Trailer: Bill Walton’s The Grateful Team
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Basketball, the Cold War, and rock band The Grateful Dead collide in this incredible true story. Presented by the late NBA star Bill Walton. Episodes weekly from 19 May. What do basketball, rock music, and tie-dye t-shirts have in common? And what about Mickey Hart, Sarunas Marciulionis, Arvydas Sabonis, and the US Dream Team? Well, they are all subject of the brand new season of Amazing Sport Stories: Bill Walton’s The Grateful Team. It’s Moscow, 1989, and Lithuanian basketball star Sarunas Marciulionis is walking nervously through the airport. If all goes to plan, a new life awaits playing basketball for the NBA in the US. But first, he must cross the Iron Curtain. Sarunas doesn’t yet know the incredible journey he is about to go on. One which will involve political upheaval, the Olympic games, the US rock band The Grateful Dead - and, of course, tie-dye. The late NBA star and sports commentator Bill Walton presents this extraordinary true story. Bill passed away in 2024, not long after recording the series, and his family have given permission for its release following his death. Amazing Sport Stories brings you the greatest twists and personal journeys from sport history. Listen for inspiring tales of courage, drama, myths and legends from all over the globe. All told in mini seasons and one-off documentary episodes. #AmazingSportStories
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Moscow 1989, and Lithuanian basketball star Shirunus Marshalonis is walking nervously |
| 0:09.5 | through the airport. |
| 0:11.1 | I didn't sleep much, you know, all kinds of things going through your head, you know, so I thought |
| 0:16.3 | maybe something will happen on the way to the airport or something. |
| 0:20.3 | If all goes to plan, a new life awaits, playing basketball for the NBA in the U.S. |
| 0:26.6 | But first, he must cross the iron curtain. |
| 0:31.0 | You a little bit worried to think what's going to happen next. |
| 0:35.1 | It is a time of political earthquake. |
| 0:38.7 | The communist bloc is fragmenting. |
| 0:41.4 | And Lithuanians are risking their lives to free themselves from half a century of Soviet rule. |
| 0:47.0 | We had tanks on the streets. |
| 0:49.1 | We didn't know if our dream of independence was going to start a war. |
| 0:56.9 | From the BBC World Service, a new three-part series of amazing sports stories, |
| 1:02.7 | Bill Walton's The Grateful Team. |
| 1:05.5 | It's a story which brings together sport, politics, and rock and roll. |
| 1:11.4 | We had a responsibility not only to win, but to achieve a victory, |
| 1:17.0 | so that the nation could be even more united in such difficult times. |
| 1:21.5 | Can newly independent Lithuania send a basketball team to the 1992 Olympics |
| 1:26.6 | and prove themselves on the world stage? |
| 1:29.7 | I never experienced any big concerts in our Lithuania week. |
| 1:33.5 | So that was my first experience with this life, grateful that country. |
| 1:37.9 | And how does an American rock band become the unlikely ally of Lithuanian basketball? |
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