'Hoops, Hopes & Dreams' Creators Discuss the Secret Power of Basketball | THR Studio at Park City - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Director and producer of 'Hoops, Hopes & Dreams' Glenn Kaino, along with producers Alexys Feaster, Afshin Shahidi and Jesse Williams visit the THR Studio at Park City to tell us about the unknown story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Obama using their basketball skills as a means of cultural movement.

Transcript

00:00If you played with MLK today, would you dunk on five?

00:02Yes, that was brilliant.

00:04And all of them said yes.

00:05And I was surprised, going like, really?

00:07Yeah.

00:08Except for CJ, CJ said, I'm not dunking,

00:10but I'd cross him up and hit a three in his face.

00:11Right.

00:12No respect.

00:13Yeah, there's no decorum on the corner.

00:14Right.

00:18This project came about because Afshina and I and Jesse,

00:21we've actually worked for years with the athlete Tommy Smith,

00:24who in 1968 did the salute of the Olympic Games.

00:27And one of the things we do is help him start his foundation.

00:30And every year, there's a foundation gala.

00:32And a couple of years back, Ambassador Andrew Young was the honoree.

00:35And he got on stage and he says, he says, Tommy,

00:38did I ever tell you the time that Dr. King and I used to play

00:40basketball to connect with kids in the movement?

00:42And so I'm the Asian guy in the back of the house.

00:45And I dropped my fork and I was like, what did I just hear?

00:48And so I literally navigated the tables

00:51and ambushed Ambassador Young before he got into his car,

00:54told him I had never heard that before.

00:55And I would love to have the opportunity

00:58to tell that story on film.

01:01And he said, I love basketball.

01:03I love Dr. King.

01:04I love Tommy.

01:05Of course, let's do it.

01:06It's a weird line of work because there's

01:07like a status attached to it.

01:09And also recognize it's probably one of the only lines of work

01:11where you meet people at a party and they, what do you do?

01:14And you say you're an actor.

01:16And they're kind of, no.

01:19Or like, what are you in?

01:20And you give them your resume suddenly.

01:22You're now auditioning for their validation and you name a project.

01:25And they're like, nah, I haven't seen that.

01:28It's like, it's not a yes or no question.

01:29I'm telling you what I do for a living.

01:31So that can happen.

01:33We started with knowing that we had this really great story

01:35of Martin Luther King Jr. playing basketball that we thought

01:38that not many people heard.

01:40And everyone knew and a lot of people know that President Obama

01:45enjoyed basketball and played basketball.

01:47Hearing from Mike Struttmanis and Reggie Love, more of the details

01:50and some of the behind the scenes was really great.

01:52But through the process, we actually did interview a few other NBA

01:55players, aside from Jerry West, some current NBA players.

01:59And really, when it came down to honing into the medium

02:03of documentary short, it sort of became the film that you can see now.

02:08But I think there were a lot of discoveries along the way.

02:12And a myriad of stories about how basketball has been used historically

02:16as connective tissue in movement making and community building.

02:19Would you say?

02:20Yeah, absolutely.

02:21I mean, to Glenn's point, we interviewed everyone

02:24from CJ McCollum, who's the MBPA executive director,

02:27all folks that I worked with.

02:28I worked at the NBA for six and a half years,

02:30leading player development, and I lived in the bubble.

02:32And during that time in the bubble, I helped to, oh yeah.

02:35During COVID.

02:36During COVID.

02:37Yeah, no, it was during COVID.

02:38Literally, all they fed you was Mickey Mouse cookies.

02:40It was like the worst, but just take that off.

02:42What the hell is a Mickey Mouse cookie?

02:43It's horrible.

02:43You lived in Disney, and they gave you-

02:45Wait, you said a cookie in the shape of Mickey Mouse?

02:46Yeah, and hot dogs.

02:47That's what they were feeding us.

02:48When you're in that type of environment with a bunch of NBA

02:51players who do not want to live in a bubble and be sequestered

02:54after watching George Floyd get murdered, it felt wrong.

02:58So they were in there saying, we're basically in a cage.

03:00You're basically in jail.

03:02You're not allowed to leave, and if you leave,

03:03you don't get a paycheck.

03:04So having that experience and living amongst that experience,

03:08the only thing I could do is, well, let me figure out

03:10how to motivate them.

03:11And the only thing you can motivate them to do is, let's vote.

03:13Let's change the laws.

03:14Like, what can we do to make a difference

03:15as our own individual people?

03:17And I remember getting, you know, standing in the hallway,

03:20and guys would go to practice, and I'd be like,

03:21please register to vote.

03:22This is the way we make a difference.

03:24And so, you know, taking that experience and the work

03:26that we did in the bubble and afterwards with some other work,

03:31it was really, really not lost on us that we needed to interview

03:33those guys to talk about that experience.

03:35So to Glenn's point, we have so much footage of Michelle Roberts

03:38and just many, many others talking about what that meant

03:40to be part of that movement because we saw what happened

03:42with the country.

03:43The players decided to take a stand,

03:45and then the whole country followed suit.

03:47So to not include that is tough.

03:49And so to have someone, you know, a director like Glenn

03:51who's so amazing and can see the vision of what needs

03:53to be in a film like this to ensure that it's right on time

03:56for what we need right now, who could have imagined

03:59that we're airing during MLK's birthday week, you know?

04:02What I do appreciate is that many of the men have given credit

04:05to the women of the movement.

04:06So they went to the WNBA players and asked them how they were able

04:09to take a stand and be strategic during those times.

04:12And so they're getting the guidance from the women.

04:13We all know that they are the ones that led the way.

04:15We also know that women don't get the level of publicity

04:18that the male athletes do.

04:19Obviously, that's changing a bit, and I, for one,

04:22am very excited to see that in all these different ways.

04:24But we know that they have been at the forefront of this

04:27for many, many years.

04:29It was also, you know, Glenn made a choice in the film

04:33outside of the documentary subjects.

04:35We open the film with a young boy walking in,

04:37and it ends that baton being passed to a young girl.

04:41So outside of the subject of the documentary world,

04:44there's a bit of symbolism there.

04:45Yeah, absolutely.

04:46I play, I coach my daughter's team, so I play with her,

04:50and I play somewhat, somewhat regularly with friends

04:55and never run.

04:56When I met President Obama in the Oval Office,

04:58I was sitting in the lobby, and his voice, I heard him,

05:04he was coming to get us, and his voice started to get louder.

05:07And when your voice, when a voice of President Obama

05:09gets louder, it's usually because I'm walking away

05:11from the TV or closer to the TV.

05:12Yeah, yeah, yeah.

05:13But to have the voice get louder, I'm like,

05:15he's coming.

05:15It's happening.

05:16It's happening to him, you know, oh, it was that moment.

05:18When I met Obama, too, I literally got weak in the knees,

05:21which was like a weird thing.

05:22I didn't know that was a real thing.

05:24Holy shit, I'm getting weak in the knees.

05:27So with Obama, same thing.

05:28I remember, I worked for him, but I remember he walked

05:30down the hallway when I did an event with him

05:32and Jay-Z and Beyonce, and he came down the hallway,

05:35and he was like, hey, and I know he's not talking to me.

05:37I know he's talking to, like, Beyonce.

05:39And he was like, no, I'm talking to you.

05:41And I was like, and he just said, you know, thank you.

05:44Like, I really appreciate it.

05:45I knew this was an event that you did.

05:46And he just wanted to, like, let me know that he knew

05:48it was something that I put together.

05:50And at that moment, having Jay and Bea look at me

05:53and be like, you go, girl.

05:55I was like, I'm now like, the trifecta.

05:57And there's a photo.

05:58I have a photo of it of her, like, leading in.

06:00And being like, you're like, and he's painting.

06:02Yeah, exactly.

06:03I was like, wow.

06:04So yeah, but he does have that effect.

06:06We were on stage.

06:07We hung out a few times.

06:10Yeah, no, he's, you know, he's one of those people

06:13where you're just like, oh, that's what charisma is.

06:15So it's a word that's thrown around a lot.

06:17But yeah, I've had the pleasure of meeting him

06:20and Michelle, equally impressive, of course.

06:24Could anyone here beat him in basketball, you think?

06:27I could take him, probably.

06:28I think just age.

06:32Yeah.

06:33So what was surprising for me, the number of NBA players

06:37that we interviewed, and one of the questions Glenn was asking

06:40them was, would you, if you played with MLK today,

06:42would you dunk on him?

06:44Yes.

06:44That was hilarious.

06:45And all of them said yes.

06:47And I was surprised, because I'm like, really?

06:49Yeah.

06:49Except for CJ, CJ said, I'm not dunking,

06:51but I crossed him up and hit a three in his face.

06:53Right.

06:54No respect.

06:54Yeah, there's no decorum on the court.

06:56Right.

06:56There's no prisoners.

06:57Here, there, there.

06:58There, there,

'Hoops, Hopes & Dreams' Creators Discuss the Secret Power of Basketball | THR Studio at Park City

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