Kristen Lappas is bringing the story of the Women’s Dream Team to ESPN. The “Blackfeet Boxing” director will helm a feature doc about the gold medal-winning 1996 USA Women’s basketball team for “30 for 30,” Deadline reports.
The doc is set to revisit the “grueling 15-month road trip” that led up to the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. Billed as “the story of the 12 women who were tasked with auditioning the idea of women’s professional basketball in the United States,” who held “the very future of the sport in their hands,” the project will include exclusive behind-the-scenes footage that the NBA shot. Rebecca Lobo, Ruthie Bolton, Nikki McCray, Jennifer Azzi, Katy Steding, Teresa Edwards, Carla McGhee, Sheryl Swoopes, and coach Tara VanDerveer will be featured.
“USA Basketball undertook a revolutionary approach to training its Olympic team by structuring a long-term National Team program comprised of 52 games to turn them into a cohesive unit for 10-months ahead of Atlanta,” the source details. The unconventional tactic paid off — the team went undefeated on their path to the gold medal.
The film will debut in 2022 “in conjunction with 50 year anniversary of Title IX and comes after the 25th anniversary of the WNBA’s creation,” Deadline notes.
Another basketball doc on our radar, Lauren Stowell and Jenna Contreras’ “144,” offers an all-access look inside the bubble of the 2020 WNBA season, exploring how COVID-19 and social justice activism transformed the league. The film premieres May 13 on ESPN.
On the scripted front, “Long Slow Exhale,” a drama set in the world of women’s college basketball from creator/showrunner Pam Veasey (“L.A.’s Finest”), received a straight-to-series order from Spectrum back in February. Rose Rollins (“The L Word”) stars.
