Connie & Jack: A Rigged Game -- A Sports Tragedy In Nine Episodes

 It's always tragic when talent is wasted. There is something inherently transcendent about a person exhibiting such immense talent. Like Tiger Woods with a golf club, Michael Phelps in a pool, or Mia Hamm on a football pitch. 

 Remember when Shoeless Joe Jackson was banned from baseball for life after the 1919 Black Sox scandal, even though he was found not guilty by a jury of his peers?  

Connie & Jack: A Rigged Game is a narrative podcast about the tragic true story of Connie Hawkins, a once-in-a-generation New York City basketball superstar. 

Created and produced by Bo Belanger, the nine-episode series explores how Hawkins was expelled from college in 1961 and blackballed from the NBA due to his tangential association with Jack Molinas, an ex-NBA All-Star turned mob fixer.

The show follows the dramatic aftermath of his blackballing. Creator/ host Bo Belanger narrates how Hawkins' promising career at the University of Iowa was derailed by a rigged college betting ring orchestrated by Molinas, leaving him unfairly exiled.

Before eventually making it to the NBA and the ABA, Hawkins was forced to play for the Harlem Globetrotters to provide for his family.

The series details the massive, multi-million dollar antitrust lawsuit Hawkins and his brilliant legal team filed against the NBA to clear his name.

 

In the first episode, Mr. Belanger details that "Before he is The Hawk, Connie Hawkins is a scrawny, bullied kid from Brooklyn called Long Tall Sally. By 18, he transformed into the best high school player New York has ever seen. The University of Iowa wins the recruiting lottery, paying him $300 a month to attend. But when an investigation into a college betting ringleader named Jack Molinas drags Connie back to the city, his one shot at a better life is ripped away."

 Based on a true story, this podcast follows Connie Hawkins — a once-in-a-generation NYC basketball superstar who, in 1961, is expelled from college and later blackballed from the NBA for a crime he didn’t commit. His downfall is his association with Jack Molinas, an ex-NBA All-Star turned mob fixer.

 The series follows Connie's highly anticipated rookie season with the Phoenix Suns, where he faces colossal expectations despite a bad knee. Then, in the last episode, Mr. Belanger explores the alternate reality of what Hawkins'  career and legacy could have been if the NBA hadn't blackballed him. Finally, Mr. Belanger charts the contrasting lives of Connie Hawkins and Jack Molinas, revealing what their intertwined stories say about America.

Creator/ host Bo Belanger is a copywriter, developing such notable ad campaigns as Taco T***day with LeBron, Breakfast Apology with Pete Davidson, Nacho Fries Fry Again, breakfast Tacos with Pete Davidson, and the Drive-Thru Dialogues TikTok series.

Bo Belanger explains on his website: "That’s me and Howie. I was never a dog person until I started dating Howie’s mom, and now I’m head over heels (for both of ’em). Married, writing ads (and other things), taking Howie for bike rides and losing my mind over Celtics games — that’s my life. Oh, and I just moved back to Boston from LA, so now I get to attend Celts games in person. Life is good."  

Bo Belanger explains: "I have no podcasting experience. My background as a writer is in narrative storytelling. I used to work in Hollywood and wrote countless TV and movie scripts. During my first five years or so in Hollywood, I studied script writing by reading and dissecting my favorite movies and TV show scripts, and I read all the storytelling books I could get my hands on (classics like Story by Robert McKee and The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell)." 

Bo Belanger continues: "I thought of it as my graduate degree. I also had helpful mentors who helped me become a better writer. A few years later, I was helping some friends develop a show about the ABA and did a lot of research for them. This is when I first read Foul! by David Wolf which tells the story of Connie Hawkins." 

It helps when the creator/host loves the topic: "I love basketball. If writing was my second love, basketball was my first. I loved playing, but I've also always been a basketball nerd who loves the history of the game since I was a kid. One of my favorite things to do is to talk to my dad about basketball players and series from the 60s, 70s, and 80s." 

 Connie & Jack: A Rigged Game is superbly written, produced, and narrated by Bo Belanger. The show is carefully crafted, and Mr. Belanger makes you feel the tragedy of Connie Hawkins, the man's resilience, and his Rocky Balboa-like ascension when he plays for the Phoenix Suns in 1969 at age 27. 

Hawkins immediately became a superstar in the NBA, averaging 24.6 points and 10.4 rebounds per game in his rookie season and earning First-Team All-NBA honors.

Fittingly, Connie Hawkins earned enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. 

Bo Belanger tells Ear Worthy a story that exemplifies the trials and tribulations of any independent podcast: "I researched, wrote and produced this project alone. But I had many helpers along the way. First, was Shawn Hawkins. Shawn's patience and encouragement kept me at this during the low periods of the project. One anecdote illustrates it best: We actually sold the project at one point to Dan Patrick's company. I only FaceTimed to tell Shawn the good news when it was a done deal. Except it wasn't." 

Bo continues the saga: "After a couple of weeks working on it, they pulled the plug. I dreaded FaceTiming Shawn back to tell him the bad news. I was really devastated when they pulled out. It was my lowest low of the whole project. I FaceTimed Shawn and told him the bad news, and he was the one who lifted my spirits, telling me to hang in there, that we'll get there. That's Shawn."

Like all talented indie podcasters, Bo Belanger has collaborators to thank: "Dave Wagg and Colin Thomas did all the sound design for me on the project. That last collaborator I need to mention is my wife, whose emotional support helped me get this over the finish line after five or six years. It was a wild roller coaster ride over the years - the breakthroughs, near misses - and she kept me buckled in when I likely would have fallen out on my own."

Bo Belanger's future projects include: "I'm rewriting my first novel now. It's called Boom Goes the Boomer, and it's about two disillusioned thirty-somethings who go on a darkly comedic killing spree targeting the powerful boomers who sold out their future in America. Very different from this but very fun to write. After that, I will get back to basketball and hope to do another audio project to build on the audience I'm slowly building. I have a basketball/music idea that I'd like to pursue."

Connie & Jack: A Rigged Game is a brilliant narrative podcast that offers listeners the highs and lows of sports, and the precarious nature of life. The show was carefully curated by a talented writer with a love of the sport of basketball, who recognized the tragedy inherent in the story of basketball great Connie Hawkins and gambler Jack Molinas. With a talent for audio narrative podcasting, Mr. Belanger should consider a future podcast project!