, so you polished off The Last Dance. Every single episode. Perhaps you even watched it twice, three times, poring over the little details and tumbling down your own various rabbit holes chasing ideas inspired from the Michael Jordan story. What was the real deal with Isiah Thomas and the Dream Team? Could MJ really have lasted as a baseball player if he’d stuck at it? What did Scottie Pippen get up to after Jordan retired? What about Phil Jackson’s reign with the Lakers? Literally anything to do with Dennis Rodman.

Now you need something else to fill that internal void. Sports are slowly coming back but slowly is a bit of a problem, particularly outside of Aotearoa/Australia. It’ll be more than a month before we see any NBA basketball for example. And while rewatching old games has been fun in the meantime, those games lack that thrill of the unknown, the unfolding narrative of history that top level sports revel in... that contextual narrative which gives the great sports documentaries their power.

Or, you know, something like that. Maybe you just want something to watch tonight and it’s as simple as that. The Last Dance captured the imagination and the eyeballs of sports fans around the globe during the height of the pandemic and now you feel like something similar to settle into. And I, who would ordinarily be writing about the NBA at this time of the week, am looking for something interesting to write about. So forgive me if this is all a bit tacky but here are some top tier sports documentary recommendations, all from recent years just to keep it simple. Plenty more where these came from too, no doubt.

OJ: Made In America (2016)

Ezra Edelman’s five-part, 467 minute epic is pretty much as good as it gets. This is the story of OJ Simpson, from superstar college athlete to incarcerated felon (although not for the crime he shoulda been arrested for) but it’s so much more than that too. It’s the story of America. It’s a story of capitalism, of race, of a flawed justice system, of celebrity worship, of reality television, of domestic abuse, of corruption, of violence, of society itself. Pieced together with interviews and archival footage this is as comprehensive a story as you could ever hope to watch. If you only watch one of these films then this is the one. It’s utterly definitive.

Diego Maradona (2019)

The third of Asif Kapadia’s loose trilogy about fame. There’s the Ayrton Senna doco, there’s the Amy Winehouse doco, and now there’s this one too. It’s not the complete take of Diego, the film gets into a lot of context about his career but it focusses specifically on his time spent at Napoli in the second half of the eighties. A time when Maradona was at his peak... but also a time when his off-field drug use and personal life began to catch up with him and all amidst social unrest in the city of Naples, culminating in a hero to villain story after he helps knock Italy out of the 1990 World Cup on their own turf. The football club there had always been notorious underachievers... until El Diego. And the intense passion that they poured into their team, as an escape from the struggles of daily life, built Maradona up into God status. There’s only one way to go once you reach that ultimate peak and it’s not up. With a heap of previously unseen contemporary footage, this is a film that presents its ideas with subtle impressions, graceful yet deeply evocative and with a cutting edge when it needs it... sort of like Maradona himself.

Free Solo (2018)

This is legit one of the scariest films ever made, even though you already know how it’s gonna end. Free Solo is the story of rock climber Alex Honnold’s attempt to scale El Capitan, a 900 metre sheer cliff face at Yosemite National Park, without the use of any ropes or tools. Free soloing, as per the title. The last section of the film as he undertakes the climb is white-knuckle, heart-in-mouth, hold-your-breath intense like nothing you’ve ever seen before. But beside that incredible athletic undertaking this is also a very human story, thanks to the grounding presence of Honnold’s (suffering) girlfriend Sanni. From memory, one of the directors (Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vesarhelyi co-directed it) called her the true hero of the film in their Oscar-winning acceptance speech and they ain’t wrong.

Icarus (2017)

Documentarian and keen cyclist Bryan Fogel had an idea. He wanted to see just how well he could do in an amateur cycling race if he doped himself to the moon and back and he was gonna film the whole thing. Funny thing about that, he doesn’t actually do much better at all but in chasing down threads for better and better steroid implementation he befriends a Russian scientist, Grigory Rodchenkov, who it just happens to turn out was one of the masterminds behind the Russian state-sanctioned doping scandal that got them kicked out of the Olympics and from one man’s quest to cheat at a bike race it turns into this massive scale international espionage tale that you’ve gotta see to believe.

André the Giant (2018)

Forget about whether wrestling should count as a sport or not, the André the Giant story has all the hallmarks of a sporting life. From the unique physical gifts/curses to the rise of an underdog to the distractions of fame to the personal struggles to the tragic fall and the tragic end. He left an incredible legacy and this film does that legacy justice. The dude was one of those guys who felt destined to live fast and die young but that doesn’t make what happened to him, and how he was treated over the last few years of his life was pretty horrid. Still, there’s also plenty of love here. We get the amazing folk tales and we get personal recollections from the people who knew him. Beautiful stuff.

Next Goal Wins (2014)

This is a different kind of doco, with a different tone. Rather than the demanding and determined quest of a champion like Michael Jordan striding towards another ring through sheer force of will... this is the story of the worst football team in the world. American Samoa hold the record for the biggest ever international defeat – 31-0 against Australia in 2001. Next Goal Wins follows the nation’s attempt to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, or at least do slightly better than they usually do. A Dutch coach comes in to try and help things and it all ends up shining a light on the best parts of humanity and the power of sport in our communities. What’s more is that Taika Waititi has filmed a movie version with Michael Fassbender, Armie Hammer, and Elizabeth Moss all involved – as well as a host of top quality Polynesian acting talent. So there you go.

Fire In Babylon (2011)

Gotta have some cricket in here. This one is the story of the 70s-80s West Indian cricket team and how they dominated the damn world over those years playing cricket in their own way and shrugging off the pressure of colonial oppression in the process. It’s a celebration of West Indian culture and it’s also a celebration of a generation or two of simply incredible cricketers... particularly the power hitting excellence of Viv Richards and the impossible pace and bounce of all those terrifying quick bowlers. Plus that span of time happens to include the World Series revolution and apartheid-era South Africa and all sorts else.

Sunderland ‘Til I Die (2018 & 2020)

There are a heap of these fly on the wall type docos now. Manchester City had one, the Aussie cricket team had one... hell, the bloody All Blacks even had one. But STID is the big one. Two series following the decline of a once great footy club as they tumble down the divisions with drama following around every corner. At times it’s an incredible farce and occasionally you feel like you must be watching a mockumentary but at the same time you’re seeing real people trying their best to fix a bad situation and the raw devastation of their fates makes it a sympathetic watch. And as is the trend with a few of these, the real heroes aren’t the obvious ones. In this case it’s the fans that provide the heart of this show. The long-suffering, humble locals who just want a team to be proud of. You get the worst of professional sport mixed with the best of professional sport, presented with honesty.

Death of A Gentleman (2015)

Yeah, alright. Another cricket one then. This is much less of a feel-good story than Fire In Babylon though, DOG follows the dollar signs to expose enormous levels of corruption in the ICC and the way that associate nations have been squeezed out of consideration with the Big Three of India, Australia, and England coming to dominate the world of cricket. This is only five years old yet it’s got a weird feeling to it because on the one hand there’s plenty that’s happened in the sport since then but on the other hand that doesn’t mean anything is better. The Big Three have just gotten better at obfuscating. It’s always a profound thing to know where power lies and how power is exploited in the things you love. And Death of a Gentleman also seeks to remind you exactly where the beauty of sport lies and it’s not in the high-rise ICC offices in Dubai.

ESPN’s 30 For 30 Series (2009-Today)

Mate, where do you wanna go? There are so many great additions to this series that it was impossible to pick just a couple. Small Potatoes: Who Killed The USFL? Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs The New York Knicks. The Legend of Jimmy The Greek. Muhammad and Larry. Run Ricky Run. June 17th, 1994. The Two Escobars. Into The Wind. Once Brothers. Catching Hell. Goose. The Announcement. Broke. You Don’t Know Bo. Sole Man. Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies. George Best: All by Himself. Seau. Hillsborough. There’s a bunch to get you started.

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