Evening Latte

30 for 30 is an ESPN show that tells a standalone story in each episode (or in 2-5 episode sets), so they don’t need to be watched in order. While they’re all related to sports, the topics are widely varied: from the Celtics/Lakers rivalry to the Soviet side of the Miracle on Ice to a Canadian running across his country after having part of his leg amputated. Different directors are used, so each episode has its own feel, pace, and tone.

There are currently over 140 episodes, so instead of ranking every one I’ve seen and listing the rest, I’m just going to give my favorites in three tiers. The intent is to give people new to the series some of the best episodes so they can determine if they want to watch more.

• Tier 1 episodes represent very high levels of the series and genre (sports documentaries)
• Tier 2 episodes are compelling, interesting, or relevant enough to be entertaining to nearly everyone.
• Tier 3 episode may appeal less to people who aren’t familiar with the covered sport, person, or situation.

Worth noting: as of the initial writing of this post, I’ve only seen 41 episode because many are too long to watch during my lunch hour (when I watch most 30+ minute episodes). I’m going to try to watch more in the coming months and update this post as I go.

Tier 1

Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau
Into the Wind
June 17, 1994

Tier 2

The 16th Man
Ghosts of Ole Miss
Of Miracles and Men
One Night in Vegas
You Don’t Know Bo

Tier 3

Be Water
The Band That Wouldn’t Die
The Birth of Big Air
The Day the Series Stopped
Four Days in October
The Greatest Mixtape Ever
Guru of Go
King’s Ransom
Muhammed and Larry