ESPN's 30 for 30 Series: "Winning Time"

Charlie Klein


Last night while searching for something entertaining to watch following the excitement of the NCAA Tournament bracket announcement, I decided to finally tune in for one of ESPN's 30 for 30's. Like any loyal ESPN watcher, I had seen promos for the 30 for 30 series and said to myself "Wow those would be cool to watch sometime." And boy did "Winning Time" not let me down.

"Winning Time" is the story of one of the most clutch basketball players of all-time going up against the biggest sports city in the world. The film chronicles the 1994 NBA Eastern Conference Finals and the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks, and specifically how Reggie Miller became Public Enemy No. 1 in New York City in the '90s.

Director Dan Klores does an excellent job of incorporating every storyline involved with those two epic series between two bitter rivals. One of my favorite sequences is the interplay between Spike Lee and Reggie Miller. As shown below:

For someone who was not a big basketball fan until a year ago, it was fantastic to learn more about the game's history. I knew of Jordan, Miller, Starks, Ewing, etc., but I just could not get into the game (might have something to do with spending my formative years in Kansas City, a city without an NBA franchise). "Winning Time" did an excellent job in drawing in the non-basketball fan, the person who did not have a "I remember where I was when Reggie scored 8 points in 8.9 seconds" memory. 

"Winning Time" re-airs Mar 15 12am ET ESPN 2, Mar 16 12am ET ESPN 2, Mar 18 10:30pm ET ESPN Classic.