Baller 21

Spike Lee Basketball Documentaries

by Chris Harvey on 05/08/09

Spike Lee has produced a fresh basketball documentary entitled: Kobe Doin’ Work. Spike Lee, a huge basketball fan and faithful court side attender of the NY Knicks, was given an all access pass from the Lakers organization and Phil Jackson to film a unique glimpse into the game of basketball star Kobe Bryant.

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Love or hate Kobe, the uncensored, all access footage, and court side view of some of the best basketball action in the world is appealing to any fan of the game.

Kobe Doin’ Work, a 90-minute documentary will be shown Saturday at the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Festival and make its television debut on ESPN on May 16. The DVD release will be on May 19, 2009.

In other works from Spike Lee’s Joint, the NY Times reported that Lee was turned down by LeBron James in his attempt to film a similar documentary like Kobe’s; James is waiting the release of “More Than a Game,” a documentary about him and his Akron high school teammates.

Meanwhile, Spike Lee, reportedly, is waiting on a pending documentary project about Michael Jordan (in a negotiation process with the NBA). Lee’s comments on the project: “Any time you get lawyers involved it gets stuck. It’s not Mike.”

“In Michael’s last season in Chicago, a camera was with him every single day during that season. And the NBA has been sitting on this footage for years. I mean, phenomenal stuff. There’s just so much amazing material and they’ve been sitting on it. And they finally realized they needed a filmmaker to make it into a film. So I’m going to go back, cut that stuff, then interview the players, the people that were a part of that great run. So it’s a fascinating look at one of the greatest athletes of all time.”

Should be some great footage!

What basketball documentary (player, team) would you like to see?