Basketball: A Love Story
62 short stories covering basketball's many facets.
Basketball: A Love Story is a 2018 sports documentary series directed by Dan Klores and distributed by ESPN Films. The 20-hour series comprises 62 short films exploring topics from the NBA, ABA, WNBA, college basketball, and international basketball, as well as social and cultural issues. It was made available online via the ESPN App on September 18, 2018, and aired on ESPN in four-hour blocks from October 9 to November 13, 2018.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Sports documentary
- Creator
- Dan Klores
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Episodes
- 10 (divided into 62 short films)
- Runtime
- 20 hours
- Company
- My Three Sons Productions
- Network
- ESPN; ESPN2
Facts from the source article.
Production
Klores began interviews for the project in 2013, initially planning 10 hours of documentary footage. He accumulated far more material, and the film's length was doubled to 20 hours. The entire work consists of 62 short subject films, described as short stories, covering topics from the game's origins to its technical aspects, player and coach lives, and societal impacts. The stories are not presented in chronological order; Klores compared the structure to opening a book of short stories, with logical transitions between them.
Reception
Basketball: A Love Story received mixed reviews. Critics praised its ambitious scope and distribution format but noted thematic discontinuities, lack of depth in some topics, and equivocation on sensitive issues such as racism, sexism, and player violence. Jack Hamilton of Slate criticized the documentary for glossing over unhappy aspects of basketball history and omitting stories like the Malice at the Palace brawl.
More in 2010s American Documentary Television Series
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