Monday, September 02, 2013

ESPN Films - Nine for IX - Swoopes

Sharon, Jack and I watched Swoopes. This is the fifth film in a new series from ESPN films. Called Nine for IX (as in Title IX), the series includes films about women made by women.

Swoopes looks at the life and remarkable basketball career of Sheryl Swoopes. She won a national championship with Texas Tech, three Olympic gold medals, three WNBA MVP awards and four consecutive championships with the Houston Comets of the WNBA. She was the first player to be signed in the WNBA when it was created. Swoopes even had a Nike shoe named after her, the Air Swoopes.

Swoopes personal life has a number of interesting twists and turns. She was married from June 1995 to 1999 to her high school sweetheart and had a son in 1997 just before the start of her first WNBA season. Swoopes later came out as gay and was involved with an assistant coach for the Comets. In the documentary, she was now involved with a male nightclub owner.

Unfortunately, her story also has some echos of the Broke 30 for 30 film. Swoopes indicated that she had earned over $50 million in her career, but is now broke.

When the film finished, Sharon said "that was interesting." I don't follow the WNBA. I frankly didn't realize the breath of Cheryl Swoopes accomplishments.

Swoopes is available on iTunes.

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