Must Watch · ESPN’s “Saban”

He Coached Football. Every Hooper Still Needs to Watch This.

Nick Saban never drew up a pick-and-roll. Doesn’t matter. ESPN just dropped six episodes on the coach who won seven national titles, and it’s the clearest look you’ll get at what being great actually costs.

Not the highlight version. The 6 a.m. version. If you’re serious about this game, clear a weekend.

Nov. 5 · One-day badge Earn THE STANDARD, our badge honoring Coach Saban, in the ABC Challenge. See the badge and how to earn it.

What Is the Saban Documentary?

Saban is a six-part ESPN Original directed by Russell Dinallo. Saban sat for seven interviews. More than 70 other people talked, including Bill Belichick, Kirby Smart, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Derrick Henry, Bryce Young, DeVonta Smith and Julio Jones. His wife, Miss Terry, is all over it.

The best part is the footage. Alabama spent years quietly archiving its own locker rooms and team meetings. Saban says he had no idea: “I never knew that stuff existed.” So you’re not watching a coach perform for a camera. You’re watching the real room.

Watch the trailer

Trailer via ESPN. Not loading? Watch it on ESPN.

The Process, Explained for Hoopers

Episode 1 is called “The Process,” and it’s the whole philosophy. Saban built it at Michigan State in the ’90s with a psychiatry professor named Lonny Rosen. The idea is simple and brutal. Stop looking at the scoreboard. Stop thinking about the trophy. Win the rep in front of you. Then win the next one.

That’s it. No hack. No secret drill. Greatness is boring, and that’s the secret.

Now translate it. Your ranking doesn’t matter today. Your offer list doesn’t matter today. Your mixtape views don’t matter today. Did you get your shots up at game speed or not? That’s the Process.

What It’s Like to Play for Nick Saban

Hard. The series doesn’t hide it.

It also worked. In 17 seasons at Alabama, 133 of his players were drafted into the NFL. 47 of them went in the first round.

Episode 3, “Black Diamonds,” goes back to West Virginia, where Saban’s father coached his Pop Warner team and pushed him to be perfect. The standard didn’t start in Tuscaloosa. He inherited it. Then he handed it to every player he ever coached.

Hoopers know the type. Pop was that coach. The one who sees the mistake you hoped nobody saw.

Here’s what should get your attention. They came back. Heisman winners, first-round picks and Super Bowl champions all sat down for this. Lindsay Rovegno, an executive producer at ESPN, put it like this: “Even though he was tough on them, he really inspired them.”

The Jalen Hurts Lesson: What You Do After You Get Benched

January 2018. National title game. Alabama is down 13–0 to Georgia at the half. Saban benches his starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts, for a freshman named Tua Tagovailoa. Tua throws the game-winner in overtime. The cameras caught Saban telling Tua he was going in, and it’s in the series.

Now ask what you’d do if you were Hurts. Benched. Biggest stage in the sport. Whole country watching.

He stayed another year. He worked. Eleven months later, in the SEC title game against that same Georgia team, Tua went down hurt. Hurts came off the bench and won it. Years later he was a Super Bowl MVP.

When the series premiered in Tuscaloosa, Miss Terry told the crowd that Hurts had sent white flowers to their house to say thank you.

The guy who got benched sent flowers. Read that again. Then go read how to earn more playing time.

5 Nick Saban Lessons Every Hooper Should Steal

Watch with a notebook. Start here.

Write down what hits. That’s what the Legacy Basketball Journal is for.

How to Watch the Saban Documentary

All six episodes are streaming on ESPN right now (you’ll need an ESPN subscription). On TV, ESPN is rolling them out through the finale on Thursday, Nov. 5. Fair warning: it isn’t cut like a hype reel, and Episode 1 takes its time. Stick with it.

ABC Challenge · One-Day Badge The Standard We made a badge for Coach Saban. You get one day to earn it. Thursday, Nov. 5 · Gone at midnight

Why “The Standard”? Because that was the program. Not a slogan on a wall. A bar that didn’t move for 17 years. The badge carries it: the straw hat from the practice field, a coach’s whistle, and seven rings underneath. One from LSU, six from Alabama.

How the Nov. 5 Bonus Challenge Works

Saban was a head coach at four schools: Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama. The pool for this one is the 155 NBA players who came out of them.

You get seven random letters. For each one, name an NBA player from any of those four schools. Seven letters. Seven rings on the badge.

Michigan State and LSU hand you Hall of Famers. Alabama hands you Horry, who has seven rings just like Coach and is still not in the Hall of Fame. Toledo is where you find out who really knows ball.

Play it on Nov. 5 and THE STANDARD goes in your Trophy Case. The challenge is live midnight to midnight, your local time. After that the badge is gone for good. Coach would tell you that’s the point. You don’t get the day back.

Saban is an ESPN Original from ESPN and Words + Pictures. HoopWrld is not affiliated with ESPN, Nick Saban, or any school named here. Quotes via Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News and AL.com. Draft totals via 247Sports.