In his famous 1993 ESPY speech, legendary NC State coach Jim Valvano said everybody should take the time to laugh, think and be moved to tears every day.

Those emotions were in abundance for about 3,500 people on Monday night at Reynolds Coliseum for the screening of ESPN's new 30 for 30 film, 'Survive and Advance,' which tells the story of Valvano's memorable 1983 NCAA Championship team.

However, that's not the only story woven throughout the documentary. Director Jonathan Hock and executive producer Dereck Whittenburg, one of the Wolfpack's three seniors on that championship squad, wanted the tale of the team's unpredictable run in March to parallel the personal battle Valvano fought with cancer years later because of the similar ways that the coach attacked both obstacles and believed when no one else would.

"The things that he used to keep them believing in each other were the very same things he used to keep fighting cancer, and of course, that's his great victory," Hock said. "Coach K [Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski] said when we interviewed him — it's not in the film — that the one victory he feels that the gods gave [Valvano] in the NCAA Tournament was to set up his greater victory, which was the V Foundation and how that has changed the world. A basketball game is just a basketball game, but what the V Foundation does has really changed the world, and that's what he wanted to do.

"He was a very powerful man with a tremendous ego, and he refused to believe that even cancer could defeat him. He found a way to beat it."

Valvano was not the only piece of that team that is no longer here after Lorenzo Charles passed away in June of 2011. That loss occurred after Whittenburg and Hock had begun preliminary discussions about the film, but dramatically altered the course of the movie.

"To go through that march of nine unbelievable games knowing the coach is doomed and the guy that is going to make the winning basket is doomed, does change it," Hock explained. "Suddenly, the piece had a whole different meaning. Now, Dereck felt that it was certainly as much a team effort as anything ever, but the three faces that everybody really associates with the final moment are Jimmy V, Lorenzo and Whit; Whit's the only one left to tell the story.

"It became, at that moment, a very personal journey for me, as well as for Whitt."

It was difficult to tell the story without those two major pieces of the team that cut down the nets in Albuquerque, but such is real life and most everything else about that NC State squad just seemed too good to be true.

"I think, to me, one surprise was the depth of the love among the players and the coach," Hock noted. "A lot of times, that's make believe. As storytellers, we all need to tell stories and sometimes, when the story isn't quite there, we sort of layer in what we need to make it a good story. But this one — when we were all together at Players' Retreat with all of the players from the team — the chemistry, the love and the connection that every one of those guys have is so deep and so real that I was like, 'Hallelujah, it's really genuine. Finally, there is a story of a team where the guys really are that way.'

"These guys have a camaraderie that is unbelievable, and you just get the feeling that any of them can not see each other for however long, but as soon as they're in the same room, they are just back at it, giving each other a hard time, laughing and crying together. It was amazing."

Whittenburg was the original catalyst behind the idea, and his presence was an irreplaceable one, according to Hock.

"Working hand-in-hand with him has been one of the great experiences of my career," he said. "He's the best, he's amazing. He's got such a gigantic heart. He came on all the shoots, he was lugging gear through the airports. He would do anything to help get the story told right.

"There are two ways to get people to smile at you constantly — one is to put a baby in a Baby Bjorn and walk down the street in New York City, and suddenly everybody smiles at you. The other way is to walk around campus in Raleigh with Dereck Whittenburg. Those are the only two times in my life I experienced walking down the street and every single person smiled at us."

The director had never been to Raleigh before the project began, but was thrilled with the opportunity to screen the move before its debut this Sunday on ESPN at Reynolds Coliseum, which was not only the team's home arena, but also the setting for the movie's unexpected climax.

"The biggest surprise was the scene at Reynolds for the 10th anniversary when Coach V came out and addressed the crowd and the team," Hock explained. "It was the last time that all of the guys on the team saw him. I didn't know that had happened. Everybody knows the ESPY speech, but when we discovered that footage from Reynolds, we knew that was the climax of the film, not the ESPYs or the game against Houston. It was that moment at Reynolds when these people who had conquered the world together were looking at one another for the last time and knew it, and the incredible dignity and grace that Coach V showed that day after all the turmoil he had been through.

"When he does the fight song, as Tim Peeler noted, what a beautiful gesture from the dying man to sing the fight song together and give that appreciation and love back to the fans. That's what we all think sports should be about and it's hardly ever about that — except with this team, it really was."

Hock was thankful for being able to chronicle the 1983 team because it is one story that will never be able to be duplicated, just like the man behind it all, Valvano. The coach's spirit shines through in every clip selected for the movie, and was the reason why the team was able to accomplish what they did that March.

"That's what his spirit did here — it lifted the players to the highest place they were capable of going," Hock said. "It was a very sort of mystical relationship they had, this believing when there's no reason to believe.

"The thing is, college basketball is never going to be as good as it was then, it's just not. There's some nostalgia when people say that — a lot of things people say aren't as good as they were, and they really are — but college basketball isn't because Ralph Sampson isn't a senior going against Whitt, Sidney [Lowe] and Thurl [Bailey] as seniors. The way the game and the rivalries had a chance to incubate over seasons, it really took a different kind of characteristic, and players got better every year. If guys stayed today, it would be just as good, but they don't.

"It's impossible to happen again. There's 68 teams now, so State wouldn't have to win the ACC Tournament to get in, so the drama, the caliber of play and everything was just better than it is now. We can still have fun with it now, but it's never going to be like that again. It's 30 years out and you appreciate it more, I think."

It was a new way to tell the story that everybody already knows, and also helped achieve the range of emotions that Valvano implored all to go through each day.

"It was just an unbelievable experience," Ernie Myers, a freshman guard on that team, said. "Even though I lived that, it was from a different perspective. It was a lot of love and emotions. Even though I knew what the outcome was going to be, I was still kind of sitting on the edge of my seat, and I was there. It kind of got me."

"I couldn't be more pleased," Whittenburg said of the final project. "One of the keys was that I had a guy that I could trust. Johnathan Hock is not just an outstanding filmmaker, but he's a guy that you can trust, he's a good person. I just trusted his lead and told the story.

"I trusted him, he trusted me and it couldn't have been put together any better."