Bill Bradley’s extraordinary life extends well beyond basketball and the two NBA championships he won with the Knicks more than five decades ago.
It is an American tale with universal themes, he believes, and one he hopes resonates with people from various walks of life.
From the banks of the Mississippi River to the campuses of Princeton and Oxford to the roars of adulation at Madison Square Garden to the halls of Congress and a stalled presidential run, Bradley’s story will roll into the Tribeca Film Festival for three consecutive nights beginning Friday with a film adaptation of the one-man theatrical show. The hoops Hall of Famer and former U.S. Senator first put the project together about five years ago.
Bradley’s unflinching honesty in his storytelling resulted in “Rolling Along,” which was directed by Mike Tollin (Michael Jordan’s “The Last Dance” documentrary), with Spike Lee listed among the executive producers.
It is a 90-minute collection of yarns encompassing the soon-to-be 80-year-old’s remarkable life, largely in the public eye, while touching often on issues of race and how his beliefs were shaped by it — leading into his second act in politics.
“What I hope is, it’s something that everybody can have some way of identifying some aspect of the journey. I hope that it encourages people to see their neighbors’ humanity,” Bradley told The Post in a phone interview. “In that sense, the only way you can really do that is by being honest, and I would hope that this might in some small way contribute to some healing in the country. It means a lot to me.”
The idea was hatched while Bradley was speaking at a reception at Princeton in September 2018 after donating his political papers to his alma mater. One of the attendees was famed theater producer Manny Azenberg, who told the former three-term Democratic senator from New Jersey that his speech reminded him of the one-man show actor Hal Holbrook had performed as Mark Twain.
Within six months, Bradley had taken his show on the road for readings in 20 cities across the country before those plans were stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Bradley committed his script to memory, often on walks through Central Park, and filmed “Rolling Along” over four nights at the Jewel Box Theatre on 42nd Street in December 2021.
“It was very similar to practicing basketball,” Bradley said. “I remember my workouts when I was a kid, hit 25 in a row from five places, it’s the same thing. Whenever you shoot a basketball, you can’t think about the shot, you have to groove the shot. When you do a show like this, you can’t think about the words, you have to groove the words.”
Bradley grew up a banker’s son in Crystal City, Mo., and he says in the film that he first encountered racism as a youngster when his interracial Little League travel team was denied entry to certain hotels and restaurants. His beliefs were further shaped during the Civil Rights era while at Princeton and later from learning of the experiences of Knicks teammates such as Willis Reed — the team captain who passed away in March — Walt Frazier, Dick Barnett and Cazzie Russell.
“As I say at the very end of the film, where we are in the country today, I think we can learn from what made that Knicks team so successful 50 years ago,” Bradley said. “Take responsibility for yourself. Give your neighbor respect. Disagree with them honestly and openly, but enjoy their humanity and never look down on people you don’t understand.
“Those are all things that permeated my Knick experience, and that’s one of the reasons we were as good as we were. We realized that no one of us could be as good as all five of us together.”
Bradley, who lives in Manhattan, added that he “really enjoyed” the Knicks this season and their run to the second round of the playoffs. He also admitted he “can’t conceive” that it’s been five decades since he was a key cog in the franchise’s last title squad in 1973, their second over a four-year span.
“What’s happened in those 50 years, three terms in the Senate, ran for president [in 2000], all my teammates and I led their lives, and here we are, we’re still the Knicks’ last championship team,” Bradley said. “That bond will always be there and only deepens over time.”
That bond will continue when a few of his former teammates attend Tribeca this weekend in support of Bradley’s latest project.
“We did a focus group, and the people there were asked, ‘What do you think this was about?’ ” Bradley said. “One person said, ‘It’s about all of us; it’s about love of the game; it’s about love of the country; it’s about perseverance and forgiveness and defeat and loss.’
“Everyone experiences success and failure at some point in their lifetimes. Maybe it’s not an NBA title or losing a national election, but how you deal with those are universal experiences. That’s what I hope people take away from this.”
