I have been a BIG Reggie Miller fan for years. When everyone was “Trying to be like Mike” I was wearing stripped wristbands and firing three’s with the skinniest arms ever. Other NBA players have had documentaries and now the “Gardens Greatest Villain” has one.
The film, “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks” directed by Peabody winner Dan Klores played tonight at Conseco Fieldhouse. The film is part of ESPN’s “30 for 30″ series and will be shown March 14th on ESPN. Action centers on the seven-game 1995 playoff series between the Pacers and Knicks. Getting some co-starring screen time: Spike Lee, Pat Riley and Larry Brown.
“Winning Time” is a tightly woven 68 minutes. There are clever transitions from video, to still photographs of the same exact moment and posture. The interviews are so strong, and so numerous, that there’s isn’t any voiceover — none is required. Instead there is powerful music, and testimony of dozens of people who lived those moments, from Patrick Ewing and John Starks to Donnie Walsh and Mark Jackson. (One of the showier moments is when countless on-camera sources, all in a row, say the phrase “presence of mind,” one after another like machine gun fire, in telling the story of Miller’s stepping back behind the 3-point line after getting the steal that made him famous in New York. You know how many interviews you have to do about one subject to get that many people to use the same exact phrase?) Miller is one of the NBA’s most notorious trash talkers and on-court actors, the sort of player you want to see humiliated if he’s playing against your team, but who you loved if you happen to be a Pacers’ fan.
Klores doesn’t have unlimited material to work with, when focusing on the 1994 and 1995 playoff games, but he makes the most out of the available game footage and pre and post-game interviews, cropping game footage, zooming in on game footage, playing and replaying images in slow motion. Then Klores has access to all of the main stars from those great showdowns and many of them seem surprisingly comfortable with the “Crazy Love” filmmaker. Patrick Ewing and John Starks, often considered difficult interviews or personalities, crack jokes and pull no punches. Miller is funny and self-effacing on his own, but the documentary really comes into its own when Spike Lee shows up to talk about his role in the 1994 Game Five, in which the “Do the Right Thing” director did the wrong thing and, with his sideline jabbering, lit a fire under Miller. There’s at least minor disappointment that Klores didn’t find a way to get Reggie and Spike together in the same room for a sit-down, but they might as well be together as they go back-and-forth with their different, coy interpretations of that evening.
It’ll be on ESPN in March (part of the 30 for 30 documentary series).
