Back years ago when ESPN announced it was doing 30 documentaries to honor the 30 years of the station’s existence my only thought was, “How are they going to do so many documentaries in such a brief period of time and make them all interesting?”
Well it didn’t really work out. Executive producer Bill Simmons and his crew couldn’t get the number of films made in one year so they said “screw it” and made it a five-year long series. The first film, “Kings Ransom” about Wayne Gretzky going to Los Angeles, premiered all the way back in October 2009. They’ve doubled the series, with the 60th film — “Requiem for the Big East” — debuting Sunday night.
But they still haven’t made a movie about Brian Scalabrine.
You heard me: THE WHITE MAMBA!
Some enterprising fan (sort of) took care of that glaring omission with the amazing trailer for “Brian” you can watch above. No the movie does not actually exist, but we wish it did.
If Paul Shirley could make a career out of being a nobody, Scalabrine at least deserves as much attention — if not more. Scalabrine, after all, did play in the postseason six times and won a championship with the Celtics in 2008. There’s no need to mention he didn’t actually play in a game that postseason.
One of my favorite clips in NBA postgame press conference history is when Scalabrine was asked about not playing in the postseason. His response goes down in NBA lore:
So here’s to you Ginger Ninja, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for a real “30 for 30” in your honor.
Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter @MetroNYSports. Come on, Simmons, you can make this happen! You know you want to.
