Tony Parker: The Final Shot (2021)
A Quick Film Review

Tony Parker is not an Olympic champion, and not even an Olympic medalist, after two straight quarterfinal losses with Team France against Team Spain in basketball at London 2012 and Rio 2016. But he is a two-time Olympian, and an 18-year National Basketball Association player noted for his speed, intellect, and leadership.

And, I had just recently (finally) come off watching another NBA-focused documentary on a basketball Olympian, Bill Russell:Legend, so...again, finally, getting around to watching Tony Parker: The Final Shot felt right in timing.

The Final Shot  whisks us through Parker's NBA career - a star in the French league who entered the NBA in 2001 as an unheralded prospect to the San Antonio Spurs. But by the time Parker leaves the team a remarkable 17 years later, he's helped them to four NBA titles and earned himself six NBA All-Star nods.

A common critique of the Spurs even during their championship runs, was their lack of, well, personality and drama. That is acknowledged by The Final Shot. By extension, though, Parker the documentary subject is afflicted by the same observation. Aside from his obvious basketball talent and prominence, he just isn't that compelling a leading man, on the court or on film. That we don't see much of his dissolved relationship with actress Eva Longoria adds to the lack of sizzle in The Final Shot.

Perhaps it's also a bias of this United States-based viewer. I wonder how this documentary - directed by Frenchman Florent Bodin - has been received in France, where Parker is respected as the leader of French basketball, and where as such his understated talents are much more lauded.

Nevertheless, Parker's skill is well documented, as is his passion for the international game. Despite not having Olympic success, Parker, with Team France, earned four EuroBasket medals, including the 2013 championship. And, his success in the NBA, as former teammate and thee-time Olympian David Robinson notes in The Final Shot, helped drive the global integration of the league.

For that, and for respect for Parker's all-around play, The Final Shot is worth a basketball fan's viewing. Plus, seeing fellow Olympians Tim Duncan (Athens 2004), Kobe Bryant (Beijing 2008, London 2012), Pau Gasol (Beijing, London, Rio, and Tokyo 2020), and even Teddy Riner (judo, Beijing, London, Rio, Tokyo) appear in testimony to Parker is further weight to this athlete's impact.

Dear Rider, (2021)
A Quick Film Review

'Snurfing', or surfing on snow, was a pastime concocted in the 1960s with a board similar to surfing with no binding. It took a young Jake Burton, with inspiration also from skateboarding, to develop the first proper snowboard - the 'Burton snowboard'.

And impassioned with the idea of the opportunity of snowboarding as a sport, Burton persisted. "Surfing on snow: in the back of my mind, I always knew it could be a sport."

Dear Rider, a 2021 documentary from Red Bull Media and HBO Sports that traces Burton's dogged commitment also inherently profiles the growth of the sport itself. I finally - finally! - sat down to watch it.

Burton's passion, plus snowboarding's definitive youth appeal, eventually drove the sport to enough prominence to debut as an Olympic sport at Nagano 1998. And from there, snowboarding exploded - growing to 11 medals events at Beijing 2022 from Nagano's initial four.

Dear Rider, takes us through that growth, with a special focus on the sport's growing pains - alternatively viewed as the "worst new sport" or "the antithesis of skiing" by the traditional winter sports powers that were. And a driving east coast racing vs west coast freestyle rivalry that further defined the sport.

Burton was there through it all, and always understanding that the value and uniqueness of snowboarding lay in the individuality of the athletes. With boarding equipment customizable to reflect the "cultural commentary" of snowboarders as artists. Burton reinforced that this was - is - "not a sport your parents or some coach shoved down your throat".

Dear Rider, is a "love letter" to a driving force of the sport. His legacy - evident through the commentary provided by Olympic stars Shaun White, Kelly Clark, Jamie Anderson, Scotty James, Pat Burgener, and more - is well worth a watch.

​Check out more Games and Rings' Olympic sports-related media reviews tagged under A Quick Review.

Bill Russell: Legend
A Quick TV Review

"But the contribution I'd like to make as a person, to my kids and to little Black kids all over the world is to make life better so their ambitions aren't stilted when they face the world."
-Bill Russell, in memoirs reflecting on the platform basketball provided him

Netflix's latest documentary shines a deserved light on one of the National Basketball Association's icons, Bill Russell. As his quote above indicates, Russell certainly viewed himself as more than a player, and as a man positioned to make a visible mark beyond the basketball court. Bill Russell: Legend, the title, neatly sums up his legacy. And, Bill Russell, the documentary, neatly sums up his career and landmark impact.

Young NBA fans today may not appreciate the difficulties Black players had faced in the league's early days, often mirroring the state of society at the time. Bill Russell takes us through his start in Jim Crow-life in Louisiana to the University of San Francisco, to his career as a Boston Celtic. Throughout, Russell maintained a deep sense of integrity and presence despite multiple and consistent instances of race-based disrespect. Reinforcing that personal stature is the point of Bill Russell, as well as the reason the man is a legend beyond his 11 championship rings.

And that personal stature is why a cavalcade of fellow NBA stars appear in testimony, including fellow Olympians Oscar Robertson and Jerry West (Rome 1960), Bill Bradley (Tokyo 1964), Larry Bird and "Magic" Johnson (Barcelona 1992), Shaquille O'Neal (Atlanta 1996), Steve Smith (Sydney 2000), Chris Paul (Beijing 2008, London 2012), and Jayson Tatum (Tokyo 2020).

Russell's vision of proactive defense and of basketball as art powered his game. And his vision of how to impact a wider public through the game - inspired by life around him - powered that stature. Bill Russell gives him due credit.

A quibble, though...this one Olympic fan would have appreciated more attention to Russell's experience with Team USA at Melbourne 1956 than a too-brief mention...especially considering the gold medal was perhaps his "most prized profession".

The Dive (La Caida, 2022)
A Quick Film Review

An injury to Mariel's diving partner jeopardizes her confidence in qualifying for another Olympic Games. Enter a new partner for the qualification window, and so begins director Lucia Puenzo's Dive (La Caida), released in late 2022 on Amazon Prime.

That new diver is 14-year-old Nadia, and the veteran Mariel (played by actress Karla Souza) has her ambitions further complicated not just by on-going physical ailments, but by an accusation of sexual abuse against their coach - from Nadia's mother.

From there, how Mariel reconciles her desire to compete with both how events transpire and her retrospection of her own history with the coach is the crux of the story.

The real impact of Dive, of course, is that there's a real story inspiring Puenzo's film. Sydney 2000 Team Mexico diver Azul Almazan competed in both individual events (finishing 13th in springboard and 33rd in platform), and in synchronized platform with Maria Alcala (eighth). Shortly after, Almazan denounced her coach as an abuser, but with little effect. That - and Souza's own experience in entertainment inspired production of a film speaking to the issues of abuse in Mexican sport.

The introspection of the coach-athlete relationship is of course timely...with a global #MeToo movement and high-profile investigations across gymnastics, swimming, ice hockey and more - even snowboarding and wrestling. Dive tackles the issue head-on through one athlete's eyes - an athlete looking to drive herself to top level of competition and trusting her coach to do so, while coming face-to-face with the emotional and mental challenges of such placed trust in the high stakes world of elite training.

A sobering yet refreshing look into the issues from a foreign lens, Dive is well worth the navigation into such troubled and sensitive waters. And it delivers a strong reminder of the sacrifices athletes make and ensure to have dreams come true, and at what potential expense.

The Fastest Men on Earth: The Complete Stories of the Olympic Men's 100m Champions (2021)
A Quick Book Review

Well, it certainly took me longer than a sprint to get through "The Fastest Men on Earth", Neil Duncanson's in-depth look at the history of the Olympic Games' men's 100 meters champions.

But that's certainly an indictment of my procrastination, and not the quality of the author's work. A writer known for media production, Duncanson dives deep into the background and 'complete stories' of each of the Olympic winners.

From Athens 1896's Thomas Burke to Rio 2016's Usain Bolt, each chapter presents a remarkable depth of background, insights, interviews, and anecdotes that illuminate who these men were and are - before and after their Olympic glory. At times tragic or inspiring, their stories together present a wonderful history of "the blue ribbon event of the Olympic Games", as described by Bolt in a foreword.

And Fastest Men thankfully doesn't skimp on highlighting the contemporaries who pushed these men to gold. Through misfortunate or just bad luck, the men on the wayside aren't just would-have-beens, but fellow competitors who easily could have been similar stars if not for fate.

Published ahead of Tokyo 2020, Fastest Men offers a mouth-watering question of who would inherit the mantle from three-time champion Bolt. Or, at least would-be mouth-watering, now knowing how those Games unfolded in the event. I'm curious, very curious, now to read what Duncanson would unveil about who Marcell Jacobs, the Tokyo champ know for being off-the-radar for much of the lead-up to the Games, is. So unexpected a champion was Jacobs that even though Fastest Men concludes with an admission that Tokyo 2020 would be "much more difficult to predict", Jacobs doesn't register any mention amongst fellow contenders Trayvon Bromell, Andre De Grasse, Noah Lyles, and others.

I'm also eager to see if we'll get a similar treatment one day from someone on the history of the women's 100 meters. Elise Hooper's 2020 novel Fast Girls on the early years of the women's event history is a great start, but obviously so many more stories are waiting to be discovered.

In the meantime, Fastest Men is well worth a place on the bookshelf of every Olympic fan and armchair historian. There is a lot to uncover - from Harold Abrahams at Paris 1924 as inspiration for the classic film Chariots of Fire, to Jesse Owen's Berlin 1936's exploits, to the beginnings of Carl Lewis' stardom at Los Angeles 1984, and the spectacular rise and fall of Ben Johnson at Seoul 1988. Subtitled alternatively as The Complete Stories of the Olympic Men's 100 Meters Champions, or The Lives and Legacies of...or The Inside Stories of..., The Fastest Men on Earth delivers.

​Make sure to check out other book and media reviews by Games and Rings tagged under A Quick Review. And visit our curated bookshop on Bookshop.org to find Olympics-related titles to purchase, while supporting small businesses.