30 for 30

The 1986 Mets may have been one of the greatest sports stories ever told, but the roots of their fairy tale lie in a very different time, the late 70s, when they epitomized the hopelessness of New York. Then as the city rose in the early 80s, so too did the team from Queens, thanks to the collection of characters who became the heart of an incredible roster of talent.

The 1986 New York Mets expected to dominate, and over the first half of the season, that's exactly what they did. A blend of talent and swagger, they stormed through the National League, and became the toast of a city brimming with excess everywhere you turned. They were a team on the edge, just the way New York wanted it.

After storming to the National League East Division title, the Mets and Houston Astros battled in an unforgettable Championship Series, with New York helpless against the pitching of Mike Scott, and calling on every magic trick they could summon to get to the World Series.

As the 1986 World Series went back and forth, the Mets went into Game 6 with their backs to the wall, trailing the Red Sox 3-2. What ensued was a night – and a comeback – never to be forgotten in baseball history, and then another comeback in Game 7 when New York won it. But it was the only championship for one of the most iconic teams in sports history.

The Tuck Rule. An otherwise obscure entry in the NFL rulebook that evokes one of the most controversial plays in all of sports history because without the Tuck Rule, Tom Brady wouldn't have won his first playoff game -- and who knows where destiny might have gone from there. But whether what happened on January 19, 2002 was divine providence, a terrible call, the right call, or a deeper conspiracy, one thing is certain: the life of Tom Brady, as well as the life of the Hall of Famer who hit him on the play, Brady's former college teammate Charles Woodson, were forever changed by their collision on that snowy night. Now twenty years later, TUCK RULE looks back on such a fateful moment in time. Along with an exclusive sit-down between Tom Brady and Charles Woodson, interviews include referee Walt Coleman, Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, Tedy Bruschi, Troy Brown, Willie McGinest, Mark Davis, Tim Brown, Eric Allen and Lincoln Kennedy.

Greg Norman played the game of golf only one way: aggressively, and without regret. It led him to two titles at the Open Championship, and one of the most famous careers in the sport's history. And yet his boldness and his uncompromising approach to every round he played also cost him in some historic moments, the most shocking of which unfolded at the 1996 Masters. Now, twenty-five years after his infamous collapse, Norman is headed back to Augusta, and at long last, he's ready to relive the worst day of his golfing career. His Masters collapse will never be forgotten. But what it says about the man they call the Shark isn't quite as simple as you might think.

In the 1990's, a DJ working at a young shoe and apparel company had the idea to set some grainy streetball highlights to a soundtrack of emerging rap music. The result was the And1 Mixtape, a series of videos that transformed basketball's place in the culture, defined the lives of the players who starred in them, and changed the game itself forever.

During the 18 months leading up to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA Basketball and the NBA financed and created the greatest women's basketball team ever assembled. They would embark on a 60-game, four-continent roadshow, playing exhibition matches against the best college programs, international squads, and even several men's teams. Their official mission: re-capture gold after settling for bronze in the 1992 Games. Their unofficial mission: sell women's basketball. The stakes were huge. If they won and impressed fans, the NBA was prepared to parlay their success into a pro women's league. If, like their predecessors, they failed, the NBA would scrap the plans. This is the story of the 12 women who were tasked with auditioning the idea of women's professional basketball in the United States. They absolutely held the very future of the sport in their hands.

During the 18 months leading up to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA Basketball and the NBA financed and created the greatest women's basketball team ever assembled. They would embark on a 60-game, four-continent roadshow, playing exhibition matches against the best college programs, international squads, and even several men's teams. Their official mission: re-capture gold after settling for bronze in the 1992 Games. Their unofficial mission: sell women's basketball. The stakes were huge. If they won and impressed fans, the NBA was prepared to parlay their success into a pro women's league. If, like their predecessors, they failed, the NBA would scrap the plans. This is the story of the 12 women who were tasked with auditioning the idea of women's professional basketball in the United States. They absolutely held the very future of the sport in their hands.

During the 18 months leading up to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA Basketball and the NBA financed and created the greatest women's basketball team ever assembled. They would embark on a 60-game, four-continent roadshow, playing exhibition matches against the best college programs, international squads, and even several men's teams. Their official mission: re-capture gold after settling for bronze in the 1992 Games. Their unofficial mission: sell women's basketball. The stakes were huge. If they won and impressed fans, the NBA was prepared to parlay their success into a pro women's league. If, like their predecessors, they failed, the NBA would scrap the plans. This is the story of the 12 women who were tasked with auditioning the idea of women's professional basketball in the United States. They absolutely held the very future of the sport in their hands.

They were arguably the most dominating defensive team in the history of the NFL – and perhaps the most entertaining club that pro football has ever seen as well. A behemoth on the field that turned into, literally, one of the classic shows of the reality television era. Now, a little more than two decades after one extraordinary season etched their legacy for all time, the new ESPN 30 for 30 film BULLIES OF BALTIMORE tells the story of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, a Super Bowl champion for the ages. Directed by Ken Rodgers of NFL Films, the documentary is a lively and colorful look back at the team's magical season framed by a reunion of its key figures filmed in front of a live audience in Baltimore in May 2022. Those characters affectionately recall all varieties of vivid details about the season, starting with the background: the severed history of pro football in Baltimore, and the instant popularity that the Ravens attained when they arrived as a relocated franchise from Cleveland in the mid-90's. That popularity only grew when the team took on the personality of their confident, if not arrogant, head coach, Brian Billick, an offensive mastermind who became the unlikely steward of a defensive powerhouse, embracing the success of a unit led by Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Rod Woodson, as well as the irrepressible lineman Tony Siragusa. And though the team's offense, with quarterback Trent Dilfer, running back Jamal Lewis, and Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe, at one point failed to score a touchdown for five straight weeks, their defense was so overpowering it didn't matter, as the Ravens didn't lose a game after the calendar turned to November. The film looks back on all of it, culminating on a Sunday evening in Tampa when Baltimore blew out the New York Giants, 34-7, in Super Bowl XXXV. And the chronicle is augmented by footage from another slice of football history, the debut season of the NFL reality show Hard Knocks, which premiered on HBO the subsequent summer, going behind the scenes in training camp in a way never before seen in football or anywhere in sports. The players and their coaches fondly and at times hilariously recall the experience, rekindling the sense of "behind the scenes" access that the team became known for. That the reunion was held just a month before the untimely passing of the team's most colorful character, Siragusa, only adds to the poignancy of the tale. In the end, while BULLIES OF BALTIMORE is about a dominant football team, it's also about the idea of cherishing a moment when everything comes together perfectly – because you can never be sure how long that moment will last.

More than three decades after its television debut, American Gladiators remains a cultural phenomenon not quite like anything else that ever aired on screen. The American Gladiators Documentary, a two-part 30 for 30 ESPN film, tells the series' entire epic tale, with director Ben Berman tracking down many of the show's most charismatic figures, and along the way embarking on an odyssey to uncover the truth behind its improbable creation.

More than three decades after its television debut, American Gladiators remains a cultural phenomenon not quite like anything else that ever aired on screen. The American Gladiators Documentary, a two-part 30 for 30 ESPN film, tells the series' entire epic tale, with director Ben Berman tracking down many of the show's most charismatic figures, and along the way embarking on an odyssey to uncover the truth behind its improbable creation.

Episode 1 opens with Bill Walton beside a forest stream in Oregon, reflecting on his unique journey – the challenges, triumphs, and above all the joy that have defined his one-of-a-kind life. He returns to Portland for an emotional reunion with some of his Blazers teammates, and it's clear that he still holds deep affection for the franchise and the time he spent there. He visits his mother and revisits childhood memories, in particular his falling in love with basketball. At Helix High, he experiences a dramatic growth spurt – physically, and in terms of his basketball ability. At the same time, he struggles with a speech impediment that requires him to see a therapist. The earliest seeds of his life as an activist begin to take root, as Walton looks back at his rookie season in Portland. He reflects on the impact he made on the Portland franchise and the impact it made on him. Walton also provides a glimpse into his time at UCLA and the relationship with John Wooden that has profoundly affected every aspect of his life. Even as he finds incredible success on the court at UCLA, he also discovers something else: the transformational energy of the 1960s. When the Grateful Dead perform on campus, Walton attends the show – and the band becomes an integral part of his life. That life is highlighted by his family, his marriage, and on-court successes like his record-shattering title game performance in leading UCLA to a championship. The story returns to his time with the Blazers, when bone spurs and health concerns lead some to wonder if the Big Redhead would ever live up to his immense promise.

Bill Walton reflects on what he means when he says – to anyone who will listen – that he is the luckiest guy in the world. Back at UCLA, he reminisces on butting heads with John Wooden, who policed every detail of his players' lives – including the length of their hair and facial hair. On campus, the specter of Vietnam hits home, and antiwar protests ripple through the community. Walton experiences a searching period in his life during these tumultuous societal transformations. He becomes actively involved in civic engagement on campus, increasingly focused on peaceful demonstrations against the Vietnam War; he is arrested during a protest and earns admonishment from his conservative coach. Even as the Bruins remain the most feared team in college basketball, their record 88-game winning streak comes to an end at the hands of Notre Dame, and Walton's bodily pain begins to rear its ugly head. His storied college career ends with a devastating loss to NC State in the NCAA tournament, a game he says he will never get over. He moves on to the NBA, where in Portland he lets his hair and beard grow – but his injuries mount. He continues his outspoken activism, which lands him in hot water when the FBI questions him about his possible involvement with Patty Hearst and the SLA. Present-day Walton returns to his Portland neighborhood and hangs out with ball-playing kids at the local court. He remembers how he overcame his disastrous first two years as a pro, under the guidance of the flashy-dressing head coach Jack Ramsay. He bonds with his teammates and remains open-minded on issues of race in an era of protest. The team begins to come together, and Walton forms a connection with Maurice Lucas – who tells Walton the Blazers are destined to win the NBA title.

Walton reminisces about the glory days of the Blazers – recapping his battles with Houston's Artis Gilmore and teaming up with the tough-minded Maurice Lucas to form a formidable frontcourt. He visits Lucas's widow and grows sentimental when he reflects on their friendship. Through the nostalgia of the past, we revisit the Blazers' magical 1977 playoff run – a testy series with the Bulls, a dispatching of Denver, and a showdown with the Lakers and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Walton outplays Kareem, punctuating the series with an emphatic slam over the Captain as Portland wins the Western Conference; Blazermania takes over Portland. Walton gets a haircut before an epic Finals slugfest against Philadelphia. Dr. J and the 76ers take the first two before Portland fights back to win four straight and claim its first title. Walton rips his jersey off in the jubilant celebration, and the city erupts in what Walton calls "a dream come true." They get off to an even better start the following season, running their record to 50-10 before injury strikes down Walton again. His foot pain only growing, Walton's time in the Pacific Northwest limps to a sad, premature conclusion: the Blazers are unable to defend their title, and Walton – having lost trust in the team's doctors – demands to be traded.

Walton claims he's 6'11" – and pushes back against everyone else who claims he's taller. He reflects on what he hoped would be a fresh start in San Diego with the Clippers, but that promise fades when his foot injuries linger. He endures multiple operations and is told he'll never play again – and in fact, is at risk of losing his foot entirely. Concerned about his future, he enrolls at Stanford Law School. His foot begins to heal and he convinces the Clippers to accommodate him in an unorthodox (and ultimately unsuccessful) arrangement: he attends law school during the week and plays for the team on the weekend. As he grows disgruntled over the leadership of Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Walton is thrown a basketball lifeline – by Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics. Walton forfeits a huge amount of money to leave the Clippers and goes to Boston, where he joins one of the best franchises in sports. He seeks out starting center Robert Parrish and convinces him that he's there to serve as a backup; his only goal is to help the team win. The Celtics embrace him, the team wins – and wins, and wins – and he introduces his teammates to the Grateful Dead. With Walton's competitiveness and unselfish play sparking the team, Boston hits another level. An incredible redemption season culminates in Walton winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award – and for the Celtics, a return trip to the NBA Finals. Walton comes up big against the Rockets' twin towers tandem of Ralph Sampson and Hakeem (then Akeem) Olajuwon, and Walton returns to the mountaintop as an NBA champion. But an attempted repeat is not in the cards, as Walton's injuries mount. He spends the next four years in and out of surgery, in pain and struggling to walk. He finds fulfillment in overcoming his stutter and becoming a basketball broadcaster, his unfiltered and often outrageous personality making him both loved and hated by viewers. Debilitating pain spreads to his spine, and Walton faces a dark spiral: he can barely move, he's unable to work, and faces the prospect of losing his home. Broke and broken, he struggles with suicidal thoughts – only fighting through it with the support of his wife Lori and his family. With treatments proving effective in managing his pain, he returns to broadcasting, his spirit stronger than ever. With the love of his family and love of the game undiminished, he considers himself the luckiest guy in the world.

Candace Parker is one of the biggest stars in basketball. She's a champion and pioneer who's not only fulfilled the weighty expectations that have surrounded her potential since she was just a young teenager, but redefined what it means to be a women's sports star in the twenty-first century. Now, in the wide-ranging, revealing, and at times intimate ESPN film "Candace Parker: Unapologetic", Parker opens up about her journey through basketball and life, and where she might go from here. The documentary features rare behind-the-scenes access during Parker's 2022 season while tracing the entire arc of her story back to her childhood in Naperville, Illinois, outside of Chicago. Growing up in a basketball family that included her older brother Anthony, who'd become an NBA player himself, Parker emerged as a high school phenomenon, dunking in a game as a sophomore. An ACL tear would be the first of a long series of physical setbacks she would encounter throughout her career. But she battled through the injury and became a highly touted recruit who chose the storied Tennessee Lady Vols program. In Knoxville, she'd overcome more injury struggles while leading the team to back-to-back national titles in 2007 and 2008 under Tennessee's legendary coach and mentor Pat Summitt. "Candace Parker: Unapologetic" also covers Parker's pro career, starting when she was the WNBA's first overall draft pick in 2008, and showcasing her ensuing dominance – winning the league's Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards for the Los Angeles Sparks in her first season. From there, life would be about balancing the personal and professional, as the following year she gave birth to her daughter Lailaa. Along with her basketball ups and downs – highlighted by championships in 2016 in Los Angeles and 2021 with the Chicago Sky, and marred by waves of criticism and a messy departure from L.A. – the film chronicles her journey through motherhood, her divorce from former NBA player Shelden Williams, and her marriage to Anna Petrakova, her former teammate in the Russian league. As the 2022 season unfolds, Parker is revealed as a veteran superstar going to extreme lengths to manage a body battered by years of injuries, a mother and wife anticipating and then celebrating the birth of a new child, and a transcendent figure in sports balancing playing and broadcasting, and ultimately – as she herself puts it – resolving to live her life boldly and unapologetically. Everyone else, as far as she's defiantly concerned, can go kick rocks.

There may be no journey more fascinating than the exploration of our roots. There may be nothing more revealing than the discovery of where we come from – our inspiration, our ideas, our culture. In the ESPN short film BLACK GIRLS PLAY, directors Michéle Stephenson and Joe Brewster chronicle the origins of the hand games that have been played by young Black girls for generations, and their influence on music, dance, and community all across the American creative landscape. Tracing the beginnings of the games all the way back to the slavery era, the film's collection of illuminating voices – including musicians, music educators, and ethnomusicologists – trace a fascinating cultural history that explains the significance of hand games, particularly in the evolution of popular music from jazz all the way to hip hop. The film also explores hand games' influence on style and individualism everywhere from the playground to TikTok videos today. And it also questions why so much of the popular culture to come out of hand games has been dominated by men, when young girls were its original creators. An enlightening, unexpected, and charming film, BLACK GIRLS PLAY will make you think differently the next time you hear a kid playing a hand game or chanting a playground rhyme – and recognize just how significant an art it has been across the American story.

There may be no award in sports as synonymous with a game as the Heisman Trophy is with college football. And there was likely no year in the history of the award as memorable, as transformative, and as controversial as 1997. The ESPN 30 for 30 The Great Heisman Race of 1997 takes an immersive, time-capsule style approach to telling that story, going back a quarter century to chronicle a season that fans will never forget, featuring some of the greatest players ever to take a college football field at the center of it. At Tennessee, Peyton Manning had stunned the sports world by deciding to return for his senior season and spurning the NFL, making him the Heisman front-runner as he set his sights on an SEC Championship. But while Manning would be the preseason favorite for the hallowed honor, other candidates would find their way into the conversation when the games began. There was Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf, making a bid for even a more impressive season than Manning. Iowa running back Tavian Banks got off to a lightning-fast start. In West Virginia, after troubled stints at Notre Dame and Florida State, Randy Moss had emerged as a seemingly unstoppable wide receiver at Marshall. And then there was Charles Woodson, the Michigan cornerback who was so talented that the Wolverines made him a two-way player, designing plays for him at wide receiver. In what would be the third and final year for the Bowl Alliance system, the season would be a collection of thrills and surprises. And when Tennessee lost its third game of the year to Florida, it began to feel like any notion of a preordained Heisman for Manning was on shaky ground. Michigan and Woodson would storm through the Big Ten in an undefeated season, with each week momentum building for the unprecedented – a defensive player winning the Heisman – even as traditionalists appeared to favor the Tennessee QB. All the debate and controversy would culminate on the first Saturday in December at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. THE GREAT HEISMAN RACE OF 1997 is told through archive materials from that season, taking viewers in a veritable college football time machine along the way. In a seminal season in the sport's history, the Heisman debate lived at the center of the excitement, telling an unforgettable story for all time.

Generational football talent, bigger-than-life personality, forever devoted to his faith… Reggie White was a man of conviction. From his younger days in Tennessee to his standout NFL career in Philadelphia and Green Bay, he lived with his beliefs in a public and unflinching way. And this conviction impacted the lives of all those who passed through his orbit, leaving a complex legacy along the way. THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE chronicles White's life in all its glory and humanity, from the highs of football stardom and stirring sermons to the lows of discrimination and heartbreak. It details the contradictory ways White embraced his teammates and tried to steer them onto a better path, even as he lashes out at the gay community and declares their actions sinful. He wreaks havoc on the field but preaches peace, and while he's compelling in his certainty, it is when he becomes less certain that his true humanity is on display. As his football career ends, he devotes his time to a deeper spiritual journey, questioning all he's been told and seeking a deeper understanding of his faith. Even as his life is cut tragically short by a heart attack at age 43, the way he lived that life – big-hearted, flawed, searching, human – remains as crucial to his legacy as his legendary exploits on the gridiron.

On June 15, 2011, Vancouver hosts Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Canucks and Boston Bruins. The city is a hive of nervous energy with the home team on the verge of its first-ever title. Record crowds gather in the streets in what is a joyous – if anxious – atmosphere. But when Boston stuns the Canucks to win the Cup, the mood turns dark and dangerous. The situation quickly devolves into a full-blown riot, an orgy of violence that sees cars overturned and burned, windows shattered, businesses looted, and lawlessness reign… as hundreds of cell phone cameras capture it all. The city awakens to the scene of a war zone, as the world wonders: how could this happen?

He was one of the biggest track and field stars in the world, a talent in his prime on top of his sport. But when Butch Reynolds took a drug test in Monaco in the summer of 1990, his career was upended, and his life was forever changed. Yet then and now, the facts of the case shed more than considerable doubt on what happened – instead revealing the tale of a man falsely accused and still compelled in many ways to fight to clear his name all these years later.

It is a world that seems to exist apart from all other worlds. And yet a world that says so much about the world we live in, and where it's headed. For years now, the growth of esports has been one of the defining stories of entertainment – financially, socially, and culturally. And at the center of all that growth has been FaZe Clan, an organization that's gone from the brainchild of a few gamers streaming their play on the internet to publicly traded company with teams and players all around the globe competing professionally in an array of games. Now, ESPN's 30 for 30 is entering the esports universe with its wide-ranging, eye-opening, and unsparing profile of FaZe in the new film "No Scope: The Story of FaZe Clan," a documentary telling the story of the organization and the remarkable series of ups and downs that have defined that tale and its characters over the last decade-plus.

The improbable story of Michael Chang's rise as a young American tennis star, a child of immigrants who turned professional at 15, and then pulled off an unfathomable and unforgettable upset of Ivan Lendl at the 1989 French Open – a match that unfolded in the shadow of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

It all started in a house in College Station, Texas in 2009. A group of friends sharing a house in college were doing what a lot of college kids end up doing with their time: messing around and coming up with ways to entertain themselves. But these guys were more creative, and when they posted a video of some trick shots on a nascent Internet platform called YouTube, well, things took off from there. More than a decade later, Dude Perfect is a phenomenon – a sports-comedy troupe with a massive media following on the internet and television, through live performances, and even an amusement park they're building near their homes in Texas. Now comes another step in their journey: DUDE PERFECT: A VERY LONG SHOT, a 30 for 30 film from ESPN chronicling their road to stardom, and where their path may go from here.

After winning a historic gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics, intellectually disabled basketball captain Ramón Torres becomes an unwitting pawn in a shocking fraud that rocks the sports world. As he navigates the aftermath, Ramón must confront betrayal, unravel the truth, and reclaim his identity.