On this page I have listed the basketball videos that I have watched and recommend. You will find a brief summary of the video below the Amazon.com link to that media. Check out the reviews on Amazon.com for more information. These are affiliate links. If you purchase through one of my links I will earn a small commission but there will be no extra cost for you. Enjoy!
My Recommended List of Basketball Videos
1. Kareem Abdul Jabbar Presents: On the Shoulders of Giants
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar presents the story of the greatest basketball team you never heard of – The New York Renaissance. At the beginning of the film Kareem is joined in a discussion of the best basketball teams of all time by Hall of Famers Jerry West, Bill Russell, Marques Haynes, and Jerry Reinsdorf. After discussing Michael’s Bulls, the Showtime Lakers, and Russell’s Celtics, Kareem begins to weave the tale of the New York Rens, led by Hall of Famers Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, William “Pop” Gates, and John Isaacs. It was a time when “jazz was Harlem’s soul and basketball was its heartbeat.” The Rens were the center of that basketball heartbeat.
The Rens were one of the top basketball teams of the 1920s and 1930s, and even though basketball leagues at the time were not integrated, the Rens scheduled games against the Original Celtics, the top white team featuring Hall of Famers Joe Lapchick, Nat Holman, and Dutch Dehnert. Joe Lapchick said that the Rens were every bit as good as the Celtics when they first played and better than them in the end.
2. Goose: The Greatest Sports Story Never Told
Goose is a video by ESPN Films that tells the story of Goose Tatum, one of the most popular athletes of his time and yet a basketball player that many today have never heard of. Goose was a tremendous athlete who played both baseball and basketball in the 1940s and 1950s. He was the most popular player on the Harlem Globetrotters and gained worldwide popularity as he traveled to Japan, Argentina, Germany, and around the world entertaining fans.
Tatum was an entrepreneur and he inspired many black Americans to pursue their dreams at a time when racism was still prevalent in certain parts of the United States. His Globetrotters team beat George Mikan’s Laker team in 1948. In 1949 the NBA was formed and in 1950 three of Goose’s Globetrotter teammates became the first black athletes in the NBA: Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, Chuck Cooper, and Earl Lloyd. Tatum helped hasten the integration of basketball and change the culture of the day.
In the film Goose, many basketball legends including Jerry West, Julius Erving, Oscar Robertson, Marques Haynes, Tom Heinsohn, and Wayne Embry share the impact that Goose Tatum had on them and on the game of basketball.