There is a scene in episode 5 of the new sensational documentary from Netflix “Court of Gold” (its beginnings this week) which highlights the remarkable access that the production team received while covering the basketball tournament -Male Ball of the Paris Olympic Games.
Inside the cloakroom of the Serbian basketball national basketball team at the half-time of his semi-final against the United States, the triple MVP of the NBA Nikola Jokić schemes furiously a game on a whiteboard.
Using a magic marker, Jokić explains to his Serbian teammates about a two -men’s room that Steph Curry and Joel Embiid run against Serbia. He is animated on how Embiid plans to detect curry and what Jokic wants to stop him. This is the kind of access that fans of the NBA can only dream.
“I think that if we did it as” we are going to shoot your screening report “, they (Serbia) would be like” release “, said the director of” Golden Court “, Jake Rogal.” But we are Arrived at a point where we have learned how not to be noticed, how to jump and how to stay.
At the end of the year, I think that “Court of Gold” will appear as the best sports documentary of the year. It’s so good.
Later in this same episode, there are images of the coaches of the American national male basketball team – notably Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors and Erik Spoelstra of Miami Heat – and the general manager Grant Hill seated on the steps Outside Bercy Arena in Paris, playing a beer after the incredible return to Serbia.
The camera takes place in LeBron James, sitting only on the steps, near the coaches.
Kerr turns to James: “Do you want a cold beer?”
James stops and then said: “Yeah, I’m going to take one. I’m going to take one for sure, absolutely. F—— Applauding you.
Rogal, who was the main producer of “The Last Dance” and part of the team that Interviewed Michael Jordan For this documentary series, thought about this moment: “When the teams have a euphoric moment like this Serbia game where they win, access is incredible because they are happy.”
“It’s almost as if they were blinded by their happiness,” he said. “It was a time when I don’t even think they noticed that our cameras were there, and I don’t think they would care either. They were so happy at that time that access is incredible. »»
Rogal said that the IOC told the production team that the organization could only offer identification information in the right places, and that “from there, players and coaches leave you Enter whatever they want to let you in. It’s up to you to train.
“I know we are foreigners,” Rogal told players. “It’s a moment of your life that is cool, and we don’t want to withdraw. We want to be additives. We want to capture it so in 20 years, you can show your grandchildren. »»
Rogal noted that the production team “did not ask for everything at the same time”.
“You are like,” hey, guy, can I stay in this corner today and shoot yourself on the line of fault? “The guy is like,” yeah, of course. “
“The next day, you are like:” Hey, can I stay in this corner and this corner? ” And he says, “Yeah, go ahead.”
“So you start to establish these relationships and let them know that I understand that it is your experience and your story.”
There were four separate production teams, each allocated in the United States, Canada, Serbia and France. The players who stand out particularly with regard to filmmakers include Curry, Kevin Durant (who dropped to the camera of what the game at the Olympic Games meant for him), Nicolas Batum, Serbia Bogdan Bogdanović and Dillon Brooks of Canada. There are also a lot of Victor Wembanyama, including his devastation outside the locker room after the defeat of the gold medal against the Americans.
Rogal won the mission thanks to the support of Connor Schell, the former manager of ESPN who is now the head of his own production company, Words + Pictures, where Rogal Works, and Jason Hehir, who directed “The Last Dance ». Ask how he will judge success, Rogal said that if the documentary series could have sustainability beyond this initial race:
“It means that it speaks to something bigger than being specific to time,” said Rogal. “If people always look at this thing in three months, given the amount of content, I will be excited.”
The 3-1 victory of the United States against Canada In the confrontation of the 4 nations on a rock sock ‘EM’ Saturday evening in Montreal, on average 4.4 million viewers. The other culminated at 5.2 million viewers at 10:45 a.m. It is the television of final hockey of the most watched cup the most watched since a Columbus Blue Jackets-Boston Bruins Match qualifiers on NBC in 2019 which reached an average of 4.5 million.
The company said that the game had increased by 369% against the current average for NHL games on ABC. To put things in perspective: the NHL qualifying series Games last year in ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS and TRUTV have an average of 1.54 million viewers, by Sports Business Journal. It is an incredible number and all eyes are now on the revenge match of 8 p.m. HE Thursday on ESPN, ESPN + and ESPN Deportes.
AthleticsDavid Aldridge wrote an excellent play On the NBA All-Star game and the underlying reasons for which it has become an anachronistic product.
You do not cancel an event that always brings millions of conventional viewers – and is a massive trade fair for your sport – but the product on Sunday was not good (Saturday was better).
I do not expect it to happen, but I would like a star weekend star featuring six teams broken as such: two American teams, one from Canada, two European teams And a team featuring stars from the rest of the world.
Play as you wish after that, including different competitions. You have seen how “the best” gave the NHL a pop.
Stephanie White has a unique perspective of a career on both sides of the media coach division. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
Indiana Fever coach and ESPN Stephanie White diffuser was invited On my podcast “Sports Media”. I consider it one of the most interesting people in my world, given its important double roles on and off the field.
As part of our 45 -minute conversation, I asked her if working as a diffuser had an impact on the way she takes care of the media as a WNBA coach.
“I would like to think that I have always had healthy respect for the media and what they do,” said White. “I am always a relational person. But to see behind the curtain, to see how difficult work is, to understand it really on the human level that it is what they do in life and how they nourish their families and that they care about sport or they would not cover it, I think there are coaches who consider him like everyone to do a kind of thing for me, and this is not the case.
“Yes, there is a lot of information that we can find online and in other areas. But hearing it from players and coaches and their point of view is so important for the spectator or the listener. I feel like it helped me get a different perspective and humanize it in a way, probably other coaches.
“Difficult questions, difficult conversations, this is one of them. I don’t always like to answer questions sometimes. None of us do it. But I take a breath and I think: “Ok, they just do their job.” Just answer the question.
Some things that I recently read that interested me (note that there are pay walls here):
More than 3,000 pages of documents reveal how years of betrayals have led to a disorderly legal battle that threatens the future of the Rupert Murdoch Empire. (Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg / The New York Times))
The “astonishing” Canada goalkeeper’s goal crisis was a descent of several decades. (James Mirtle And Dan Robson / Athletics))
Love, Abby: the link forever from Uconn Huskies with a magic fan. (Sam Borden / Espn)
Reeves WIEDEMAN DE VULTURE Has a deep profile of Lorne Michaels and what happens to “Saturday Night Live” if and when he leaves.
For coaches of female university basketball, maternity is no longer something to be silent. (Chantel Jennings / Athletics))
This medal recipient has become an AS pilot in one day. (Jon Guttman / Miltary Times)
Snowboarder champion who participated in the 2002 winter Olympic Games, he pivoted a crime life. Today, the FBI says, he is a cocaine merchant with links with Mexican cartels – and he is on the run. (Jesse Hyde / Rolling Stone)
The NBA Dunk competition is still so good. What has changed is the world around it. (Katie Heindl / SB Nation)
You can register here For AthleticsSweetter of sports companies, Call Money, written by Dan Shanoff.
SNL ‘weekend update’: 50 seasons of new mocking and stars of the strike. (Dave Itzoff / New York Times)
Seven other massage therapists accuse Justin Tucker of Ravens of inappropriate sexual behavior. (Julie Scharper, Brenna Smith and Justin Fenton / The Baltimore Banner)
A new spy unit led the ghost war of Russia against the West. (Bojan Pancevski / The Wall Street Journal)
The “dependence relationship” between a barred coach and a Wimbledon champion. (Matthew Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare / Athletics))
(Photo: Damien Meyer / AFP via Getty Images)