The Best 30 for 30 Episodes for Fans of Sports History to Watch Right Now

• Season, Episode: N/A
• Original Air Date: April 19th, 2020
• IMDb rating: 9.1

We’re cheating a bit with this first entry, but The Last Dance is a 30 for 30 in all but name.

Telling the story of Michael Jordan and the legendary run of the 1990s Chicago Bulls, The Last Dance is a near-perfect docuseries that perfectly captures the raw feelings of many of the people involved. ESPN made the wise decision to let the players and coaches talk as they want to, choosing not to censor anything which only adds to the legitimacy of the entire series.

• Season, Episode: ESPN Films Presents, Episode 1
• Original Air Date: March 13th, 2011
• IMDb rating: N/A

A throwback to one of college basketball’s best eras, The Fab Five follows Michigan’s legendary players known as, you guessed it, “The Fab Five.” Comprised of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson, the group became known across the nation for its personalities, an infamous time-out fiasco, and finally, the “pay for play” scandal of which Webber found himself a part of. 

• Season, Episode: Volume I, Episode 7
• Original Air Date: December 12th, 2009
• IMDb rating: 7.9

A team as notorious as it was to watch, The U is about the University of Miami’s football team and tracks some of its best years in the 1980s under coaches like Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson. The team pioneered a cultural and racial revolution in college football that shook the sport to its core, transitioning it from a more conservative to a much more progressive era.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 26
• Original Air Date: December 13th, 2014
• IMDb rating: 7.3

The story of the University of Miami’s football team is so interesting that ESPN had to do a follow-up. After a few lackluster seasons on the field and controversies, the Hurricanes bounced back to win a National Championship only to find themselves embroiled in another scandal thanks to a booster named Nevin Shapiro.

• Season, Episode: Volume I, Episode 8
• Original Air Date: March 14, 2010
• IMDb rating: 8.0

One of the biggest rivalries in the NBA in the 1990s wasn’t two teams battling it out but one player against an entire city. As the New York Knicks perpetually ran against teams like the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers in the playoffs, Reggie Miller had a nasty habit of bringing the worst out of the Knicks and their fans, especially Spike Lee.

• Season, Episode: Volume I, Episode 14
• Original Air Date: May 11, 2010
• IMDb rating: 6.5

The now-Las Vegas Raiders have an exciting franchise history considering they have moved between three different cities throughout the team’s tenure in the NFL. From Oakland to Los Angeles to Las Vegas, the Raiders have developed a fanbase that is as dedicated as they are ferocious. Rapper Ice Cube documents the team’s decision to move to Los Angeles in the early 1980s and the relationship they developed with the minority population of the city before deciding to move back to Oakland in 1995.

• Season, Episode: Volume I, Episode 14
• Original Air Date: May 11, 2010
• IMDb rating: 6.5

The now-Las Vegas Raiders have an exciting franchise history considering they have moved between three different cities throughout the team’s tenure in the NFL. From Oakland to Los Angeles to Las Vegas, the Raiders have developed a fanbase that is as dedicated as they are ferocious. Rapper Ice Cube documents the team’s decision to move to Los Angeles in the early 1980s and the relationship they developed with the minority population of the city before deciding to move back to Oakland in 1995.

• Season, Episode: Volume I, Episode 18
• Original Air Date: August 24th, 2010
• IMDb rating: 6.8

The story of Michael Jordan’s short, but no less notable baseball career, Jordan Rides the Bus, documents his stint in the minor league system of the Chicago White Sox. After early retirement from the NBA, Jordan fulfills a dream of his father, who had envisioned Michael as a baseball player.

• Season, Episode: Volume I, Episode 24
• Original Air Date: October 5th, 2010
• IMDb rating: 7.4

Yankee fans, look away.

In 2004, the story of the “Curse of the Bambino” was a sports legend, in that the trade of Babe Ruth to the Yankees had cursed the Red Sox and would see them never win another World Series. However, that changed in 2004 when the Red Sox overcame a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series to defeat the Yankees and eventually win the World Series. Four Days in October features interviews with players, coaches, and fans to tell the story as only they could.

• Season, Episode: Volume I, Episode 16
• Original Air Date: June 22, 2010
• IMDb rating: 8.4

The story of drug lord Pablo Escobar is well-documented, with the criminal being both romanticized and vilified since his life ended, but how familiar are you with his story involving soccer? In The Two Escobars, directors Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist track how the story of Pablo intertwines with Andrés Escobar, who was a star player for the Colombian National Soccer team as well as Atlético Nacional, a club that had been linked to Pablo.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 5
• Original Air Date: October 30, 2012
• IMDb rating: 6.7

A story as much about college football as it is about the societal and cultural issues of the day, Ghosts of Ole Miss tells the story of the University of Mississippi’s first black student, James Meredith, and its unbeaten football team. Ghost of Ole Miss documents how the significant resistance to integration led to civil strife on campus and how it all intersected with the school’s beloved Rebels.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 6
• Original Air Date: December 8, 2012
• IMDb rating: 8.1

Bo Jackson, one of the most gifted athletes in professional sports history, was a star player in both football and baseball. Playing for the Los Angeles Raiders in the NFL and the Kansas City Royals in the MLB, Jackson became a cultural icon thanks to his play on the field and Nike’s “Bo Knows” ad campaign.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 8
• Original Air Date: April 23, 2013
• IMDb rating: 7.6

The 1983 NFL Draft is widely regarded as having, on paper, six of the best quarterback prospects in the league's history. Elway to Marino follows the stories of the quarterbacks involved, most notably future Hall of Famers John Elway and Dan Marino.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 18
• Original Air Date: April 17, 2014
• IMDb rating: 8.2

The Detroit Pistons of the 1980s and early 90s were known league-wide for playing rough basketball and flouting the rules if it meant they could get ahead. While many teams from years past hated them for it, the Pistons embraced it and earned the nickname the “Bad Boys.”

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 22
• Original Air Date: October 21, 2014
• IMDb rating: 6.8

Madison Square Garden, the home of the New York Knicks, is widely known as the Mecca of Basketball. Since the 1970s, when the Knicks were one of the dominant teams in the league, the franchise has had its ups and downs throughout and is still searching for its first NBA title since 1973. When The Garden Was Eden follows the Knicks at their peak, winning two titles within five years.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 23
• Original Air Date: October 28, 2014
• IMDb rating: 7.3

Brian Bosworth, one of the most controversial figures in college football history, had a storied career at the University of Oklahoma and a brief stint in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. From his antics off the field, including getting suspended for steroid use, to his incredible feats on the field, Bosworth established himself as a dominant force in sports, popular culture, and beyond.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 25
• Original Air Date: November 11, 2014
• IMDb rating: 7.2

An Offensive Rookie of the Year, four-time NFL All-Pro, and five-time NFL receiving touchdowns leader are just a few of the awards and highlights of Randy Moss’ storied Hall of Fame career. His path to NFL stardom began in the small town of Rand, West Virginia. Moss would eventually become a star at Marshall University and see him drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft.

• Season, Episode: Volume II, Episode 27
• Original Air Date: February 8, 2015
• IMDb rating: 8.1

The story of the “Miracle on Ice” is one you probably know by now: The underdog United States Men’s National Hockey team defeats the juggernaut Soviet team at the 1980 Winter Olympics. However, what happened to the losers? Of Miracles and Men speaks with the players of the 1980 USSR team and explores their home country's reactions following the players' return to Russia.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 1
• Original Air Date: October 13, 2015
• IMDb rating: 7.2

Before Pete Carroll became the long-tenured coach of the Seattle Seahawks, he presided over the USC Trojans of the early 2000s who were a dominant force in college football. For all their successes, they found themselves mired in controversy as well, events that are chronicled in Trojan War.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 5
• Original Air Date: December 12, 2015
• IMDb rating: 8.2

Watching your team lose in the Super Bowl has to be one of the most heartbreaking things about being a football fan. Now imagine that happening four years in a row. The Buffalo Bills of the early 1990s became, and are still, the only NFL team to play in four consecutive Super Bowls and lose them all. The Four Falls of Buffalo chronicles the events of those games and the players involved, getting their perspectives on what happened and how everything transpired.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 14
• Original Air Date: February 2, 2017
• IMDb rating: 7.2

In 2001, the controversial owner of the WWE (then the WWF,) Vince McMahon, made an attempt to do the impossible: Unseat the NFL as the country’s best professional football league. Along with his friend and NBC executive Dick Ebersol, he launched the XFL, which was promoted as having fewer rules than the NFL and much more action. This Was the XFL chronicles the league’s short existence, why it failed, and the lessons learned from it.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 7
• Original Air Date: March 13, 2016
• IMDb rating: 8.1

Ten years after the events of the Duke Lacrosse scandal, Fantastic Lies re-examines the case by interviewing many of the people involved, including players, parents, lawyers, and others. It was a case that caused a national scandal that saw it being viewed through racial, cultural, and gender lenses. Fantastic Lies tells the story from beginning to end, how it was ignited, and how quickly the whole thing unraveled.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 10
• Original Air Date: July 14, 2016
• IMDb rating: 7.2

The story of Darryl Strawberry and Dwight “Doc” Gooden, this 30 for 30 follows the lives and careers of both players. Both proved they were stars on the 1986 New York Mets and helped that team win the World Series; their careers would be successful, but also had numerous struggles off the field as well.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 13
• Original Air Date: December 10, 2016
• IMDb rating: 7.2

The fact that the University of Miami team appears three times on this list, meaning it had three different documentaries made about them, shows how impactful they were on college football in the 1980s. Catholics vs. Convicts is the story of the team’s rivalry with the University of Notre Dame in that period and how rabid the fanbases became whenever they played one another. The documentary’s title refers to a t-shirt made by Notre Dame fans, which further stoked the flames of the intense rivalry.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 17
• Original Air Date: July 13, 2017
• IMDb rating: 6.0

For sports fans in the New York City area, the “Mike and the Mad Dog” radio show was a staple of everyday life for nearly 20 years. Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo talked about New York sports for five hours every weekday and quickly established themselves as the premiere sports talk radio show in the country. Mike and the Mad Dog follows their turbulent relationship from the beginning to where it is now and the impact that the two have had on sports broadcasting.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 24
• Original Air Date: November 17, 2017
• IMDb rating: 7.9

When it comes to professional wrestling, no one did it better than Ric “The Nature Boy” Flair. The 16-time world champion would head into the ring night after night, beat his opponent up, make them tap, and he’d do it all in style. When he wasn’t in the ring, though, Flair was plagued by struggles with drugs and alcohol, issues that plagued him throughout his career. Nature Boy chronicles his life and where the road of life will take him next.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 25
• Original Air Date: February 1, 2018
• IMDb rating: 7.7

The stories of both Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick have long been intertwined, with Belichick getting much of his coaching acumen from Parcells by serving on his staff for years. This 30 for 30 takes a look at their relationship, how it evolved, and eventually led to both of them becoming two of the greatest NFL coaches of all time.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episode 26
• Original Air Date: April 12, 2018
• IMDb rating: 7.1

Speaking of great, albeit controversial sports figure, Bobby Knight, the long-time head coach of the Indiana University Men’s basketball team, was fired after 29 years with the program following an investigation into events that took place off the court. This documentary follows the investigation and how things unfolded, leading to Knight's ousting.

• Season, Episode: Volume III, Episodes 16,17,18
• Original Air Date: June 13, 14, 15, 2017
• IMDb rating: 8.2

One of the greatest rivalries in basketball, the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics, led by their two superstars, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, provided some of the most memorable moments in NBA history. Celtics/Lakers: Best of Enemies looks at the origins of the rivalry, how it evolved, and, in many ways, revitalized interest in a league that was in dire straits at that point.

• Season, Episode: Volume IV, Episodes 16, 16, 17, 18
• Original Air Date: September 14, 15, 2021
• IMDb rating: 8.0

Another story where the “bad guys” won, the 1980s New York Mets were as good at partying as they were playing baseball. Led by players like Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry, this New York Mets team played fast, aggressively, and in your face, and they were unapologetic about it. Once Upon a Time in Queens tells their tale and does a damn good job of telling it.