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What: “Basketball: the Dream Teams”

Where: The History Channel, tonight, 9-11

It’s appropriate that this two-hour documentary is on the History Channel because it is essentially a history of basketball. The title is a little misleading, as is the opening. A viewer at first might think it’s about Olympic “dream teams.” But soon the viewer is taken back to basketball’s beginning, to 1891, when Dr. James Naismith invented the game. The great teams and dynasties over the years then become the focal point of the film.

The segment on Naismith and how he created the game is fascinating, as is footage of early games. Ian Naismith, a grandson, says, “The first game of basketball was actually played in his head the night before.” His grandfather wanted to use boxes, but his helpers instead found the famous peach baskets. They were placed 10 feet above the ground because there happened to be a nail in a wall that high.

The first dynasty examined is that of the Original Celtics from the lower West Side of New York in the 1920s. Next is a look at the all-black Harlem Rens, a team sponsored by a restaurant named Renaissance, and Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters, who actually hailed from Chicago.

Other teams featured are the Boston Celtics of the Bill Russell era, the UCLA Bruins of the John Wooden era, the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s, and the Chicago Bulls made famous by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson. The final segment focuses on the growth of women’s basketball, highlighting Pat Summitt’s Tennessee teams.

The producers of the film, hosted by James Brown, deserve credit for undertaking such a vast topic. But one complaint is that they rely too heavily on talking heads, and the same people keep popping up, even though more than 30 were interviewed.