It’s not surprising that just a few years after the excellent documentary The Last Dance (affiliate link), about the rise of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, that we get another excellent basketball documentary.

The Redeem Team (Netflix link) is a deep dive into the story of the 2008 Men’s US Olympic Basketball Team. While not as detailed as The Last Dance (affiliate link), it provides plenty of backstory to the events that led up to those Olympic Games in Beijing. We got to see the rise of the original Dream Team in The Last Dance (affiliate link), and this is the next logical chapter, looking at basketball when the world had caught up with the United States, and even our top talent wasn’t guaranteed a win on the world stage.

The film provides plenty of typical documentary fare with talking head interviews from the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwayne Wade, players on the team that had fallen short in 2004 and wanted to come back to the Olympics and regain the former glory. In addition to this, however, is going further back, not only to the original dream team, but even back to a controversial Olympic gold medal game where the Soviet Union beat the United States. This historical context serves to elevate the story of US Olympic Basketball and shows that it hasn’t all been sunshine and roses.
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I would be remiss if I failed to mention the inclusion of Kobe Bryant in the film. He was an integral part of the 2008 team and was able to put his Lakers loyalties aside, facing down NBA teammate Pao Gasol in their very first game. One of the most touching scenes comes near the end of the film with the team celebrating Kobe’s birthday while at the Olympics. He can be seen with his daughters, including Gianna who was only two at the time. It was sobering to see that footage and hear the interviews with him at the time and only reminded me that he was gone too soon.

This documentary is essential viewing for any true sports fan, and should be included on the watchlist of anyone interested in great comeback stories. It is a great retelling of a relatively recent time in our sports history, and one that some people may not remember exactly the way it happened.

8 out of 10

Once in a while, a story comes along that makes you take a step back and try to figure out what is wrong with humanity. Athlete A is one of those stories and while you might know some of the big names, you surely don't know the whole story.

Anyone who has watched the Summer Olympic games in the last 30 years probably knows about the success of the American women's gymnastic teams. Longtime coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi have produced countless gold medals in the event starting with Marylou Retton winning the individual all around in 1984 to the most recent games in 2016 with the self-appointed "Final Five."

If you've been paying attention to the news of the last several years, you know the name of Larry Nassar, the man convicted on child pornography charges in 2017, but perhaps better known for his role as an athletic trainer with USA gymnastics. What this film covers is the systemic abuse and cover up that has been going on in this organization for decades.

Just as with any other organization where people gain more and more power and influence, they want to keep that power and will do whatever it takes to do so. If that comes at the cost of young people, specifically young girls, so be it. The documentary covers the fear that these girls felt at being a part of the Karolyi training team and how Nassar was the only "nice" one at Karolyi Ranch in Texas, gaining their trust by talking to them like a normal person and even sneaking them candy when the Karolyi's weren't watching.

My hat goes off to the reports of The Indianapolis Star who first broke the story in 2016. They were willing to tell the story based on the facts they had at the time, and ultimately their reporting encouraged several women to speak out publicly, asserting that they had been victims of Nassar as well. Ultimately, more than 250 women and girls have accused Nassar of some form of sexual assault, including some of the biggest names in the sport from the last several Olympic Games.

Films in general should make you think, and documentaries are no exception. Athlete A will reshape the way you think about elite gymnastics in this country and perhaps change the way you think about these young Olympic heroes, all the more powerful after learning what they had to endure to get to the top of the podium.

Athlete A is streaming now on Netflix.

9 out of 10​​

Whether you're old enough to remember the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s or you've just heard tales about it from your parents, this docuseries will go down as one of the definitive tellings of the story of those teams, specifically the 1997-1998 team that completed the second three-peat in eight years.

I don't typically review television series here, but this almost feels more like an extended 8-9 hour film, than a series, so I'm making an exception. From here out, I will refer to it as a singular entity.

First, a little background. The documentary focuses its attention on the 1997-1998 season of the Chicago Bulls, dubbed "The Last Dance" by coach Phil Jackson after he was told by general manager Jerry Krause that he would not be back as coach the following year. The team had been at the top for most of the decade of the 90s and was coming off their second run of back-to-back NBA championships in 1996 and 1997, bringing their total to five in the decade.

The story is told within the the framework of this last season through flashbacks within each episode. The 1998 frame serves to start the narrative before jumping back to build the team up, piece by piece, starting with His Airness himself, Michael Jordan. Many people spoke of this as "the MJ doc" or "the Jordan series" and they can be excused for using that terminology. While it is officially about the Bulls last run to the championship, Jordan features so prominently in the story of the Bulls of the 1980s and 1990s, that the two are nearly synonymous.

Fortunately, director Jason Hehir and his creative team didn't forget about the other role players on the team. Episode one not surprisingly focuses on Jordan before delving into Scottie Pippin and Dennis Rodman's history in episodes two and three. Episode four provides the backstory for Jackson before Jordan and the 1992 Dream Team head to Barcelona for the Olympic Games in episode five, also the only appearance of the late Kobe Bryant, interviewed before his passing earlier this year.

The second half of the series starts with questions about Jordan's seemingly rampant gambling and completing the first three-peat in episode six. Finding himself physically and mentally exhausted after that championship, and dealing with the death of his father, Jordan exits to play baseball in episode seven, before returning to chase his fourth championship in episode eight. Episodes nine and ten round out the series as the bulls face off against some younger talent in the NBA and struggle to complete the second three-peat.

The series includes hundreds of interviews from the likes of former president Barack Obama, journalists Michael Wilbon, Andrea Kramer, Bob Costas, Sam Smith, and J. A. Adande (just to name a few), former NBA commissioner David Stern, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, NBA hall of famers Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, John Stockton, and Kobe Bryant, not to mention members of the Jordan family, former coaches, and of course, players for the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. I'm sure there was enough interview footage to fill another 100 episodes about this team, so the care that the creative team had to take to put together these stories does not go unappreciated.

One of the hallmarks of a great documentary, in my opinion, is one that can keep you on the edge of your seat even when you think you already know the story backwards and forwards (see O.J. Made in America). The Last Dance does that to perfection by reminding you of some of the stories you may have forgotten about this great team. What happens if certain shots fall an inch the other way? If Jordan hadn't been hurt early in his career, how would that have changed his trajectory? Would he have still left basketball if his father had still been alive? Did he really have the flu for the "flu game" in 1997? We get to see these stories play out as if watching them for the first time, and hear some of those stories from the mouths of those who lived them first hand.

Whether you are a basketball fan or not, The Last Dance is required viewing. The fact that it came out in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 only served to lift it to an even higher profile than it may have had otherwise. We were starving for sports and while sports have started to return around the world, this still feels like an important story to tell.

The Last Dance is streaming now on Netflix. You can also follow along with the episodes and listen to interviews with director Jason Hehir on the Jalen and Jacoby Aftershow podcast from ESPN or on YouTube.

10 out of 10​​