Turner Sports Teams Up with Executive Producers Grant Hill and Christian Laettner

Very cool news from Turner Sports, Grant Hill and Christian Laettner:

Turner Sports Teams Up with Executive Producers Grant Hill and Christian Laettner For New Documentary on Duke’s Famed ’91 & ’92 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Teams

Release Date: 10/13/2011
Content from Turner Sports
Original Article

Former Duke All-Americans Grant Hill and Christian Laettner are teaming up once again, this time with Turner Sports, to offer viewers an inside look at one of the most-storied college basketball programs in the history of the game. The new documentary Duke ’91 & ’92 will air on truTV in advance of Turner Sports’ and CBS Sports’ coverage of the 2012 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, which airs exclusively on TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV.

The documentary will revisit 1991 and 1992, when the Blue Devils became the first school to win back-to-back National Championships in nearly 20 years. The documentary will examine the key players, Hall of Fame coach and memorable moments from an era that helped set the stage for the school’s reign as college basketball’s most influential and successful program, on and off the court, of the last 20 years.

Duke ’91 & ’92 will capture the moments and conversations with members from these two championship squads as they returned to Durham, N.C., in September 2011, on the eve of the Duke Hall of Fame Induction of point guard Bobby Hurley, the Most Outstanding Player of the 1992 Final Four®, and Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

The documentary will feature teammates and coaches revealing never-before-told stories about what drove their success and, simultaneously, what drove them apart. The documentary will highlight the team’s journey to back-to-back NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship titles, including the upset win over the undefeated UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in the 1991 Final Four®, Laettner’s buzzer-beating jump shot against Kentucky in the East Regional Final in 1992, the repeat national title win over the “Fab Five” of Michigan and the emotional and unforgettable 20-year reunion that took place where it all began – Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“Turner Sports continues to add premier original content to our networks and we are proud to work with Grant and Christian to bring the documentary Duke ’91 & ’92 to truTV,” said Christina Miller, senior vice president of strategy/marketing/programming, Turner Sports. “One of Turner Sports’ programming goals is to tell stories, which makes this inside look at one of the most-storied programs in college basketball history through the eyes of the players and coaches who experienced it a perfect fit.”

“Nearly 20 years ago, Duke Basketball was embarking on defending its national championship after beating UNLV and Kansas in the 1991 NCAA tournament,” said Hill. “I was a sophomore and little did I know how transforming winning back-to-back NCAA Championships would be for me personally, as well as for the Duke Basketball program. In making this documentary, co-produced with my teammate Christian, we wanted to tell the stories of our teammates’ shared experiences of this defining moment in our lives and Duke Basketball.”

“Grant and I were excited to have many of the guys back in Durham again after 20 years to share that experience,” said Laettner. “Every player on the team played an important role and it was great to reconnect with our old teammates and reminisce about ’91-’92.”

The documentary is produced and directed by Amy Unell and Madeleine Sackler. An Emmy-nominated and former TODAY Show producer, Unell recently teamed up with Grant Hill to produce the documentary, Starting at the Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story. Sackler, director of the acclaimed documentary The Lottery, was on the shortlist for the 2011 Academy Awards for Best Feature Documentary.

truTV is one of the television homes of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship and, beginning in 2012, the exclusive broadcaster of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

StoryTales Productions (storytalesproductions.com) is a multimedia production company established by Emmy Nominated Producer Amy Unell that focuses on telling stories that inspire, motivate, and educate. Unell produced the feature documentary, Starting at the Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story, along with Executive Producers Grant Hill and Ann Rubenstein Tisch. Unell is the author of the book, “Starting at the Finish Line”, to be published by Perigee/Penguin Group USA in Summer 2012.

Great Curve Films is a New York City based production company that produces short and long-form multimedia content. Founded by Madeleine Sackler, Great Curve Films produced and released The Lottery (www.thelotteryfilm.com) and is currently in production on the feature documentaries Unstable Elements, with executive producer Sir Tom Stoppard, and Duke’ 91 & ‘92.

Turner Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is an industry leader in televised and online sports programming, airing championship level sporting events on TBS, TNT and truTV, and managing some of the most popular sports sites on the Internet. Turner Sports’ television line-up includes the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, NASCAR and professional golf. The company’s digital portfolio includes SI.com, NASCAR.COM, NCAA.com, PGATOUR.COM, GOLF.com and PGA.com, as well as an accompanying collection of mobile websites and connected device apps. Turner Sports and the NBA also jointly manage NBA Digital, which includes NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, NBA Mobile, the NBA Game Time App, NBADLEAGUE.com and WNBA.com.