To mark the league’s 75 anniversary season, the National Basketball Association has rounded up 30 current and former star players for a short film that will be used as the basis for a promotion campaign.
The film is called NBA Lane and is set in a fictional neighborhood where players all live.
Actor Michael B. Jordan stars as a bus driver and narrator. Michael Jordan, the greatest NBA player of all time, does not appear in the film.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t legends in the lineup. The all-time greats involved include Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Current stars are LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Zion Williamson. Lil Penny also makes an appearance.
The NBA will start showing the film on social media on Thursday. It will begin airing on television networks Sunday, with 30- and 60-second versions of the film airing across all platforms during the fall. Additional adaptations will be produced around marquee events throughout the season, with new faces added in.
“As someone who has been a member of the NBA Family for the past 65 years, I can truly say, like I do in NBA Lane, ‘This game just keeps getting better,’ ” said Russell. “Being a part of this film, alongside so many greats representing nearly eight decades of the league’s history, is a great thrill and a tremendous honor.”
The NBA’s season tips off Oct. 19 on TNT.
"NBA Lane was created as a way to honor both the history and future of the NBA,” said NBA chief marketing officer Kate Jhaveri. “We are thrilled to bring together some of the league’s greatest players and legends to celebrate not just the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Season, but also the connection fans have built with our game.”
The short film was created in conjunction with Translation LLC and directed by Rick Famuyiwa and Emmett Malloy of the Malloy Brothers.
