How many have you seen? Follow along, as we list the 10 best basketball documentaries ever made.
Throughout basketball’s storied and extensive history, the sport has seen some remarkable stories play out. From meteoric college rises to unprecedented championship-winning sides cementing themselves in the pantheon of basketballing greatness, it’s all happened.
While not all of these stories have been immortalised, many have. In fact, some of the greatest documentaries ever produced centre around the sport and the ridiculous achievements of some of the game’s greatest teams and players.
Of course, not all have happy endings. As with so many other sports, and walks of life, tragedy is rife throughout the world of basketball. However, documentaries that take a more tragic turn, particularly in the basketball world, are especially poignant and inspirational.
But, which documentary tops our list?
The 10 best basketball documentaries
And while on the topic of great hoops content, be sure to also check out our Definitive Top 10 Best Basketball Films list. There’s no question that some stories suit the format of a docco, while others worked incredibly well as dramatised productions copping the Hollywood treatment.
OK, now for the best basketball documentaries ever made.
Honourable mentions
The Redeem Team, Untold: Malice at the Palace, Dream Team, Shut Up and Dribble, and Winning Time: Reggie Miller all just missed out on a place on our list of the 10 best basketball documentaries ever.
10. Once Brothers, 2010
In our humble opinion, Once Brothers should be much higher. As far as sporting documentaries, few explore the complexities of geo-political issues and how they impact very deep, personable friendships, just as they did with Serbian NBA star Vlade Divac and his Croatian compatriot Drazen Petrovic, as expertly as this film.
Friends via their participation with the Yugoslav national team, Divac and Petrovic’s relationship crumbled during the Yugoslav Wars. Petrovic passed away in 1993, meaning the pair could never reconcile their differences. The film followed Divac’s regret at how it all played out.
9. No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, 2010
2010 was a golden year for basketball documentaries. You may know Allen Iverson as one of the finest basketballers of the 2000s. No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson explores a 17-year-old Iverson’s trial and subsequent fallout from it that divided a town in Virginia.
8. Basketball: A Love Story, 2018
Basketball: A Love Story is a series of short stories born from interviews with some of the sport’s most notable and iconic figures, focusing on the intersections between basketball and various other socio-cultural arms like race, politics, business and music.
7. Benji, 2012
Billed as the ‘true story of a dream cut short,’ Benji tells the story of Chicago high school basketball prodigy, Ben Wilson, who is gunned down before his senior year in 1984. Widely regarded as the best high school basketball player of his age group, Wilson’s death sent shockwaves through the community, especially when considering he seemed destined for the NBA.
Wilson’s impact was still felt long after his death, with Derrick Rose wearing his number 25 jumper during his youth playing for Simeon, Benji’s high school basketball team.
6. Through the Fire, 2005
New York’s point guard production goes back generations. It’s something they’re very proud of and includes the likes of Bob Cousy and Stephon Marbury. Marbury’s cousin, Sebastian Telfair, is the focus of Through the Fire, which chronicles his life as one of the top high school basketball prospects and the trials and tribulations he faced on his way to the top.
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5. More Than a Game, 2008
Everyone knows Lebron James as arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. But what do they know about Lebron James’ high school basketball career? More Than a Game follows James, and his four high school teammates, as they rise up the national ranks and battle with the exploding stardom of Lebron.
4. The Fab Five, 2011
Few things capture the American sporting imagination quite like a highly promising and dominant college basketball side. In 1991, it was Michigan’s Fab Five, which included future NBA stars Chris Webber and Jalen Rose, who captured America’s attention. This documentary illuminates the high highs and low lows the revolutionary team endured then, and now.
3. The Last Dance, 2020
Come on, if you don’t know The Last Dance, what’re you doing with yourself? It’s Michael Jordan, it’s the Chicago Bulls, it’s the rise of one of sports’ great dynasties and the season where it all came to an end.
The hype surrounding this doco, featuring untold stories from the GOAT’s second run with Chicago, was otherworldly. It originally landed in our laps, as many will recall, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many sporting enthusiasts were starved of real-life action on pitches, parks and courts, but heaps of time that needed occupying.
The Last Dance sent the sporting world into a meltdown. You best believe it’s almost just as good watching it the second time, as it was the first.
2. Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Rivals, 2010
To many, it was the rivalry of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, and their Boston Celtic and LA Lakers sides, that saved the NBA from extinction in the 1980s. Without them, there would be no Michael Jordan, no Lebron James, and no Nikola Jokic.
Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Rivals explores the pair’s fierce rivalry which began in college and extended throughout an entire decade of the NBA culminating in clashes in the 1984 and 1985 NBA Finals.
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1. Hoop Dreams, 1994
Hoop Dreams follows two inner-city Chicago kids in their struggles to achieve their dreams and become NBA superstars.
Based on a true story, the production reflects inner-city culture in America, at a time that undoubtedly etched itself in how basketball and culture cross over in modern times.
As reflected by its ranking, which was created through a mostly objective set of criteria by the Only Sports team, Hoop Dreams is just one you’re going to need to see for yourself, if you haven’t before.
