Sport and Cinema.com

Now in play and running through May 1st, Tribeca, with partner ESPN, present a compelling and diverse slate of sports documentary films in its 10th annual gathering throughout New York City.

Coinciding with the annual tip off into March Madness, ESPN will air a new film next weekend about one of college basketball’s more memorable teams.

The curtain has fallen on a new and compelling “television film festival”. ESPN has just concluded its opening run of thirty engaging and provocative movies, premiering 14 months ago. Meticulous and sharply observed, this “30 for 30” project has been as ambitious an undertaking as anything the network has done.

The world’s best players have just tipped off another season of the National Basketball Association and it is a long way from October to June.

But here’s a quick look of who should be at the next level when the games go up in intensity come playoff time.

In the fall of 1993, in his prime and at the summit of the sports world, Michael Jordan walked away from pro basketball.

After leading the Dream Team to an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and taking the Chicago Bulls to their third consecutive NBA championship the following year, Jordan was jolted by the murder of his father

Out in theaters now comes this basketball-centered romantic comedy featuring Queen Latifah and Common.

Written by Michael Elliot (Like Mike, Brown Sugar), the title refers to Latifah’s character, Leslie Wright, a physical therapist and die-hard hoops fan that is simply not lucky in finding Mr. Right.

In clinching their first round playoff series against Chicago Tuesday night, the Cavaliers did not look like the runaway freight train that carried them through the regular season.

The strain on Kobe to carry a team that was supposed to lean more on Ron Artest and Lamar Odom has been evident down the stretch. The health concerns of Andrew Bynum will likely increase the burden on Bryant. For the Thunder to have a shot, they will need to have Russell Westbrook step up as it is likely that Kevin Durant will be slowed from the attention showered on him by the Lakers D.

The former Laker guard, now running the point for Guangdong of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), is hoping to carry his Southern Tigers to the league title as they play the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in the championship series beginning today.
The force behind Xinjiang’s team is Mongolian center Mengke Bateer, the first Chinese player to start for an NBA team and the first to win an NBA championship (San Antonio Spurs, 2003).

Nee-How Ma from Beijing where your intrepid reporter has scaled the Great Wall, survived the worst sand storm in four years as well as meals of boiled seaweed, spiced jellyfish and pickled shark intestines (and that’s breakfast!) to relay a bit of sports history I witnessed here Sunday night.