The Trial of Allen Iverson

ESPN’s 30 for 30 series is one of my favorites. AI was the reason why I started watching college basketball. I even had a Georgetown starter jacket (look it was a quick moment in time and I was still fashionable with it). Allen has an incredible LIFE story, the documentary will focus on 1 aspect; his 1993 arrest stemming from a racially motivated fight at a local bowling alley and the trial that followed. All this happened while he was still in High school. Directed by Hampton native Steve James (who also happens to be the man behind the classic Basketball documentary Hoop Dreams), The Trial of Allen Iverson premiers April 13th on ESPN.

“On Valentine’s Day 1993, 17-year-old Bethel High School basketball star Allen Iverson was bowling in Hampton, Va., with five high school friends. It was supposed to be an ordinary evening, but it became a night that defined Iverson’s young life. A quarrel soon erupted into a brawl pitting Iverson’s young black friends against a group of white patrons. The fallout from the fight and the handling of the subsequent trial landed the teenager—considered by some the nation’s best high school athlete—in jail and sharply divided the city along racial lines. Oscar nominee Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) returns to his hometown of Hampton, where he once played basketball, to take a personal look at this still-disputed incident and examine its impact on Iverson and the shared community. ”