The Good, The Bad, The Hungry premieres July 2 on ESPN. The 30 for 30 doc looks at the intense rivalry between competitive eaters Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, who clash annually at Nathan’s Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest. That means it’s a good a time as ever to look back at the back catalog of 30 for 30, ESPN’s award-winning sports documentary series.
Here’s our definitive ranking for the best 30 for 30 episodes, all of which you can stream on-demand with a subscription to ESPN+, the network’s $4.99-per-month subscription service.
The NBA’s defining rivalry forms the basis of one of 30 for 30’s definitive outings. Told over three parts and five hours, the doc is incredibly thorough and has many of the biggest names associated with the rivalry, including Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
This outstanding doc covers soccer player Andres Escobar and drug lord Pablo Escobar, and how the two men, murdered within a year of each other, shaped and continue to shape the public image of Colombia.
One of the most acclaimed 30 for 30s, this portrait covers the surreal summer day where major events in the NBA, NHL, PGA, MLB, and World Cup took a backseat to O.J. Simpson’s car chase. The doc juxtaposes footage from each event to create a compelling snapshot of America.
Youngstown Boys examines the collegiate football scandal that brought down a legendary coach and his star player, the Ohio State University coach Jim Tressel and running back Maurice Clarett, but it zooms out enough to unpack larger issues with how the NCAA and NFL conspire to profit off of and use star athletes for their own ends. Youngstown Boys is a must-watch.
This was the first truly great 30 for 30, chronicling the death of Len Bias, days after the Celtics took him with the second pick in the 1986 draft. Bias’s death, the result of a cocaine overdose, rocked the league and the city of Boston. It’s a sobering look at what could’ve been and what never was.
The high-flying and hard-partying Miami Hurricanes are the subjects of this raucous doc. The 1980s were wild, and the Hurricanes’ players enjoyed every bit of their success. The U offers straightforward, no-frills storytelling, but it doesn’t need to be with subjects this compelling and energetic.
The NCAA’s most severe punishment has been handed out only a few times, most notably to the SMU football program. Pony Excess provides a thrilling look at the delirious highs that precipitated the program’s lowest moment.
Allen Iverson’s Hall of Fame NBA career almost never happened due to a 1993 incident that resulted in Iverson receiving a 15-year prison sentence. As presented by filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams), No Crossover offers a timeless tale about race and celebrity in America.
The Friday night lights burn brightest in Texas, and this excellent entry shines a light on every part of Carter High School’s football team in 1988. The team’s wealth of talent overflowed, and on-field success led to off-field notoriety. The team, the school, and the community were all upended when numerous players were arrested for their role in various armed robberies.
It’s rare for a single NFL draft to produce a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback. The 1983 draft had two in John Elway and Dan Marino. Both players shared an agent in Marvin Demoff, who fortuitously kept a diary of that year’s draft process. Football junkies will get a kick out of this one, while fans of the team that passed on Marino or the ones who didn’t trade up for Elway will be kicking themselves.
Director Marina Zenovich strikes a captivating balance between covering the Duke Lacrosse scandal of 2006 and covering the coverage of the case. The intersection of race, privilege, sexual misconduct, media, the law, and court of public opinion combine to make Fantastic Lies a rewarding viewing experience.
It doesn’t take an expert to know that college football recruiting is corrupt to high hell. Marcus Dupree is just one of countless stories about a system that eats up young athletes. Dupree, a prodigious talent, went through a wild recruiting process when choosing a college. A combination of injuries and bad advice sapped him of his potential and most of his money. The Best That Never Was is a sobering doc.
Ricky Williams is one of the NFL’s greatest enigmas. His talent was off the charts (he led the league in rushing in 2002 and was voted 1st Team All-Pro), but his interests went far beyond football. Run Ricky Run does a great job presenting the different facets of a man trying to reconcile his on-field gifts, which everyone understood, with his mental health issues, which are less clear, even after this intriguing documentary.
As you can tell, this one focuses on the Big East, which dominated college basketball from the conference’s beginnings in 1979 until its dissolution in 2013. Requiem was directed by Ezra Edelman, who would go on to make the single best film to carry the 30 for 30 banner with O.J.: Made in America.
No NFL franchise has suffered a combination of success and failure like the Buffalo Bills in the early ‘90s. Four Falls looks at what it took to get to four straight Super Bowls and the ways in which they lost each one. The doc has great access to archival footage and interviewees. If this isn’t a top-tier 30 for 30, it’s just below.
The intersection of sports, gambling, and the mob is an irresistible mix, and Playing for the Mob goes all in on that trio. The film covers the point-shaving scandal at Boston College University. One of the key players is Henry Hill, who everyone immediately recognizes from Goodfellas. Directors Joe Lavine and Cayman Grant got the fictional Henry Hill, Ray Liotta, to narrate the doc. Playing is propulsive and great.
Jon Daly, one of golf’s most colorful characters, goes under the 30 for 30 microscope in this supremely entertaining entry. Daly’s personality and unique story provide the backdrop, and his arc from unknown to winning multiple majors and back down is a gimme for 30 for 30.
Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal’s brief run together with the Orlando Magic could’ve and should’ve been much more fruitful than it turned out. This Magic Moment does a great job of detailing how a potential juggernaut came together and how it fell apart just as quickly.
Nannette Burstein’s approach to the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan story is straightforward, and The Price of Gold is all the better for it. The doc is thorough, or at least as thorough as it can be with only Harding participating in interviews for it. Still, it’s a fascinating document of a story that gripped the country in the winter of 1994.
The exuberance of The U comes to a crashing halt in Part 2. The Miami Hurricanes football program’s return to prominence reached its peak in the early 2000s under coach Butch Davis. After Davis left, the success continued under Larry Coker. But the scandals that had been vanquished under Davis returned in full force and brought the program back to Earth. Part 2 isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, but it’s still solid.
Sports had a bonding power unlike any other. But the friendship between Vlade Divac and Drazen Petrovic, two men who played on Yugoslavia’s national team, was torn by the Yugoslav Wars. Tragically, the two never got the chance to reconcile, as Petrovic’s life was cut short by a car accident, a fact Divac struggles to come to terms with in this heartbreaking 30 for 30.
The Miracle on Ice is a top three sporting event in U.S. history, and that story has been covered to death, at least from the perspective of the Americans. Of Miracles and Men flips things and looks at the Soviet Union’s angle.
This is an emotional 30 for 30, similar to the great Without Bias. Ben Wilson was a Chicago basketball phenom who was murdered before graduating high school. Benji reminds us of the talent lost and never realized with Ben’s passing, but also of the social factors that played a role.
Randy Moss was as dominant a receiver as the NFL has ever seen, and Rand University does his talent and story justice. It’s a straight-forward biography, telling Moss’s story from his upbringing through his NFL career. Moss is a compelling figure, and that helps elevate the run-of-the-mill presentation of Rand University.
Among sports talk personalities, Mike Francesca and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo are legends and a once-legendary team. You don’t need to be familiar with the New York-based duo to be entertained by this insightful doc.
A passion project for director Ice Cube, Straight Outta L.A. ties together the Los Angeles Raiders and the rise of hip-hop (including N.W.A.), and its impact on both cultures. Cube gets great access for a lively doc about an L.A. fan base that is better known now for a blasé attitude.
Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert sat down with Hannah Storm for a series of interviews with the two tennis stars about their intense, 80-match rivalry. We should be so lucky to have more of these sessions between legends from all sports. Unmatched covers the on-court dynamic between the two, but it’s the off-court relationship that fuels the doc’s success.
Die-hard Knicks fan Michael Rapaport directs this lively doc. Between his passion for the Knicks and the great interviews and ‘70s archival footage, When the Garden Was Eden will make you a Knicks’ fan for at least 90 minutes.
College basketball’s most famous Cinderella team, the 1983 NC State Wolfpack. The team’s run to the March Madness title is thrilling, but the doc gets its strength from the presence of the Wolfpack’s preternaturally thoughtful coach, Jim Valvano.
One of 30 for 30’s strengths is the way the series can hone in on a specific moment and follow the ripples that spread from it. Only once in Muhammad Ali’s career did he not finish a fight, and that bout with Larry Holmes goes under the microscope here. It’s fascinating.
This one plays like catnip for football fans. Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, both considered football geniuses, were too similar to work together for long, and it’s no surprise that their time together was relatively brief. It’s fun looking back at the football and personal relationships between the coaches. At 90 minutes, you’ll wish The Two Bills ran much longer.
Director Thaddeus Matula messed around and made a sympathetic figure out of notorious jerk Brian Bosworth, that’s how good this one is. At its best, 30 for 30 makes you question what you know about a topic, and Brian and the Boz is no exception.
One of college football’s greatest games, the 10/15/88 matchup between Notre Dame and Miami, was dubiously dubbed “Catholics vs Convicts” by some Notre Dame students. Director Patrick Creadon, a Notre Dame alum, provides a first-person account of the game helps give the doc an interesting angle.
Mike Tyson biting Evander Holyfield’s ear is one of the ‘90s most indelible sports events. But that bout, the second of two fights between the two boxers, was the culmination of a larger story. Chasing Tyson is an insightful look at what it took to finally make the fight happened and how it shaped narratives.
Co-directed by Canada’s own Steve Nash, Into the Wind tells the inspiring story of Terry Fox and his battle with osteosarcoma. The cancer took part of Terry’s right leg, but that didn’t stop him from running 30 miles daily to raise money and awareness for cancer research. It’s a touching hagiography for someone who truly deserved it.
Pro wrestling icon Ric Flair gets the 30 for 30 treatment with this gripping doc. The “Nature Boy” certainly lived up to his name, basking in all the fame and attention his success in the squared circle brought him. Flair will hold your attention like a figure-four leglock and keep you entertained all the way through. Whooo!
Fernando Valenzuela fever hit Los Angeles in the spring of 1981 when Valenzuela took the mound on opening day and captured the heart of the city. While the city and nation happily bought into Valenzuela’s success, many weren’t ready for the cultural reckoning that should’ve accompanied it.
30 for 30 alum Billy Corben looks at examples of athletes who achieved and squandered wealth. It’s a topic that is as sad as it is interesting, and Corben delivers an insightful film. While people may have a hard time relating to athletes blowing through fortunes, the forces that conspire to bring down these athletes (like the featured Andre Rison and Bernie Kosar) provide important and humanizing context. Broke doesn’t hit the highs of Corben’s The U films, but it’s still worth a watch.
The ’85 Chicago Bears team is one of the NFL’s most iconic and certainly the most memorable. The ’85 Bears isn’t as memorable as its subject, but it has its moments, including a particularly candid interview with star quarterback Jim McMahon.
Bo Jackson’s legendary athletic abilities have transformed the man into something of a myth, wherein anything is possible, because Bo could do anything. Aided by archival footage and a new interview with the man himself, Bo is a lively, engaging doc.
Superstar talent and superstar partying brought down Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. While the duo led the Mets to a World Series in 1986, the two men couldn’t get out of their own way and soon became cautionary tales. Despite a big name co-director in Judd Apatow, the candidness of Darryl and Doc makes this a must-see doc
30 for 30 kicked off with this story about the trade that brought Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings. It was a landscape-altering move for the Great One that helped shape the story of hockey’s biggest star. Kings Ransom makes for a fine opening salvo.
The upstart United States Football League ran for three seasons in the mid-’80s before closing up shop. Small Potatoes covers the short life of the league and features a centerpiece interview with one of the men who helped sink the league, Donald Trump. It’s a solid doc, but the interview with the future president is the definite highlight.
Set at the University of Mississippi in 1962, Ghosts documents the campus and communities attempts to reconcile racial violence stemming from integration and the football team’s unbeaten season. That push and pull continues to be a major tenant of life in the South.
Corruption and the Olympics go hand in hand, and scrutiny is now the norm. The focus of this one is the 1988 Summer Olympics men’s 100m final, which ended with a world record set by Ben Johnson. His record was vacated after a failed drug test, and the gold medal was awarded to Carl Lewis, who faced his own doping allegations. 9.79* is informative, and director Daniel Gordon gets a must-see interview with Lewis.
A literal case of “the beat goes on,” this entry focuses on Baltimore’s Marching Ravens. Left behind when the Baltimore Colts left for Indianapolis, the band stayed behind, playing whatever gigs they could until the NFL returned to Charm City.
Jimmy Connors’s story has been overshadowed by other tennis legends over the years, but Connors is
