OT: ESPN Films The Announcement on at 9pm Open Thread

Submitted by M-Wolverine on
We seem to like the 30 for 30 style specials, and it's the basketball wrap for the day. Anyone else gonna watch?

bluujuu

March 11th, 2012 at 9:13 PM ^

This is a great topic, definitely interesting, but is anyone else finding Magic's narration really distracting? It sounds like he's reading a kids book out loud.

LSAClassOf2000

March 11th, 2012 at 9:40 PM ^

Magic's rather flat narration aside (the pacing of this is bothering me some too), I also remember being, for a few moments, absolutely floored and speechless. However, it dawned on me that the courage that it took to reveal it in the way he did was incredible, and  I admire that much of the thrust of his foundation has been to show that HIV can affect everyone potentially, not just select groups of people. I think his announcement broke many stereotypes about the disease, and that has definitely been a positive when it comes to understanding in the long run. 

M-Wolverine

March 11th, 2012 at 9:29 PM ^

Is hurting the films. We didn't need the Magic hype machine, or glossing over how he was cheating on his wife.

Sopwith

March 11th, 2012 at 10:04 PM ^

He had only been married a couple of months prior to finding out he was HIV+, making it almost a certainty he was already positive by that time, given the several-month lag time for HIV to show up in a blood test.  

Seems the promiscuity of pro athletes, Magic included, is an understood part of the story and hardly needs any investigation in a documentary.  

That said, would have preferred professional narration with sound bites from Magic.  He's simply not a good narrator, and the story would have been better told in an objective 3rd person.

M-Wolverine

March 11th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^

But you don't marry someone you just met. They may have been on again, off again, but he didn't seem that dedicated leading up to the marriage. Even Cookie in the film seems to rather not think about when he got it.

Athletes sleep around? Not news, no. But athlete sleeps around rather than sticking with his long time girlfriend and gets AIDS? Kinda pertinent to the story. At least as much as 30 minutes of career highlight overview.

Mr. Yost

March 12th, 2012 at 10:31 AM ^

He could've contracted it...and at least HE thinks he contracted it before he and Cookie got back together for the 2nd time.

He came out and said it...I was going to get married, I backed out, she left me, I fucked around, I got it out of my system, I settled down, I got married, I got HIV.

It is definitely possible for him to have gotten it during the "f-ed around" stage. Not the "I cheated on my wife"

Lionsfan

March 11th, 2012 at 10:16 PM ^

I haven't been watching this one, other than a few bits and pieces while on break. But I have to say, after the official 30 for 30 films ended, it seems like the overall quality of ESPN films has gone down. They had The Fab Five, but everything else is just meh. They had one on Steve Bartman without interviewing him, and made it half about Bill Buckner. Then there was the Roll Tide/War Eagle, which basically summed up to, "These last two years have been really intense guys!"

M-Wolverine

March 11th, 2012 at 10:26 PM ^

But it adds to the point even at te end they seemed to be straying and making weaker projects. It's really surprising the Fab Five turned out as well as it did, because there's something missing that they originally had. Maybe not enough real film directors, and too much Simmons influence.

Sopwith

March 11th, 2012 at 10:38 PM ^

and being very excited about it coming on as I was living in Chicago back when that game happened.  It was intriguing for a while... but after they ran out of material, which was quick, given the lack of an interview with the man himself, they tried turning into a general "scapegoat" program.  It didn't work at that point.  

I do remember being appreciative that Bartman proves there is at least one person in this country who is capable of saying no to a television interview.

DefenseWins

March 12th, 2012 at 1:17 AM ^

Magic's narrating aside, I actually thought it was pretty well done. It effectively depicted the cultural shift regarding HIV/Aids from 20 years ago to the present.

The one thing I thought they would explore in more detail were Isiah's comments at the time and the stereotype it represented. It was very controversial back then.