ESPN's 30 For 30 Box Set

Click Here for a Look at the 30 For 30 Series

I recently got the ESPN 30 For 30 Box Set as a gift, and what a great and wonderful gift it is. I've been a big fan of these documentaries since "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks" aired last year. It was a brilliantly crafted documentary, that for 90 minutes transported me back to when I was 12 years old watching those games live, it was fun to revisit that time in history. 

Each of the others I've seen since has been just as good in the case of "June 17 1994" a day which will live in sports infamy. It was the day the Knicks and Rockets played Game 5 of the 94 Finals, Arnold Palmer's last tournament appearance, the Rangers Stanley Cup celebration, and oh yeah, OJ Simpson's fake suicide letter came out followed by his eventual flee from justice or "Four Days in October" a time as a Yankee fan I'd rather not remember, about the Red Sox miracle comeback against the Yankees. These are so great to me because it allows me to step back and look at history I lived, but view it at a different time in my life.

Then there are the documentaries like "Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL" the United States Football League was something I heard of, but was never fully aware of, and "Pony Excess" about a time in college sports even more corrupt than things now. It's been fun watching these and the others from before my time, to learn about the things I'd only heard about up to this point, and learning the details, and the 30 For 30 Films do a great job filling you in on all the details, covering each story from every angle possible.

Each of the films has its own director, almost all of the directors are award winners. Each of the films are told in a different style, which was left up to the directors, but each story is about times in sports that aren't necessarily talked about often, but were vital, engrossing and entertaining times. As a kid I knew Michael Jordan left the NBA to try baseball, but that was all I knew up until the 30 For 30 film "Jordan Rides the Bus". There are many like stories with these films, stuff I knew, but not the details, and that is were this series excels.