ESPN Films VP & Exec Producer Connor Schell this week said that a two-hour documentary dubbed "Bad Boys" will air "in the spring of 2014 sometime between the end of the NBA regular season and the NBA Finals as part of ESPN's '30 for 30' series," according to Richard Deitsch of SI.com. The idea for a doc on the Pistons had been "percolating among the '30 for 30' brass and executives at NBA Entertainment for a couple of years." Schell said, "We felt like the timing of the 25th anniversary of the first title was the right time to do it." Deitsch wrote given the "previous collaboration between ESPN Films and NBA Entertainment ... Bad Boys is likely to be one of the better '30 for 30' efforts." NBAE VP/Original Production Dion Cocoros said that the film is in the pre-production phase. Cocoros' group is "currently creating an interview list and culling through the archives they have on Detroit from those years." They have "met with the Pistons organization -- who are giving it their full support." The interview process is "expected to begin this summer." Cocoros said that he has "already found never-before-seen footage of the team inside the locker room before and after games, as well as compelling footage" of late coach Chuck Daly's huddles. Deitsch noted another "30 for 30" doc with "great promise" will focus on former figure skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan 20 years after the '94 Lillehammer Games with the "target date for air" in November (SI.com, 5/20).
