ESPN Releases ‘30 For 30’ Fall Schedule, Features Film On Mike Tyson And Tupac

Michael Jordan’s time spent traveling the South on a bus with the Birmingham Barons. The story of a friendship between Mike Tyson and Tupac Shakur, and the details surrounding the night Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas. Examining the close relationship of Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac before a civil war between Croatia and Serbia tore them apart, hatred pushing them away and leaving them without a chance to reconcile before a car accident tragically took Petrovic’s life.

Those are just three of the central themes in the next batch of 13 documentaries to be released as part of ESPN’s series, 30 for 30, which resumes again again Tuesday, Aug. 24, with Jordan Rides the Bus:

Academy Award-nominated director Ron Shelton, a former minor leaguer who brought his experiences to life in the classic movie Bull Durham, will revisit Jordan’s short career in the minor leagues and explore the motivations that drove the world’s most competitive athlete to play a new sport in the relative obscurity of Birmingham, Ala., for a young manager named Terry Francona.

On Thursday, ESPN Films announced the entire fall schedule for its 30 for 30 series, which will air Tuesday nights, and stretch from the Jordan documentary on Aug. 24, to Dec. 11, with the airing of The Best That Never Was, the story of one-time mega-recruit Marcus Dupree. But the highlight of the upcoming 13 shows may be One Night In Vegas:

Sitting ringside was controversial rapper Tupac Shakur. Shakur and Tyson were friends; a feeling of kinship linked them as each rose to stardom from poverty only to be thrown in prison. Following Tyson’s victory, Shakur and “Iron Mike” were to celebrate at an after party, but the rap star never arrived. Shakur was brutally gunned down later that night, and the scene in Las Vegas quickly turned from would be celebratory revelry to ill fated and inopportune tragedy. Director Reggie Bythewood, with the full cooperation of Mike Tyson, will tell not only the story of that infamous night but of the remarkable friendship between Tyson and Tupac.

Cue up the DVRs.