30 reasons to love sports

After he became a filmmaker, Fraser, now 33, set out to work on a documentary about Bias’s death, and the effect it had on Boston, the University of Maryland, the criminal justice system, and Bias’s friends - including Brian Tribble, who was indicted and acquitted for possession of cocaine, and talks candidly in the film about the night Bias died.

Fraser was publicizing the project at the Sundance Film Festival last year when he met a group of ESPN executives, who were putting together plans for a documentary film series to celebrate the network’s 30th year. Now “Without Bias’’ is scheduled to air on ESPN on Nov. 3, part of the “30 for 30’’ series, a sort of slow-motion film festival comprising 30 documentaries that tell sports stories from the past 30 years.

The series debuts Tuesday night with “Kings Ransom,’’ Peter Berg’s film about the Los Angeles Kings’ acquisition of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. More films will roll out throughout the year, loosely linked to sports seasons and featuring a range of prominent filmmakers, including John Singleton, Spike Jonze, and Ron Shelton. Ice Cube directed a film about the Los Angeles Raiders’ effect on hip-hop culture. Barbara Kopple made a film about the Steinbrenners, the owners of the New York Yankees. Dan Klores, who directed last year’s ESPN documentary “Black Magic,’’ directed a look at Reggie Miller’s contentious relationship with the New York Knicks.

“These are not 30 biggest things that happened during the period,’’ executive producer Connor Schell told reporters in a conference call this week. “They’re 30 stories. That’s really what the measuring stick was.’’

Hence, some major sports events - notably, the 2004 World Series curse-defying victory by the Red Sox - won’t be told in film here, says ESPN senior vice president Keith Clinkscales, another executive producer of the series. Some of the stories sprang from longstanding projects, Clinkscales said in a phone call this week. Director Albert Maysles had collected footage from the Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes training camps in advance of the boxers’ famed 1980 match. His film “Muhammad and Larry,’’ which airs Oct. 27, explores the meaning of Ali’s loss and checks in with the present-day Holmes, who never achieved the glory he felt he deserved.

Other filmmakers, like Fraser, explored their personal passions. In the conference call, Baltimore native Barry Levinson said he remembers reeling from news that the Baltimore Colts had left town for Indianapolis in 1984, pulling out in moving vans in the middle of a snowy night. His film “The Band That Wouldn’t Die,’’ which airs Oct. 13, tells the story of the Colts’ marching band, which played for years after the football team was gone.

From a budget standpoint, the series was “a significant commitment,’’ said Clinkscales, who wouldn’t share exact numbers. “We wanted to make sure that we dealt with the filmmakers in a manner that allowed them to deliver quality to the screen and allowed them to do what they needed to do to tell the story.’’

Clinkscales said that ESPN wanted to establish a reputation as a home for documentaries, partly at the urging of ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, who often writes about the link between sports and film, and also executive-produced the “30 for 30’’ series.

“To make sure that we are constantly striving and finding new ways to tell sports stories is what drives us along,’’ Clinkscales said.

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com. For more on TV, go to www.viewerdiscretion.net