HISTORY OF THE NBA (TV)
Summary
This hour-long documentary, hosted by former Los
Angeles Lakers head coach Pat Riley, traces the history
of basketball through a series of segments that focus on
different aspects of the game. After a brief
introduction that consists of a narrator's discussion of
the "magic of the game" over shots of amateurs on a
playground court intercut with footage of professionals,
Riley introduces the first segment, "Origins of the
Game." The first basketball game was played in 1891,
Riley explains, with peach baskets for hoops. In the
1920s, organized basketball teams surfaced. Traveling
teams would play on courts surrounded by a
twenty-foot-high chain-link cage. In the 1930s, games
moved into dance halls, where people would pay a nickel
to jitterbug, then watch a team like the Chicago-based
Harlem Globetrotters play highly skilled basketball.
Riley discusses one of the Globetrotters, Nat
"Sweetwater" Clifton, who became the first black player
to sign with an NBA team in the late 1940s. Riley then
introduces a separate segment devoted to the man he
calls the first superstar of the game, George Mikan.
Mikan, who was known on and off the court as
"Superman," was not only immensely popular, Riley
explains; the NBA had to invent new rules to circumvent
his talent and height. After Mikan finished tearing up
the league, the game had been modified to include the
twenty-four-second violation, goal-tending had been
outlawed, and the three-second-violation lane had been
widened considerably. The next segment concerns the
dynasty of the Boston Celtics. Led by Bill Russell, the
team won an unthinkable six consecutive championships,
the narration explains. In the segment titled "Centers
of Attention," Riley looks at stand-out players who have
played the position of center: Willis Reed of the New
York Knicks, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, and Wilt
Chamberlain; the last boldly tells Riley in an interview
clip that he would be averaging seventy points a game if
he were still playing basketball. Riley then looks at
"The Showmen," in a segment dedicated to the all-around
superstars of the game; profiles of Michael Jordan,
Magic Johnson, and Julius Irving follow. For comic
relief, Riley reports on a few eccentric athletes in the
segment "Characters of the Game." Serial
backboard-smasher Darryl Dawkins, Celtics radio
announcer Johnny Most, and melodramatic coach Frank
Layden are profiled here. At the documentary's end,
Riley introduces a highlight reel titled "Memorable
Moments of the Game."
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the
Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: November 30, 1989
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:29
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:49771
- GENRE: Sports; Specials
- SUBJECT HEADING: Basketball; Sports - History; African-American Collection - Sports
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV, 1990
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Ross Greenburg … Executive Producer
- Don Sperling … Executive Producer
- Michael J. Whelan … Coordinating Producer
- Gil Kerr … Producer
- John Bennett … Producer, Segment Producer
- Charlie Bloom … Producer, Segment Producer
- David Gavant … Producer, Segment Producer
- Jim Podhoretz … Producer, Segment Producer
- Andy Thompson … Producer, Segment Producer
- Jeffrey Peyton Goff … Director
- Larry Weitzman … Writer
- Pat Riley … Host
- David Perry … Narrator
- Abdul-Jabaar, Kareem (Lew Alcindor)
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Clifton, Nat "Sweetwater"
- Darryl Dawkins
- Julius Irving
- Johnson, Earvin "Magic"
- Michael Jordan
- Frank Layden
- George Mikan
- Johnny Most
- Willis Reed
- Bill Russell
- Bill Walton