NBA Stars’ Growing Interest In Hollywood Is Heating Up

The summer used to be a time when NBA players would rarely pop up in the news. They were on vacation, quietly working on their game in a gym, or spending time with family and friends. However, that trend seems to be rapidly changing. Now, stars like Stephen Curry can be seen on TV with his show, Holey Moley and LeBron James is busy filming the long-awaited and highly anticipated sequel to Space Jam. NBA athletes are recognizing that their time is limited during the season and that they must take advantage of the summer to grow their off-court endeavors. And recently, more and more players have found themselves getting into the film and television industry. If it seems like there are a lot of NBA players with production companies these days, just wait. This is a trend that is only going to increase with time.

Some players based in Los Angeles seem to have made a quicker leap into the industry. Before being traded to Detroit, Blake Griffin had established himself in Hollywood, launching Mortal Media with former NFL player Ryan Kalil. Under Mortal Media, Griffin has sold a comedy to NBC Television, a Sci-Fi film concept to Paramount as well as securing the rights to remakes of the films, The Rocketeer and White Men Can’t Jump. Former Clippers teammate Chris Paul also launched his own production company, partnering with Big Fish an MGM company, which will allow him to continue developing both scripted and unscripted projects.

Of course, much like on the basketball court, LeBron James is king among his peers in Hollywood. His production company SpringHill Entertainment has had a massive reach in just a few years. The list of projects the company has produced is long and their development slate is even longer. James also launched the digital media company Uninterrupted, which was able to raise millions from Warner Bros. and Turner Sports as it has continued to grow into one of the strongest brands in sports media. In addition to his own ventures, his longtime friend and agent Rich Paul has grown his Klutch Sports into a major player– having recently partnered with UTA. Paul will now oversee the newly created UTA Sports as well as operate Klutch as its own unique brand. This level of synergy will undoubtedly benefit James as UTA’s clients in Hollywood count among the most powerful in the business.

Of course, once the season starts, much of the action in Hollywood with these athletes will have to take a backseat to NBA Championship aspirations. However, many of these production companies are fully functioning entities, not reliant on their star founders to be there every day. And with many of them branching out to projects outside of sports, they have begun to establish themselves as legitimate power players in the world of film and television.

Competitive by nature, don’t be surprised when more and more NBA athletes turn their eyes towards Hollywood. Given the widespread success of these ventures, players will be eager to leverage their brands to build businesses in the content space. Of course, there may come a time when the market is too saturated and the money dries up. But for now, the partnership between Hollywood and NBA is only growing. And the battle for supremacy in this new space is only just getting started.