Skip to main content
Netflix dropped the trailer today for the film Untold: Jail Blazers, a documentary about the early 2000s Portland Trail Blazers that will premiere on the streaming service April 14.
“This was the greatest sociology experiment in sports,” says sports columnist John Canzano in the film.
The sneak peek shows that the filmmakers got sit-down interviews with former Blazers Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire and Bonzi Wells, and former general manager Bob Whitsitt. Whitsitt had a proclivity to sign talented but controversial players, or, as he puts it: “Can I clean this guy up and turn it into something spectacular?” What it turned into: some big wins, yes (almost went all the way in 2000), but also off-court legal troubles that ranged from the quaint (cannabis) to the troubling (sexual assault, dogfighting).
Eventually, the city turned on the team. Wallace was traded to the Detroit Pistons in 2004. Upon his return to the Rose Garden, Wallace was greeted with a wall of boo’s.
“I knew I was gonna get booed. I ain’t think I was gonna get booed like that,” Wallace says.
Four new films in Netflix’s Untold sports documentary series will premiere weekly this spring, starting March 31. In addition to Jail Blazers on April 14, the other films tell the stories of troubled former NBA player Lamar Odom; a chess cheating scandal; and an attempted murder in the Olympic horseback riding world.
Jail Blazers should be a maybe fun, maybe painful look back on that particular era of Portland sports fandom. (Another tidbit that may or may not make the film: the moniker “Jail Blazers” itself came from the Aug. 14, 1996 cover of WW.)
Canzano: “They were immature, petty, but so good.”
See the full trailer here:
