ESPN+ has found a format that works for series that dive into the history of our favorite sports. We’ve seen it with Peyton’s Places covering the NFL, we’ve seen it with Abby’s Places covering soccer, Rowdy’s Places covering combat sports, Big Papi’s Places for baseball and even Eli’s Places which took a look at the world of College Football. Now, legendary NBA star Vince Carter will explore the history of basketball in Vince’s Places.
In the 10th episode, titled “From Showtime to Shark Tank,” Carter explores the history of television deals for basketball and what broadcasts have looked like over the years.
The episode opens with Vince meeting Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban in an aquarium. He pitches Cuban on investing in a new sports league with a television deal with the DuMont Network. Cuban of course shuts him down, but Carter explains that this was the first TV deal for the NBA and it was worth just $39,000.
Carter then takes us through some history, explaining that College Basketball was the big show in the early days but there are still no recordings of the early games. He meets legendary broadcaster Marv Albert in a museum to talk about TV helping the NBA.
Albert talks about his simple trademark slogan – “yes!” Albert explains that it came from a referee who would scream “yes” when a player would make a shot and get fouled. He says he simply tried it out one game and it sounded good so he stuck with it.
Albert then explains how broadcasts have evolved over the years, going from very basic and fundamental to the in-depth reporting we see today. He points out having on-court interviews, players wearing microphones, stats on the screen and more.
Carter then heads to Los Angeles to meet with Jamaal “Silk” Wilkes, a Hall of Fame inductee and former Los Angeles Laker. They explain that the 1980 NBA finals, which featured Wilkes’ Lakers, was not televised live across the country. Instead, NBA fans were stuck watching reruns of CBS’ typical Friday night lineup, which included The Incredible Hulk.
Carter than explains that the NBA was hugely out viewed by the whole “who shot JR” controversy on the show Dallas. The two then get some payback by arming themselves with a couple of paintball guns and shooting at targets featuring the characters of Dallas.
That’s when Carter heads to Dallas to meet with Cuban. He pitches Cuban on some new concepts for the NBA, like coaches having to play for five minutes, trampolines on the court, two balls at one time and a penalty box. He finally gets Cuban to agree to one idea: owners officiating the games from their seats.
Cuban then explains ideas for the future of basketball broadcasting, which includes sharing live bites of games rather than complete games, in the style of social media platforms like TikTok.
This was a strong episode filled with lots of information and history while still being entertaining. However, for the season finale, it was a bit underwhelming. There werre more informative episodes and there were more entertaining episodes. A docuseries doesn’t follow the same rules ad a season-long narrative, but it still felt as though this episode could have been bigger. Either way, it’s still worth a watch and Vince’s Places is a fun series through its first season.
You can watch Vince’s Places on ESPN+ now. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $6.99 a month and can cancel at any time.