Our friend Hippo from Finland sent us this interesting story about a documentary movie on Finnish basketball. But let Hippo explain exactly what it is about.In 2006, the Finnish basketball federation removed all foreign player limitations. As a result, one small town club doubled its budget and decided to renew the entire team. The reform didn’t exactly go as planned…
Oskari Pastila’s documentary film, “Basket Case,” follows how new management decided to renovate the entire Porvoon Tarmo Korisleague team during the summer and fall of 2006. As a result, Tarmo used a grand total of twelve non-domestic players during league play, with seven of them staying in the roster until the final playoff game. Like a classic Greek tragedy, things start to go horribly wrong at some point.
“Basket Case” gives an in-depth view of a basketball club trying to fulfill high expectations with low budget. The events of the Korisliiga’s 2006/2007 season have led to the situation in which Finnish basketball finds itself now, with teams dropping out of league play and renegotiating player contracts because of financial difficulties.
Even though it’s hard to catch this documentary as a non-Finnish basketball fan, it’s definitely worth a look. “Basket Case” premieres in Helsinki on January 22nd, 2009. You can watch the trailer on Facebook.
Let’s hope that this movie will be available on DVD sooner or later.
