ESPN

2022 - 6 - 14

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Image courtesy of "The Athletic"

ESPN's 'Dream On': Inside the best sports documentary I've seen in ... (The Athletic)

I hope so too, because Lappas' upcoming film, which examines the 1996 U.S. women's national basketball team and its 14-month odyssey across the globe that ...

Lacy was involved in a car accident in 1997 and has little recall of being part of the team. “I’m not comparing this to ‘O.J.: Made In America,’ but there were parallels in terms of this is a story about a team and athletes but the real story is the sacrifices and struggles they had in terms of image, sexuality and hiding their identities,” Lappas said. By Mike Damiano and Danny McDonald of The Boston Globe. After she went for a jog, she was in the shower and had a panic attack. By Sean McIndoe of The Athletic. On the issue of VanDerveer, Lappas ultimately had to ask the Stanford coach about the players disliking much of the experience of that year. Said Lappas: “They were in the trenches with me screening footage late into the night, traveling on shoots, sitting in on scripting, storyboard and edit sessions — the secret sauce of the project.” Lappas said editor Matt McCormick gave the film its soul. “To be honest, that story is the least interesting to me out of all of the different dynamics. “That year was the hardest basketball year of my life,” said Lobo, the youngest player on the team, who throughout the year had her place questioned by VanDerveer and some of her teammates. “If it was a shorter film, I felt like everything would be watered-down, and the only story that we were going to be able to flesh out is the story of a team that had a lot of success (and) influence and ended up being the impetus for both for the WNBA,” Lappas said. Lappas said NBA Entertainment first approached ESPN Films executives in 2018 to inform them that an NBA Entertainment film crew had spent 10 months filming the team during its tour in 1995 and 1996, and had 500 hours of never-before-seen footage sitting in their library. It’s a worthy addition to the highest levels of the “30 for 30” brand.

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