Patrick Ewing Standing Tall (1994)

Patrick Ewing Standing Tall offers a rare glimpse of the New York Knicks center — one of the NBA's least public, most dominating players. It's full of athletic pyrotechnics, including film of his team's '92 game-six playoff win over Chicago, when Ewing carried the fourth quarter on a sprained ankle. More compelling is its tale of a Jamaican immigrant-turned- Boston high school hoop star taught to mistrust the limelight by racist competitors and fans harassing him up through his college years at Georgetown. Despite notable omissions — such as Ewing's efforts to sever his ties to the subpar Knicks in '91 — Standing Tall makes the case that character ranks right up there with a fadeaway jumper as a true test of an athlete's mettle.