30 FOR 30: BERNIE AND ERNIE (TV)
Summary
One in this series of sports documentaries presented by ESPN about important people and events from 1979 to 2009.
This film details the personal and professional friendship between basketball players Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld. King grew up in the Walt Whitman Housing Project in Fort Greene in downtown Brooklyn, known at the time as a dangerous neighborhood. Basketball proved to be one of the few escapes from the dangers of the street, and King gained notoriety as a child for his basketball skills. King recounts the troubles he faced as a child and growing up with his emotionally distant parents and siblings. Around the same time, in Forest Hills, Queens, Grunfeld was being raised by working-class Romanian Jewish parents, recently immigrated to the United States. The family fled Romania due to a growing anti-Semitism movement in the country. He recounts how his older brother, whom he idolized, developed leukemia a few months after the family’s arrival and he died a year later. He soon picked up basketball from his schoolmates and became skilled at the game, giving him an avenue of socialization. King recalls how his parents were more interested in religious matters than in anything else, and that his mother would beat him for disobeying her. These experiences go on to shape his outlook on life and his attitude towards competition and discipline on the basketball court.
Both King and Grunfeld become notable for their play on their respective middle and high schools’ basketball teams. Grunfeld goes on to play for the University of Tennessee, becoming the team’s star player in his freshman year. Scouts from the University of Tennessee also express interest in King, and during his visit to the campus he meets Grunfeld for the first time. They immediately bond, partially because they are both New Yorkers. King arrives at Tennessee in 1974, creating some tensions in the predominantly white school. King himself is somewhat reserved and paranoid of those around him. He recounts being subject to more “overt” racism than back in New York. As a result of this, King often feels overlooked by his coaches and peers despite his stellar performance in practice. King gets the chance to demonstrate his skills in the first game of the season while Grunfeld is sidelined with an injury. He astounds onlookers by scoring 42 points, and when Grunfeld returns from his injury their combined efforts help catapult the team to stardom. During this time they develop their on-court “chemistry” and learn to complement each others’ skills.
Their fame grows, due to a combination of more wins and capitalization on their fame by Tennessee head coach Ray Mears. Furthermore, their style of basketball proves to be more visually entertaining than anything Tennessee had previously witnessed. King and Grunfeld gain national attention by appearing on the cover of “Sports Illustrated;” Grunfeld quite enjoys his newfound fame and popularity, but King feels pressured by the attention and by the continued racial discrimination he faces. During this time he becomes heavily addicted to alcohol, and is arrested and assaulted multiple times by racist Tennessee policemen. Memories of these incidents continue to haunt King into the present day. At the time he chooses not to discuss these issues, not even with Grunfeld or the rest of the team. In 1977, King and Grunfeld both join the NBA draft after earning further acclaim for their play. King is drafted by the New Jersey Nets and flourishes there, while Grunfeld is picked by the Milwaukee Bucks. There, King’s skills improve and his play style evolves, while Grunfeld finds it more difficult to adjust to the professional level. However, King still finds it difficult to make friends and has further run-ins with the police. After an arrest he is traded to the Utah Jazz, but soon is arrested there as well.
Realizing that he needs to turn his life around, King goes to rehab and starts up again as a member of the Golden State Warriors in 1981. His performance on the court improves again, and in 1982 he realizes his childhood dream by being traded to the New York Knicks. Grunfeld also signs with the Knicks that same year, although he is regarded by the team as merely a “backup” for King. Their relationship resumes and they become virtually inseparable, constantly planning strategies and working together for the benefit of their team. King becomes known for his personal intensity, his highly effective offensive plays, and for being standoffish with other members of the team. From 1982 to 1984, King becomes known as a particularly high scorer in many of his games, including the 1984 playoffs against Detroit. On March 23rd, 1985, during the closing seconds of an important game against the Kansas City Kings, King injures himself while defending against another player. The injury necessitates extensive reconstructive surgery on his knee, and his doctors say that this makes it all-but impossible for him to play professional basketball again.
However, King is determined to play again in spite of their warnings. On December 17th, 1985, King announces that he intends to resume his position on the Knicks and sequesters himself in order to undergo a rigorous physical rehabilitation program. King does his best to keep everything secret, and speaks only to Grunfeld when the time finally comes for him to practice against another player, as he trusts only him not to go to the media. On April 10th, 1987, King officially returns to the Knicks roster, much to the appreciation of Knicks fans throughout the city. He plays the final few games of the season as a Knick, and then signs with the Washington Bullets, where he yet again becomes one of the all-time high scorers in the NBA. Problems with his knee continue to plague him, and he retires from basketball at the end of the 1992-1993 season. Grunfeld retires in 1986 and turns to the administrative side of basketball, eventually becoming team president of the Washington Wizards. On February 13th, 2007, both King and Grunfeld are invited back to the University of Tennessee to attend a ceremony where King’s number is retired; on March 2nd, 2008 they attend another ceremony to retire Grunfeld’s number. On September 8th, 2013, King is formally inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and King credits Grunfeld for helping him achieve this honor. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ESPN
- DATE: November 5, 2013
- RUNNING TIME: 0:53:24
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 114736
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries; Sports
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Sports; TV - Public affairs/documentaries; TV - Sports
- SERIES RUN: ESPN - TV series, 2009-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Bernard King … Executive Producer
- Roy S. Johnson … Executive Producer
- John Dahl … Executive Producer
- Connor Schell … Executive Producer
- Bill Simmons … Executive Producer
- Jason Hehir … Producer, Director
- Marquis Daisy … Producer
- Andy Billman … Producer
- Adam Marinelli … Associate Producer
- Brian D'Ostelio … Associate Producer
- Cris Dilegge … Consulting Producer
- Chuck D … Narrator
- Jason Hehir … Interviewee
- John Rushmore … Interviewee
- Spike Lee … Interviewee
- Bernard King … Interviewee
- Ernie Grunfeld … Interviewee
- Bud Ford … Interviewee
- Condredge Holloway … Interviewee
- Gerald Oliver … Interviewee
- Mike Jackson … Interviewee
- Rodney Woods … Interviewee
- Austin Clark … Interviewee
- John Ward … Interviewee
- Debby Jennings … Interviewee
- Marv Albert … Interviewee
- Hubie Brown … Interviewee
- Darrell Walker … Interviewee
- Ray Mears