The last time I watched a full NBA game on TV was June 19, 2000. That was also the last time I watched half of an NBA game—maybe even the last time I watched a full quarter. On that night, the Los Angeles Lakers closed out the Indiana Pacers, 116-111, in the sixth game of NBA Finals. The win gave the Lakers their first league title since 1988, while the loss effectively ended the Pacers' championship hopes in the Reggie Miller era. Miller, the charismatic sharpshooter and team captain, would play five more seasons before retiring, but he and the Pacers only once made it past the first round of the playoffs; over the previous six seasons, the Pacers had gone to the Eastern Conference finals four times. In Miller's prime, the Pacers were always on the doorstep of an NBA Championship, but they never got through the door.
I mention all of this on my way to reviewing Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks, the latest in ESPN Films' "30 for 30" series, in the spirit of full disclosure. I am no longer an NBA fan. I couldn't name a single starting five or maybe even five players on a single team. I hear the Lakers are still great in the West and the Cleveland Cavaliers are favorites in the East, but I haven't seen it with my own eyes. Today the NBA is as foreign to me as Jupiter. But back when I did follow the NBA—and I followed it passionately, though not quite devoutly—I was a monogamous Indiana Pacers fan, and I was a Pacers fan because I was a Reggie Miller fan. All of that said, perhaps you should be skeptical when I tell you that the best word to describe Winning Time is "joyous." I am, of course, inclined to enjoy any film that flatters Miller and highlights the suffering of the Knicks. But I don't think that's the extent of this documentary's charms. Far from it. Winning Time isn't so much about glorifying Miller but about celebrating those moments when sports provide great theater.
