HBO Max is a one-stop store for a number of the most engrossing sports activities documentaries that streaming has to supply.
Sports activities docs have turn into simply as elementary to the streamer’s high-quality content material as its status dramas. They check out the cultural impression of sports activities along with showcasing real-life narratives which might be the stuff of films.
For November, Watch With Us is highlighting two glorious sports activities documentary reveals you could watch proper now, each about legends in Main League Baseball: Alex vs. ARod and Charlie Hustle and the Matter of Pete Rose.
Learn on to see our full record.
‘Alex vs. ARod’ (2025)
The polarizing profession of baseball’s Alex Rodriguez is instructed on this riveting, three-party documentary comprised of intimate interviews with Rodriguez himself. At solely 18 years previous when he was drafted, Rodriguez quickly appeared poised to take over the sport of baseball when he hit the majors in 1994. He signed a record-high contract to affix the Texas Rangers in 2000, however turned to steroids after he joined the Yankees in 2004. When it was found, he was exiled — although not with out attempting to lie his means out first.
A self-described “recovering narcissist,” Alex vs. ARod is a really sincere interrogation of Rodriguez’s drug use and public deception versus a sterling celebration of his profession highlights. With the needling of director Gotham Chopra, Rodriguez finally will get refreshingly candid about his selections and the place they stemmed from. Alex vs. ARod is an enchanting and illuminating take a look at failure and restoration.
‘Charlie Hustle and the Matter of Pete Rose’ (2024)
Baseball participant Peter Rose was banned from Main League Baseball in 1989, when it was found he was betting on video games whereas he was the supervisor for the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, Rose has tried to foyer towards his ban however has not appeared penitent for his actions. Charlie Hustle and the Matter of Pete Rose is an illuminating take a look at the star and all-time hits chief’s profession within the sport whereas it searches for Rose’s personal path to redemption.
This four-part documentary contains never-before-seen interviews with the late Rose that depict him as a person who remains to be far too unwilling to atone for his sins even over thirty years later, and director Mark Monroe catches him in quite a lot of lies, going so far as to interrogate him over his statutory rape allegation. It’s a sobering, however compelling, portrait of fame, desperation and denial.
‘What’s My Identify: Muhammad Ali’ (2019)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Coaching Day), this documentary chronicles the life and legacy of boxing star Muhammad Ali. The movie charts Ali’s rise to heavyweight greatness, via the peak of his profession as a champion boxer and main into his later life as an icon and social activist. By his many challenges, clashes, victories and setbacks, Fuqua paints a portrait of a person who turned a legend and finally an emblem of humanity and peace.
Regardless of being practically three hours, the movie by no means feels extreme. Utilizing archival footage, Ali is allowed to inform his personal story via quite a few interviews, which plainly reveal the skilled and private contradictions of a person who is simple to mythologize, however was finally only a man — and one whose ego sometimes threatened to overhaul him. Thus, his larger-than-life standing is each humanized and immortalized on this participating story of a charming life.
‘Tiger’ (2021)
Based mostly on the 2018 biography Tiger Woods, Tiger is a two-part miniseries that examines the long-lasting golfer’s rise, fall and supreme return to the inexperienced. The documentary examines Tiger Woods’ relationship along with his father and the way it affected his profession, in addition to his 2009 dishonest scandal. Tiger paints a portrait of a gifted athlete whose dedication and craft introduced him untold fame and likewise untold extra, main him down a darkish spiral that he managed to triumphantly return from along with his win on the 2019 Masters.
As a substitute of that includes testimony and perspective from the person himself, as an alternative, Tiger makes use of interviews with folks in Woods’ orbit. This contains his former caddie Steve Williams, his ex-girlfriend, Bryant Gumbel, Nick Faldo, and even Rachel Uchitel — the journalist and media character concerned in Woods’ dishonest scandal. Regardless that Tiger lacks Woods’ voice, it’s no much less an exceedingly in-depth and revealing take a look at the golf celeb, one which reveals his flaws in a means that exposes his personal humanity.
‘Magic and Hen: A Courtship of Rivals’ (2010)
Starting on the 1979 NCAA championship sport, star athletes Magic Johnson and Larry Hen established their years-spanning rivalry. After Johnson’s staff, the Michigan State Spartans, defeated Hen’s Indiana State Sycamores in 1979, Johnson bought drafted to play with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Hen went to the Boston Celtics, finally clinching the “Rookie of the 12 months” title. For years, the Celtics and the Lakers tossed the NBA Championship title backwards and forwards between one another.
Finally, each males’s careers can be minimize quick by bodily illnesses: an HIV prognosis for Johnson and a again harm for Hen. Magic and Hen: A Courtship of Rivals charts the 2 athletes’ rise to fame and competitors with each other to their retirement and present standing as real-life mates. The Peabody Award-winning documentary examines their heydays in addition to the racial tensions that bolstered the rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers, crafting a riveting story of two males vying for greatness, each finally undone by their very own vices.
‘Fists of Freedom: The Story of The ’68 Summer season Video games’ (1999)
This sports activities documentary from 1999 surrounds the 1968 Olympic Video games that passed off in Mexico Metropolis, considered one of America’s most culturally and socially necessary moments. With racial tensions flaring from a 12 months that took the lives of each Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, the video games culminated with the historic “Black Energy” salutes by successful athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos whereas on their victory stand.
Utilizing uncommon archival footage along with interviews with Smith and different athletes like Lee Evans and George Foreman, plus activist Harry Edwards, Fists of Freedom: The Story of The ’68 Summer season Video games takes viewers again in time to a pivotal second within the twentieth century, and the occasions each earlier than and afterwards. In the long run, the 2 males weren’t welcomed again dwelling after their defiant gesture, and it endures as a revealing portrait of respectability politics and civil rights points which might be nonetheless ongoing to this present day.











