No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
Encyclopedia
No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson is a 2010 documentary film
produced by Kartemquin Films
for ESPN's
30 for 30
series and directed by Steve James
. No Crossover details the February 13, 1993 bowling alley fight of then high school basketball phenom and future NBA superstar, Allen Iverson
, and how the incident, trial and eventual conviction of Iverson divided the town of Hampton, Virginia
.
The documentary features camcorder footage from the February 13, 1993 fight at a bowling alley where Iverson and his young black friends were accused of attacking white adults with chairs. The incident allegedly stemmed from racial epithets said by the white adults to Iverson and his friends. Iverson was specifically accused of striking a white woman. While vital to the prosecution, the videotape of the incident is unclear and it is difficult to make out any of the individuals involved. Despite punches thrown by both parties involved, only Iverson and his friends; Melvin Stephens, Samuel Wynn and Michael Simmons, were charged in the incident. Iverson was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but after four months at Newport News City Farm correctional facility, Iverson's conviction was overturned and he was released from custody.
Director Steve James
, a Hampton native, takes a personal look at how the Iverson incident and the ensuing aftermath highlighted the community's existing racial tension and put the town's problems of race relations front and center in the daily papers. The film introduces multiple Hampton natives, both black and white, as they reflect on how the incident effected the town. While Allen Iverson refused to participate in the documentary, multiple friends, neighbors and former coaches provided insight into the life of the young Allen Iverson.
Premiering at the 2010 SXSW Festival in Austin, No Crossover would make its television premiere on ESPN's
on April 13, 2010. On the night of ESPN's No Crossover premiere, the phrase 'Allen Iverson' was the sixth most popular trending topic across all forms of social media and by the end of the broadcast, reached number one as the most popular phrase according to the Brizzly platform that measures Facebook and Twitter activity. On January 15, 2011, United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs chose No Crossover as one of eighteen documentaries represented in the American Documentary Showcase. As an official selection of the American Documentary Showcase, No Crossover will be sent to more than twenty countries around the world to help cultivate a global understanding of American social issues.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
produced by Kartemquin Films
Kartemquin Films
Kartemquin Films is a not-for-profit organization that was founded in 1966 by Gordon Quinn, Jerry Temaner and Stan Karter, three University of Chicago graduates who wanted to make documentary films guided by their principle of "Cinematic Social Inquiry." They were soon joined by Jerry Blumenthal...
for ESPN's
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
30 for 30
30 for 30
30 for 30 is the umbrella title for a series of documentaries airing on ESPN and its sister networks. The series, which premiered in October 2009 and concluded in December 2010, chronicles 30 stories from the "ESPN era," each of which detail the issues, trends, people, teams, or events that...
series and directed by Steve James
Steve James (producer)
Steve James is an American film producer and director of several documentaries, including the award-winning Hoop Dreams and Stevie. He is also the director of the 1997 feature film Prefontaine...
. No Crossover details the February 13, 1993 bowling alley fight of then high school basketball phenom and future NBA superstar, Allen Iverson
Allen Iverson
Allen Ezail Iverson is an American professional basketball point guard and shooting guard. He was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the number one pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1996–97 season...
, and how the incident, trial and eventual conviction of Iverson divided the town of Hampton, Virginia
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
.
The documentary features camcorder footage from the February 13, 1993 fight at a bowling alley where Iverson and his young black friends were accused of attacking white adults with chairs. The incident allegedly stemmed from racial epithets said by the white adults to Iverson and his friends. Iverson was specifically accused of striking a white woman. While vital to the prosecution, the videotape of the incident is unclear and it is difficult to make out any of the individuals involved. Despite punches thrown by both parties involved, only Iverson and his friends; Melvin Stephens, Samuel Wynn and Michael Simmons, were charged in the incident. Iverson was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but after four months at Newport News City Farm correctional facility, Iverson's conviction was overturned and he was released from custody.
Director Steve James
Steve James (producer)
Steve James is an American film producer and director of several documentaries, including the award-winning Hoop Dreams and Stevie. He is also the director of the 1997 feature film Prefontaine...
, a Hampton native, takes a personal look at how the Iverson incident and the ensuing aftermath highlighted the community's existing racial tension and put the town's problems of race relations front and center in the daily papers. The film introduces multiple Hampton natives, both black and white, as they reflect on how the incident effected the town. While Allen Iverson refused to participate in the documentary, multiple friends, neighbors and former coaches provided insight into the life of the young Allen Iverson.
Premiering at the 2010 SXSW Festival in Austin, No Crossover would make its television premiere on ESPN's
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
on April 13, 2010. On the night of ESPN's No Crossover premiere, the phrase 'Allen Iverson' was the sixth most popular trending topic across all forms of social media and by the end of the broadcast, reached number one as the most popular phrase according to the Brizzly platform that measures Facebook and Twitter activity. On January 15, 2011, United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs chose No Crossover as one of eighteen documentaries represented in the American Documentary Showcase. As an official selection of the American Documentary Showcase, No Crossover will be sent to more than twenty countries around the world to help cultivate a global understanding of American social issues.