Basketball Man making fast break toward Oscar?

Check this out. It's an early trailer for the documentary feature Basketball Man, and it's become a surprise hit on the Internet video sites, ranking high among top-rated sports videos on YouTube and on Google's new video channel.

Basketball Man tells (for the first time) the life story of the game's inventor, Dr. James Naismith, while following his grandson Ian around the country as he carries the game's 13 original typed rules in a golden attache case.

Hoop greats and legends including Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, John Wooden, Norm van Lier, Steve Nash, Kirk Hinrich, Pat Summitt, Rick Barry, NBA commissioner David Stern are featured in the picture, which premieres at a gala event at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas.

There's already Oscar talk about this one. And no surprise, since it's the latest work from Frozen Pictures, producers of the Burt Reynolds sports movie comedy, Cloud 9, which proved hugely influential at the last Academy Awards, has become a huge hit on DVD. Frozen also made Court TV ratings history with its landmark documentary series Adults Only: The Secret History of The Other Hollywood, produced the ground-breaking docudrama series, My First Time (which made news recently when the TV Land network stole the name for some series), and whose acclaimed miniseries All The Presidents' Movies with Martin Sheen is headed for an Election Day DVD release.

Keep up with Basketball Man news here.