Morgan Freeman: Voice of Green, the Voice of Sports

Morgan Freeman not only is an Oscar-winning actor (Best Supporting Actor, 2005, for “Million Dollar Baby”, he’s also phenomenal as a Voice-of-God voice-over talent. He recently lent that voice to a bullish, “climate change is solvable” video.

We want to share that video on this blog, but, to make this a true GreenSportsBlog post, we needed to find a good sports-related video narrated by Freeman…

First, here’s the link to the inspirational climate change video, “What’s Possible”, narrated by Freeman.

It was presented to world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York last month. At 3 mins 50 secs, this short inspirational film demonstrates that climate change is indeed solvable in the here-and-now. We have the technologies now to harness nature sustainably for a clean, prosperous energy future, but only if we have the concerted will to act now to make the necessary changes to move us away from fossil fuel-based energy. It’s a big ask, no doubt. But, the problem is so big, so vast, we have to think and act big. The video might sound a bit pollyanna-ish but why not think and act big?

OK, so what Freeman-voice-overed sports video can I pair with “What’s Possible”?

An obvious choice would be the ESPN 30 For 30 documentary, “The 16th Man”, about Nelson Mandela and the cinderella story of the 1995 South African Rugby World Cup champions.

Freeman played Mandela in “Invictus”, the bio-pic version of the story. So narrating “16th Man” is beyond fitting. Here’s the link to Part 1 of the documentary. A no brainer, right? Freeman as Mandela–to pair with Freeman and Climate Change. But that’s a 90 minute film–who has that kind of time?

For a short video, instead of the Voice-of-God himself, we’re going with comedian Frank Caliendo’s hilarious impression of Freeman, narrating former Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson’s infamous 2002 “Practice!” rant. Iverson, who was as controversial as he was mercurial and talented, went off during a press conference at which he was being questioned by reporters about missing practice.

First, here’s Iverson’s actual rant (1 min 45 secs), amazing in its own right. And click here for the 1 min 15 sec Caliendo-as-Freeman version (Caliendo, appearing on ESPN’s “Mike and Mike” talk show, starts at around the 45 second mark of the Iverson rant–from then on, it’s word for word).