6 Must-See HBO Max Sports Documentaries to Watch Now (November 2025)

HBO Max is your one-stop shop for some of the most compelling sports documentaries streaming has to offer.

Sports documentaries have become the foundation of the streamer’s high-quality content, just like its well-known TV series. In addition to showcasing real-life narratives in films, they also look at the cultural impact of sports.

November, watch with us Highlighting two great sports documentaries you need to watch right now, both about Major League Baseball legends: Alex vs Arold and The Charlie Hustle and Pete Rose thing.

Read on to see our complete list.

“Alex and Arrod” (2025)

A baseball player’s polarizing career Alex Rodriguez This fascinating three-way documentary tells the story, including intimate interviews with Rodriguez himself. Rodriguez was just 18 when he was drafted, and once he reached the major leagues in 1994, he seemed ready to take over baseball pretty quickly. In 2000, he signed a record-setting contract to join the Texas Rangers, but after joining the Yankees in 2004, he began taking steroids. When this was discovered, he was exiled – despite first trying to lie.

Self-described “recovering narcissist” Alex vs Arold It’s a brutally honest interrogation of Rodriguez’s drug use and public cheating, rather than a pure celebration of his career highlights. Rodriguez finally gets refreshingly candid about his choices and where they stem from, after being tit-for-tat by director Gotham Chopra. Alex vs Arold It’s a fascinating and illuminating look at failure and recovery.

Charlie Hustle and Pete Rose (2024)

baseball player Peter Ross In 1989, he was banned from Major League Baseball after it was discovered that he had bet on games while he was the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, Ross has attempted to lobby against his ban but does not appear to repent of his actions. Charlie Hustle and Pete Rose This book is an illuminating look at the career of a star and the most popular sports leader in history, while also exploring Rose’s own path to redemption.

The four-part documentary includes never-before-seen interviews with the late Ross, portraying him as a man unwilling to atone even more than three decades later, with director Mark Munroe catching him in his many lies and even interrogating him over statutory rape charges. It’s a sobering yet compelling portrait of fame, despair, and denial.

“What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali” (2019)

directed by Antoine Fuqua (training day), a documentary chronicling the life and legacy of a boxing star muhammad ali. The film follows Ali’s journey to becoming a heavyweight champion, from the pinnacle of his career as a champion boxer to his later life as an icon and social activist. Through his many challenges, conflicts, triumphs and setbacks, Fuqua paints a portrait of a man who became a legend and ultimately a symbol of humanity and peace.

Although the film is nearly three hours long, it does not feel overly long at all. Drawing on archival footage, Ali is able to tell his story through numerous interviews that clearly reveal the professional and personal contradictions of a man who was easily mythologized, but who was ultimately just a human being, one whose ego occasionally threatened him. As such, his legendary status in this compelling life story is both humanizing and immortal.

“Tiger” (2021)

Based on a 2018 biography Tiger Woods, tiger is a two-part miniseries that explores the iconic golfer’s rise, fall and eventual return to the green. The documentary explores Tiger Woods’ relationship with his father and its impact on his career, as well as his 2009 cheating scandal. tiger A portrait of a talented athlete whose dedication and skill brought him unspeakable fame, but also brought him untold excess, which plunged him into a dark spiral, but made a triumphant return with victory at the 2019 Masters.

Rather than featuring the testimony and opinions of the man himself, tiger Utilize interviews with people around Woods. This includes his former caddy Steve Williamshis ex-girlfriend, Bryant Gumbel, Nick Faldo, even Teacher Rachel —Journalists and media figures involved in Woods’ cheating scandal. Although tiger Even without Woods’ voice, it’s still an incredibly insightful and illuminating look at the golfing great, revealing his flaws in a way that exposes his own humanity.

Magic and Birds: The Rival’s Courtship (2010)

Beginning with the 1979 NCAA Championship Game, star athletes magic johnson and Larry Bird Setting up their years-long rivalry. In 1979, after Johnson’s Michigan Spartans defeated Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores, Johnson was selected to the Los Angeles Lakers, while Bird went to the Boston Celtics, eventually winning the title of “Rookie of the Year.” The Celtics and Lakers have gone back and forth between the NBA title over the years.

Ultimately, both men’s careers were cut short by physical ailments: Johnson was diagnosed with HIV and Bird suffered a back injury. Magic and Birds: The Rival’s Courtship Documenting the two athletes’ rise to fame, rivalry, retirement and current status as real-life friends. This Peabody Award-winning documentary examines the heydays of the Celtics and Lakers and the racial tensions that fueled the rivalry between the Celtics and Lakers, crafting a compelling story of two men’s quest for greatness, both ultimately ruined by their own vices.

“Fist of Freedom: The Story of the ’68 Summer Olympics” (1999)

This 1999 sports documentary revolves around the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, one of the most important moments culturally and socially for the United States. Racial tensions have grown since a year that claimed two lives Martin Luther King Jr. and chairman John F. Kennedy, Game culminates with historic ‘Black Power’ tribute from winning athlete tommy smith and john carlos When they stand in victory.

In addition to interviews with Smith and other athletes, rare archival footage is used Lee Evans and George Foremanplus activist Harry Edwards, Free Fist: The Story of the ’68 Summer Olympics Taking viewers back to key moments of the 20th century and the events that happened before and after. Ultimately, the two men were not well-received after making a provocative gesture, and it became a revealing portrait of respectability politics and civil rights issues that continue to this day.