When I saw the ESPN 30 for 30 on And1, it moved me to pen an ode to basketball based on my own life in the sport. Set Free Richardson could have made the project much longer, but in the short time the film covering “The Greatest Mixtape Ever” triggered nostalgia and a longing to hear the words “AAAAAAAAAAAA Yo… alright,” yelled by Duke Tango:
Untold: The Rise and Fall of AND1 is grimy. It’s a slimy narrative of appropriation by Ivy league educated guys who understood business and capitalized on the passion of the players. It’s the timeless tale of rock and roll and rhythm and blues. The countless stories of blues singers dying penniless after their songs were covered by White singers and made millions of dollars. It’s the dark side of music where those who understand the rules walk away with the spoils and the artists who carried the tunes, go home back to the projects after selling out arenas across the country. Watch The New Edition Story to see this or look at the story of R&B supergroup TLC who was robbed blind by their manager.
Ignorance is only a virtue when not knowing allows you to live a better life. Where Set Free Richardson celebrated the legacy of streetball, he was barely mentioned in the Untold on Netflix. The Untold version of AND1’s story took a dive into how the brand was born and the men behind the Trash Talk tees. In this documentary we are actually given the dollar amount the players on the tour made. Hearing how AND1 became a 200-million-dollar thorn in Nike’s billion-dollar side pulls away from the nostalgia of AND1 and immediately places an emphasis on how easy it is for businessmen to sleep when they have contracts and a willingness to go strictly by the books.
There wasn’t a rulebook for how successful AND1 became, but that is not an excuse for failing to do what was right. As much as you can learn from this documentary, ultimately, by the end of the documentary it becomes a cautionary tale of business and the pitfalls of how doing what you love is a fool’s game. Enter into Untold: The Rise and Fall of AND1 without hoping for a connection to the past. Watch it because it is a business lesson in understanding how passion and greed can undermine business ventures.
