The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh

In "The Book of Basketball", Bill Simmons mentions that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vanished from the climactic game's fourth quarter without explanation. Simmons wrote that he researched and found two possible explanations: the shooting schedule was far behind, so Kareem had to leave the set and wasn't able to return, or Kareem found out that Julius Erving was being paid more than him and angrily walked off the production. In 2013, Erving revealed that Kareem was fired from the film when he sat in Director of Photography Frank Stanley's chair, Stanley kindly asked Kareem for his seat back, and Kareem responded by heaving the chair across the basketball court.

The score before the timeout of the last game was Los Angeles 101, Pittsburgh 91, but when the game resumed, the Pisces made well over ten field goals. Their victory should have been by a double-digit margin.

ABC edited 8 minutes from this film for its 1982 network television premiere.

Featured in Sneak Previews: French Postcards/The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh/The Marriage of Maria Braun/The Rose/Best Boy (1979)