There’s a great moment in the new docuseries Allen Iv3rson, in which AI, the Basketball Hall of Famer and cultural icon, remembers deliberating whether to sign a contract with Nike or Reebok back in the mid 1990s. Reebok had offered a more lucrative deal, which included a signature shoe. But Nike was Nike. Home of Michael Jordan and Air Force 1's. The market share leader. The big brand. He asked his college coach John Thompson for advice. Thompson, a great mentor and advocate, looked at Iverson and offered his opinion.
“Are you fu**ing stupid? That’s a no-brainer, son,” Iverson recalled Thompson shouting. “Look at the numbers!”
Though hoops fans can all recall how The Answer rose from Southeastern Virginia to become one of the most influential athletes of all time, Allen Iv3rson is still essential viewing. Like all great basketball documentaries, it features a captivating subject, compelling storytelling, dark turns (Iverson’s money problems and struggles with sobriety) and endless clips of the sport we all love. From icons like Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Michael Jordan to lesser known hoopers like William Gates and Arthur Agee, these incredible stories help us understand the game and the ballers we love. Here are the 25 Best Basketball Documentaries of All Time.
25.Shaq
Year: 2022
Director(s): Robert Alexander
Synopsis: The Diesel. The Big Aristotle. The Most Dominant Ever. A deep look into the life and career of the man born Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal.
Shaq, the four-part story of the iconic big man, is one of the better athlete-approved documentary series that arrived in the wake of The Last Dance. Though it travels through well-worn territory — the importance of Sgt. Phil’s love and advice; his relationship with the late, great Kobe Bryant; his vociferous appetite for entrepreneurship and making money — the docuseries is fun and enlightening.
O’Neal is a master storyteller, despite being an unreliable narrator with a penchant for spouting half-truths and exaggerations. Still, the episodes covering his time with the Orlando Magic are a must-watch for any fans of 90s hoops. Shaq attacked pop culture in a way no one had before him through movies, commercials, and rap albums. But it quickly got messy in Orlando after the Magic drafted star point guard Penny Hardaway. Shaq details the fallout: the 1993 NBA Draft, the tug-of-war for control with Hardaway, the origins of their feud, and the events that led to Shaq’s earth-shattering decision to sign with the Lakers during the summer of 1996, which ended the Magic’s dynasty before it could even get started.
24.Dream On
Year: 2022
Director(s): Kristen Lappas
Synopsis: The story of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team, the gold medal winning squad whose success led to the formation of the WNBA.
The stakes were high leading into the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. USA Basketball and the NBA had come together to sponsor and create a women’s version of the Dream Team: a collection of stars who would annihilate their competition and reestablish American supremacy on the hardwood after taking home the bronze four years earlier in Barcelona. But more than Olympic gold was on the line. The team was tasked with creating enough interest and momentum to launch a women’s basketball league in the United States.
With longtime Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer at the helm, the team, led by Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo, and Lisa Leslie, succeeded on both ends. It wasn’t easy though. Dream On depicts the team’s voyage through tryout camps to scrimmages in overseas gyms to personal hardships endured. Eventually, the Dream Team went 52-0 on their exhibition tour, won Gold, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and forever change women’s sports.
23.Allen Iv3rson
Year: 2025
Director(s): One9
Synopsis: The most recent portrait of the realest hooper in the Hall of Fame.
Was there room for another Allen Iverson documentary following the 30 for 30 on the 1993 bowling alley incident (No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson) and Iverson, the career-spanning Netflix documentary from 2014? Yes, yes, and yes. The recent three-part Amazon Prime series traces AI’s journey from Hampton, Virginia, to Georgetown, to Philadelphia, to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.
Through extensive interviews with Iverson’s family, including his mother Ann, and incredible footage of Iverson playing hoops and football as a kid, Allen Iv3rson explores the origin of the beloved People’s Champ. But it also tells the story of how AI transcended basketball. More than anyone, Iverson embodied the intersection between sports and hip hop and how it came to dominate youth culture in the 1990s and early 2000s. The thread leads to one of the most humorous moments in the film — Iverson recalling his meeting with then-NBA commissioner David Stern about his brief rap career under the alias Jewelz.
22.We Beat the Dream Team
Year: 2025
Director(s): Michael Tolajian
Synopsis: A lowkey hilarious depiction of the collection of college basketball stars who scrimmaged against and (maybe?) beat the original Dream Team.
Before the 1992 Dream Team headed to Barcelona, Larry, Magic, and Michael spent a week in La Jolla, California practicing against a starstruck group of college All-Americans and future pros including Penny Hardaway, Jamal Mashburn, and Grant Hill. “My wall was plastered with all these guys,” Chris Webbeer said. “This was a chance to be around all my heroes.” But then a funny thing happened: The kids beat the legends — or did they?
We Beat the Dream Team shows footage from the scrimmage and explores the conspiracy theory that Dream Team coach Chuck Daly purposely threw the game to humble the team full of Hall of Famers. Of course, the best (i.e. funniest) part of the film is their response to the premise. “All I know is that when the clock stopped, we were up,” Allan Houston said. Ultimately, the Dream Team got its revenge, winning the rematch by 47 points.
21.Celtics City
Year: 2025
Director(s): Lauren Stowell
Synopsis: An epic miniseries on the city of Boston and their 18-time NBA Champion Celtics.
30 for 30 co-founder Bill Simmons was inspired to produce this nine-part documentary on his favorite sports team after learning that Hulu was working on a series on their archrival Los Angeles Lakers. “One, I wanted to be better than the Lakers,” Simmons said, “and two, somebody is going to respond by doing a Celtics one, and if they screwed that up, I’m never going to forgive them, I’ll probably have to kill them.”
The Celtics superfan delivered with a decade-spanning saga that explores the cultural significance of the Celtics and the relationship between the team and its city. Featuring interviews with Celtics legends from all eras (Cousy, Bird, McHale, Parrish, KG, Pierce, Tatum, and Brown), Celtics City captures the team’s many triumphs (from the Bill Russell years to the current Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown-led squad) and its tragedies (the deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis).
20.On the Shoulders of Giants: The Story of the Greatest Team You Have Never Heard Of
Year: 2011
Director(s): Deborah Morales
Synopsis: The story of the greatest basketball team you've never heard of in this Jamie Foxx and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar co-narrated documentary.
There was a time when the game of basketball featured all-white and all-black teams. But thanks to the success and chemistry of the rather unknown Harlem Rens, the team opened people's eyes and paved the way for what the NBA is today.
While most of the all-white teams focused on a more fundamental approach, the Harlem Rens played an incredibly fast game, which you can see in the doc. But, aside from the sports angel of it all, the Rens found success, amassing a 2,588-529 overall record even with plenty of adversity standing in their way. This came in the form of trying to find time to play at the often busy Harlem Renaissance Casino and Ballroom and the away games which involved fans who threw objects at the players or tried tripping them. In the end, you'll grow to appreciate the Harlem Rens' importance to the game of basketball.
19.Without Bias
Year: 2009
Director(s): Kirk Fraser
Synopsis: The story of college star Len Bias before tragedy struck after he was drafted by the Boston Celtics.
Anyone who has followed basketball at all from mid '80s to the present day know who Michael Jordan is. Chances are, if it weren't for the fateful early morning hours of June 19, 1986, everyone would know who Len Bias is, too. Unfortunately, basketball fans never got to find out just how good Len Bias could've been, because just hours after being selected No. 2 overall in the 1986 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics, Bias died of a cocaine overdose.
The film tracks Bias' rise to stardom at the University of Maryland, his untimely death, and the impact his passing had on sports culture, with commentary from coaches, friends, and his parents. The most chilling moment? The 911 recording of his friend, Brian Tribble, pleading, "This is Len Bias. You have to get him back to life. There's no way he can die."
18.Iverson
Year: 2014
Director(s): Zatella Beatty
Synopsis: A biographical movie about Allen Iverson’s life.
From his legendary step over Tyronn Lue in the NBA Finals to the iconic “We’re talking about practice” episode, A.I. left his mark on the league.
Before the fame, glitz, and crafty ball-handling, Iverson grew up in poverty and faced the harsh realities of a town struggling with racial tensions. His wrongful incarceration almost derailed his athletic ambitions, but with help from his family, friends, coaches, and the Virginia governor A.I. was able to attend Georgetown for two years before he was selected as the first overall draft pick in the 1996 NBA Draft.
Once in the league, it didn’t take long for his talent to transcend, but Iverson’s professional career was full of controversy. The documentary shows A.I., as well as the meaningful people in his life, revisit the pivotal moments in time when he needed them, and basketball the most.
17.Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray?
Year: 2000
Director(s): Larry Weitzman, Jim Podhoretz
Synopsis: Micheal Ray Richardson debuted in the NBA with so much potential and became an instant star, but his career fell apart due to drug abuse. What happened after that?
After being selected by the New York Knicks with the fourth overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft, Micheal Ray Richardson went from being dubbed "the next Walt Frazier" to the first player banned from the NBA after violating the league's drug policy three times. Chris Rock narrates the story of a man who had everything going for him, only to have it all taken away after the '80s NYC party lifestyle changed the path of Michael Ray Richardson's career and life.
Told through Rock's point-of-view, we're given the perspective of practically every Richardson fan of the late '70s and early '80s, who consistently rooted for Sugar's success and faced disappointment when he continuously returned to freebasing and put himself into one incredibly bad predicament after another, which included pretending to be kidnapped even though he was in a hotel only a block away from the Garden.
16.The Other Dream Team
Year: 2012
Director(s): Marius A. Markevicius
Synopsis: The 1992 Lithuanian Basketball Team becoming symbols of Lithuania's independence movement from USSR during the Olympics.
The 1992 Olympic Dream Team featuring such luminaries as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson usually captures everyone's attention. One of the lesser-known stories of that year's Olympics was the 1992 Lithuanian National Basketball team. Featuring stars and future NBA players Arvydas Sabonis and Šarūnas Marčiulionis, the documentary takes a look back at the basketball aspect and when Lithuania declared independence from the USSR
While the doc tends to err on the more serious side, the film does have its own light-hearted and happier moments, especially when The Grateful Dead, a favorite of one of the participants in the film Bill Walton, gives the Lithuanian basketball team a much needed and unexpected assist. Oops, we may have said too much.
15.Shut Up and Dribble
Year: 2018
Director(s): Gotham Chopra
Synopsis: The three-part documentary series named after the ever-so ridiculous phrase by a Fox News host directed at Kevin Durant and LeBron James follows the social and political climates among athletes in America.
Narrated by award-winning journalist Jemele Hill, Shut Up and Dribble highlights how far basketball players have come since the early days of the NBA to be at the forefront of social activism among professional athletes. One of the earliest tales features NBA legend Bill Russell who shared a tale about how it was considered unacceptable that an African American player could be the best in the game in the 1950s.
The series goes on to highlight further double standards many prominent players faced during their heydays. It also touches on controversial episodes like the Malice at the Palace, the implementation of the dress code, and how the NBA evolved into a progressive league led by voices like LeBron James.
14.More Than a Game
Year: 2008
Director(s): Kristopher Belman
Synopsis: A story featuring LeBron James and four of his teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Akron, Ohio and their rise to the cream of the high school basketball crop.
Director Kristopher Belman gives us an inside look at the highs and lows of the lives of LeBron James and his teammates Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III, Willie McGee and Romeo Travis. The film follows them as they grow from a relative unknown squad to the talk of the entire nation.
The film gives viewers the rare chance to get inside the head of a teenager from humble beginnings in Akron, Ohio who would later become the greatest basketball player in the world. Even the biggest LeBron haters could appreciate this piece from Belman.
13.Black Magic
Year: 2008
Director(s): Dan Klores
Synopsis: A tale of many players out of historically black colleges and universities during the Civil Rights Era.
Before the NBA became the fully integrated sport that we know today, the game needed to go through its own struggles and growing pains. This documentary by Dan Klores takes a look at those times when basketball looked to progress past the color line as the outside world still dealt with strict segregation and racism.
In one of the more shocking moments, the doc gives us a detailed perspective of the lengths at which the players from the North Carolina College for Negroes needed to go in order to just play the intramural squad of Duke University's medical school without encountering the cruel, racist outside world. The near four-hour documentary is an honest portrayal that just shows you how brave those black athletes were when all they wanted to do was play a game that was deemed illegal and life-threatening at the time.
12.Basketball: A Love Story
Year: 2018
Director(s): Dan Klores
Synopsis: Peabody winning director Dan Klores finds out why basketball legends like Shaq, Kobe, Bill Russell, and Magic Johnson fell in love with the game.
The 20-hour, 10-part ESPN special features all the greats. Klores and his team interviewed notorious basketball coaches, commissioners, WNBA players, NBA players, and retired NBA and WNBA players. The documentary aims to tell the stories of basketball and how legends of the game have put their heart and soul into the game. It also touches on the college game as and highlights specific topics that dominated basketball fans’ imaginations like the 2000s Lakers and the turmoil between their two superstars. Critically, some have pointed out that it ignores a lot of the negatives that happened to basketball like The Malice at the Palace. Klores was able to get just about every major basketball personality on camera except Michael Jordan and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich making this series one for the ages.
11.Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks
Year: 2010
Director(s): Dan Klores
Synopsis: The classic '90s rivalry featuring the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks with some interesting moments featuring some clutch shots by Reggie Miller and a feud between he and Spike Lee.
Spike Lee has lost more games for the Knicks than he's won. During the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals, he fired up Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller which led to one of the most legendary comebacks in sports history. In Game One of that series, Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds to beat the Knicks while crushing Spike's ego. Winning the first game of the series gave Indiana an edge that they never lost and they beat New York in seven games.
This documentary features candid interviews with Reggie, Spike, and all those involved. Get ready to relive the trash talk, heartbreak (depending on which side you're on), and drama of one of the best series in NBA playoff history.
10.Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals
Year: 2010
Director(s): Ezra Edelman
Synopsis: Magic Johnson and Larry Bird's rivalry helped propel the NBA's waning popularity and created classic drama, and developed a rivalry into a storied friensdhip.
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson will forever be paired together. With both a part of the same NBA draft class, and a storied rivalry to follow after, HBO documents the story of their impact on the NBA during the '80s. While battling for championships the two formed an unbreakable bond that laid the foundation for today's NBA.
However, aside from focusing on their rivalry on the court, the documentary takes an incredibly in-depth look at how Bird and African Americans garnered a mutual respect for one another during Bird's formative years. As an adult, those same morals prevented him from getting sucked into discussions about his race, even though fellow NBA players like Dennis Rodman and Magic's good friend Isiah Thomas chimed in, saying Bird was considered great because of the color of his skin.
Towards the end, you will definitely shed some grown man tears when Magic discusses his womanizing days which led to contracting HIV and how he revealed the news to his good friend Bird.
9.Doin' It In The Park
Year: 2013
Director(s): Kevin Couliau, Robert Garcia
Synopsis: Bobbito and his team visit 180 New York courts to document pick-up hoops in the Mecca of basketball.
Co-directors Kevin Couliau and Bobbito made a first-of-its-kind film documenting pick-up basketball where it started: New York City. They traveled to every borough and talked to numerous NYC blacktop legends such as Pee Wee Kirkland, Fly Williams, and Corey "Homicide" Williams, among others. They even took a trip to Rikers Island, showing that the game of basketball brings people from different backgrounds together.
8.The Fab Five
Year: 2011
Director(s): Jason Hehir
Synopsis: Five freshmen changed college basketball forever. This is their story.
The Fab Five was a first for basketball. The five-man starting lineup featuring Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson became the first freshman starting five to make it to the NCAA National Championship game. The team brought swag before it ever existed. With bald heads, black socks, and baggy shorts, their impact on the game of basketball can still be seen today
The Jason Hehir produced film is one of the best documentaries in ESPN's 30 For 30 series and a must-see for anyone who's a fan of basketball, hip-hop, and '90s pop culture.
7.Untold: Malice at the Palace
Year: 2021
Director(s): Floyd Russ
Synopsis: The story of one of the biggest brawls in sports history during a game between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons on November 19, 2004.
Everyone was waiting for a deep dive documentary of one of the biggest stories in sports history, the “Malice at the Palace.” Although it’s only one episode of a larger docuseries by Netflix, this documentary gives us never-before-seen footage and untold perspectives of the biggest brawl in sports history. A moment that not only changed basketball but how fans interact with players. With interviews from players involved like Ron Artest, Jeramine O’Neal and even fans that were involved in the fight, no one has ever had more in-depth coverage of the gruesome night.
6.The Redeem Team
Year: 2022
Director(s): LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Jon Weinbach
Synopsis: The documentary takes you through the rise of Team USA basketball from an embarrassing loss in the 2004 Olympics to the pinnacle of international basketball with a gold medal in 2008.
If you’re a basketball fan especially a Kobe Bryant fan, The Redeem Team documentary is a must-watch. Jon Weinbach, the director of The Last Dance, joined LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to produce a film giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the journey of the United States men’s national basketball return to glory and dominance. The story is told from the perspective of the players including untold anecdotes and nuggets of information. While the story focuses on the overall development of USA basketball, a significant focus in the documentary is the personality and legacy of Kobe Bryant. Through stories told by players like LeBron, Wade, Pau Gasol, Carmelo Anthony, and Carlos Boozer, the documentary portrayed sides of the late great Kobe Bryant that the public didn’t get to see.
While the documentary is still fresh, it will go down as on the best basketball documentaries over time and the nostalgia will only grow as time passes on. This was a classic.
5.Through The Fire
Year: 2005
Director(s): Alistair Christopher, Jonathan Hock
Synopsis: Adidas follows Sebastian Telfair's senior year at Brooklyn's Lincoln High School as he prepares to go straight to the league.
Preps-to-pros athletes were always a big discussion among sports fans throughout the '90s and early 2000s. Through the Fire, which follows the senior year of high school phenom Sebastian Telfair hits that topic head on. The documentary takes an inside look at Telfair as he struggles with the decision to either go to college or jump straight to the L. While his career hasn't turned out to be the big success that everyone was hoping for, Bassy has carved out a nice role in the NBA after eight seasons and counting.
4.Soul In The Hole
Year: 1997
Director(s): Danielle Gardner
Synopsis: Booger Smith and his team gear up to play in the championship tournament "Soul In The Hole."
During the summer of 1994, then-18-year-old Ed "Booger" Smith and his team "Kenny's Kings" were followed as the prepped for the "Soul in the Hole" tournament. The filmmakers track their game on the concrete and their lives off of it with additional perspective from the players' family and friends.
The film also is also complemented by a stellar soundtrack with features from Mobb Deep, Wu-Tang Clan, Common, Big Pun, and more of '90s hip hop royalty.
3.Benji
Year: 2012
Director(s): Coodie and Chike
Synopsis: The story of Chicago basketball legend Benji Wilson and how his untimely death still resonates in the Windy City.
Benji is about the life and death of Ben Wilson, a resident of Chicago's South Side. In 1984, his senior year of high school and the year of his murder, he was regarded as the best basketball prospect in the country. And then he was shot to death during an altercation near his school, the Simeon Career Academy. Chike and Coodie's film paints a picture of the rise, untimely death, and legacy that the fallen Simeon player has left on Chi-Town ballers such as Derrick Rose.
2.The Last Dance
Year: 2020
Director: Jason Hehir
Synopsis: The story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty as told through the lens of never before seen footage from their final season together in 1998.
What a ride The Last Dance was. Since the day this documentary was announced in 2018, fans were clamoring for it to drop. The need for the tell-all story about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls became even more rampant with the Coronavirus pandemic, which put all sports on hold and left fans needing their fix. Well, MJ and company gave everyone exactly what they were looking for. The Last Dance is a raw and unfiltered look at one of the greatest teams of all-time.
The pure scope of this documentary is pretty unreal to think about and the access that it showed further proved that Michael Jordan is the best to ever do it. All the stories that we thought we knew were told from the inside and the the truth was even crazier than imagined. With epic co-stars like Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen, The Last Dance showed just how tough it was for the Bulls, even though they made it look so easy. This 10-part documentary is a must-watch for any basketball fan, especially if you were too young to remember the Bulls glory days.
1.Hoop Dreams
Year: 1994
Director(s): Steve James
Synopsis: Two inner-city basketball players try to overcome the obstacles of the hood in hopes of making it to the NBA.
You don't have to be a fan of basketball to appreciate Hoop Dreams. The powerful documentary says just as much about race, education, and class as it does about basketball. The lives of two black, up-and-coming ballers, William Gates and Arthur Agee is shown as they deal with the common struggles of growing up in lower income neighborhoods of Chicago.
A running time of 170 minutes may be a little intimidating but Steve James does a great job of making every one of those minutes worth your while. There's a bit of everything from gut-wrenching scenes like Arthur's father, "Bo" Agee Sr., buying crack on the same playground his son is hooping on to joyous clips like Gates finally scoring a high enough ACT score to get accepted to Marquette University.