The ESPN Sports Film Festival is a part of the annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, and is the premier showcase for sports and competition films. This year ESPN released a collection of shorts detailing amazing stories of perseverance, friendship, nationalism, and ingenuity. Many of the athletes and people involved in these shorts are names most sports fans don’t know. But there are two figures in this year’s shorts who loom large; the late great Will Chamberlain and Dennis Rodman, NBA Hall of Famers.
Bump & Spike details the miraculous rise and fall of the International Professional Volleyball Association. A league that boasted Motown Records Berry Gordy, and Wilt Chamberlain as the President and part-time player. Yes, the man who dominated basketball also dominated in pro volleyball. Wilt used the league as a way to keep his competitive juices flowing post retirement.
The league was synonymous with the “party lifestyle,” of the 1970s, teams were co-ed and at its height boasted crowds of 8,000-10,000. Pretty remarkable when you think about it. The league ultimately folded because many of the leagues owners backed out and sold their franchises to people ill-equipped to run them. One of the franchises was run by a brother duo that used the proceeds from their drug trafficking ring to finance the team. There is also a funny moment in the film when one of the female players in the league is reminiscing about the glory days and she lit up with the brightest smile when discussing Wilt.
The Amazing Adventures of Wally and the Worm is the story of 10 days of partying and friendship with Dennis Rodman and then Chicago Bulls assistant trainer Wally Blasé. It is the ’96-’97 season and Rodman hurts his knee with four weeks to go in the regular season. Bulls head coach Phil Jackson and GM Jerry Krause tell a young Wally Blasé he is responsible for overseeing Worm’s rehab. Blase is to check in every day with the Bulls training staff and at all costs he is to keep the Worm away from Las Vegas. What ensues in this animated short directed by Colin Hanks is a tale of two men who party incessantly, rehab every morning like clockwork, and share a bond and become lifelong friends.
Run Mama Run Run is the incredible story of perseverance, motherhood and defining your own rules through the eyes of elite track athlete Sarah Brown. As a 2016 Olympic hopeful, Brown learns she and husband/coach Darren are expecting their first child. Sarah continues to train through pregnancy and postpartum and experiences many challenges along the way. In this inspiring story Brown shows women they can be athletes, wives, and mothers at the same time and on their own terms; regardless of societal pressures and perceived “norms.”
Revolution In The Ring is the story of Cuban boxer Teofilo Stevenson, who in 1962 chose to stay in his home country rather than defect. Stevenson was a three-time Olympic champion and considered the best amateur in the world. The next step was surely to go pro and fight the legendary Muhammad Ali. In the fight and pro career that never was this film examines Cuban-American geopolitics and how Stevenson’s life and the life of the Cuban people were dramatically altered by the US embargo and how sports threatened to change that.
The Counterfeiter takes a look at the multimillion dollar sports memorabilia industry, specifically in 1998 during Major League Baseball’s historic home run chase season. Featuring wiretapped phone calls and surveillance video, this film shows not only how the FBI brought down the largest counterfeit operation in U.S. history. But also how easy it is to get caught up in a web of lies when you are go from being hard luck and out of cash to seeing millions of dollars coming your way.
The ESPN Shorts program runs a total of 111 minutes and will surely entertain.