ESPN's "30 for 30"

ESPN Films in honor of the network's 30 year anniversary will launch "30 for 30" where they will gather 30 filmmakers to create one hour films on topics between 1979-2009. There are quite a few directors on tap for this: Peter Berg who directed Friday Night Lights, Spike Lee, Ron Shelton etc. The three I think that are intriguing at least based on the subjects are the following: Jordan Plays Baseball (Ron Shelton) In the fall of 1993, in his prime and at the summit of the sports world, Michael Jordan walked away from pro basketball. Having just finished a remarkable year on top in which he won a gold medal and a third NBA Championship, Jordan signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox to rekindle his childhood love of baseball. Ron Shelton, a former minor leaguer who brought his experiences to life in the classic movie Bull Durham, along with Asylum Entertainment will revisit Jordan's short career in the minor leagues and explore the motivations that drove the world's most competitive athlete to play a new sport in the relative obscurity of Birmingham, Alabama for a young manager named Terry Francona. June 17, 1994 (Brett Morgen) Do you remember where you were on June 17, 1994? Thanks to a wide array of unrelated, coast-to-coast occurrences, this Friday has come to be known for its firsts, lasts, triumphs and tragedy. Arnold Palmer retired at Torrey Pines, the FIFA World Cup kicked off in Chicago, the Rangers celebrated on Broadway, Ken Griffey Jr. reached a milestone in Kansas City, Patrick Ewing desperately pursued a long evasive championship in the Garden and Donald Fehr stared down the baseball owners. And yet, all of that was a prelude to OJ Simpson leading America on a slow speed chase in a white Ford Bronco around Los Angeles. Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Brett Morgen will weave these moments and others to create a unique and nostalgic look at a day that every sports fan will remember. The Trial of Allen Iverson (Steve James) On February 13, 1993, 17-year-old Bethel High School basketball star Allen Iverson entered a Hampton, Virginia bowling alley with several classmates. It was supposed to be an ordinary evening, but it became a night that defined Iverson's young lifea quarrel soon erupted into a brawl pitting Iverson's young, black friends against a group of older white men. The fallout from the fight and the handling of the subsequent trial landed the nation's best high school athlete in jail and sharply divided the city along racial lines. Oscar nominee Steve James (Hoop Dreams) returns to his hometown of Hampton, where he once played basketball, to take a personal look at this still disputed incident and examine its impact on Iverson and the shared community. Of course with the Jordan one I rather have a documentary on the real reason he played baseball that one year...