‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ Trailer: LeBron and Bugs vs. the ‘Goon Squad’

The first full trailer for the upcoming Space Jam movie with LeBron James debuted on Saturday morning.

While LeBron James continues to recover from his high ankle sprain and his Los Angeles Lakers fight to stay high in the standings without him, James had another off-court milestone. On Saturday morning, Warner Bros. dropped the first trailer for LeBron’s “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” his biggest movie project yet as an actor.

In the trailer, the audience finally gets a chance to see what the actual story will be, after years of script rewrites and reports about what the movie is about. You can see the full trailer below, with LeBron James falling through the Warner Bros. “serververse” to save his son. James also has to finish the “Goon Squad,” which is likely where the other NBA and WNBA players will come in.

As fans have noted online after watching the trailer, it included one incredible reference to an iconic moment in LeBron’s career, his dunk trailing Dwyane Wade from their first year together on the Miami Heat.

The July 16 release date is projected to be during the 2021 NBA Finals, so James could potentially be playing in the Finals again while his blockbuster movie debuts.

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Top Class: What is it like to be the first person to interview Bronny James?

Top Class director Tevin Tavares shared his experiences about what it was like to create the documentary series about Sierra Canyon.

In the upcoming documentary series, “Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers,” releasing February 26 on Amazon Prime Video, we get an intimate look at the raucous environment that followed every move of the most famous high school basketball team in the country. Viewers are also given their first look into what it’s like to be Bronny James, approved by the James family.

Top Class Director Tevin Tavares doesn’t take the trust he’s been given from the James family lightly. He knows just how special it is to be the first person to conduct an on-camera interview with Bronny.

“He’s guarded,” Tavares said about the James family’s approach to telling the story of Bronny’s basketball career. “That’s the one thing I will say that I respect about Savannah and LeBron, they make sure that they control the story. Because the amount of questions that reporters would ask him would be wild.”

Bronny typifies the experience for many of the Canyon players. They may have massive followings, but the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers are still kids.  

“I think he’s humble, he’s smart, intelligent, funny, he loves his siblings. He’s still a kid,” Tavares says. “But he takes the pressure so well. And he’s respectful. Every time he saw me and the crew he would say what’s up. He would always joke around on camera. Sometimes he would have the VHS, sometimes Bryce would have the VHS recording stuff. Good, good kid.”

But as Tavares conveys in Top Class exceptionally well, Bronny is one part of an incredibly unique moment in time and a unique program in the country. Sierra Canyon’s basketball team operates almost like a European soccer club, finding players from all over the country and even China, to win at the highest level.

But it’s also a high school, one which the kids like Amari Bailey point out, that is geared towards the success of their students by having small class sizes.

“One day these kids are in Biology class and then the next day they’ve got 17,000 people screaming at them,” Tavares said.

Among some of the more poignant moments in the documentary involve Bailey, who puts on a show when the TrailBlazers make their trip to China after reflecting on how incredible it is to have made it all the way around the world because of a basketball. At 15 years old. Tavares felt a special connection with Bailey.

“Amari is an Aquarius and I’m an Aquarius as well. We didn’t even know if he was going to be featured on camera when we started. But as the season went on and on, the camera started getting more of him and when we sat down with him, he’s so smart. And he was only a sophomore, he was giving me so many gems and I was saying, this kid is light years ahead of his age.”

Perhaps if there’s one constant thread in the story is the struggle these kids face as basketball players with more fans than NBA teams and also the desire to simply be a kid.

And for Tavares, 26, he still finds himself in awe of the moment he was able to capture because of what started as his 18-year old dream. He first got inspired to become a filmmaker because of the legendary “Ringmaker” commercial that Nike made after LeBron James won his first championship ring. That he’s now directed a documentary series executive produced by LeBron, featuring his son, makes it feel “full circle,” as he experienced things he’d ever seen before in sports.

“In Virginia, there was an energy there that was like a college basketball game and a Super Bowl. There was an MC. Like NBA Street type of stuff. It felt like I was at a concert. I played sports all of my life and I had never experienced anything like that before at an NBA game.”

Of course, the Life and Times of the Trailblazers were not all increased followers, adoring fans and a lot of fun. We get to see the not-so-great side to being the son of a superstar with Zaire Wade, but we also see the heartwarming moments when his teammates hold him up.

We also see the team at a time of tragedy across the world following Kobe Bryant’s death, including an intimate look at LeBron James during his first public appearance after Bryant’s death, at a Sierra Canyon game in which they honored Bryant. The team also comes to grips with having their opportunity to win a state championship canceled due to the coronavirus.

There’s been no shortage of coverage of Bronny or Sierra Canyon. But what Top Class is able to do is cut through the noise and bring you an authentic and artistic look at a special group of kids, who both belies the maturity of professionals but also the natural desire to still be a kid while they can.

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‘Top Class’ docu-series on Sierra Canyon coming to Amazon February 26

LeBron James is listed as an Executive Producer on the project which is sure to feature his son, Bronny James.

There has been an unprecedented amount of media following Bronny James and the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers over the past couple of years, with massive crowds following them everywhere prior to the start of the coronavirus pandemic shutting down sanctioned high school sports in most of the country. But while there has been tons of coverage there was one caveat: no interviews with the players, especially Bronny. Now those who want to know what it was like on last year’s Sierra Canyon squad, the most famous high school team in the country, thanks to a documentary series executive produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter.

“Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers” will hit Amazon Prime Video’s free streaming service IMBdTV on February 26, according to a press release. IMDbTV also released a trailer to show viewers what they might see in the docu-series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMF5xEQl9CU&feature=youtu.be

The pressures, the attention, the classwork, and all the other drama that comes from trying to win a third straight state championship while having more attention than most NBA teams shines through in the trailer. We’ll see what LeBron and Maverick Carter learned from their own experience producing a documentary about LeBron’s final high school season, ‘More Than A Game’ (2009).

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LeBron’s SpringHill Company agrees to multi-project deal with Audible

The SpringHill Company is working on multiple projects, starting with a ‘More Than A Vote’ themed feature.

The ever-expanding catalog of entertainment created by LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s The SpringHill Company is embarking on a new endeavor: spoken word programming, through a multi-project deal with audiobook giant Audible.

Audible and The SpringHill Company announced the partnership this week, which will kick off with a nod to another LeBron and Maverick project, the voting rights coalition ‘More Than A Vote,’ with a program called More Than A Vote: Our Voices. Our Vote, hosted by Tiffany D. Cross and Wesley Lowery. It will also feature a collection of athletes, artists, and others, including LeBron himself.

  • Leon Bridges, Grammy-winning Artist
  • LaTosha Brown, Co-Founder, Black Voters Matter
  • Andra Day, Grammy-nominated Artist
  • Addisu Demissie, Executive Director, More Than A Vote
  • Rutha Mae Harris, Freedom Singer and Civil Rights Legend
  • LeBron James, Co-Founder, More Than A Vote
  • Martha S. Jones, Professor History, Johns Hopkins University
  • Desmond Meade, President, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition
  • Jalen Rose, ESPN Analyst and More Than A Vote Member
  • Amanda Seales, Actress and Comedian
  • Tommie Smith, Olympic Athlete
  • Octavia Spencer, Oscar-winning Actress
  • Maria Taylor, ESPN Analyst and More Than A Vote Member

The ‘More Than A Vote’ special will premiere on Audible on October 28. According to the press release, there are two other SpringHill Projects already in development.

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Juancho Hernangomez starring in LeBron James, Adam Sandler production

LeBron’s SpringHill Company is working with Sandler’s Happy Madison on creating a Basketball themed movie for Netflix.

The teams colloquially known as the “Delete Eight,” who were not invited to the NBA Bubble, are all having some form of training camp at their respective facilities. This was approved by the NBA due to concerns from those teams that they would have to go nearly a year without playing basketball as a group while the other 22 teams invited to the bubble were able to play some organized hoops. However, being that it is September, not all teams have a full collection of players. One of those teams is the Minnesota Timberwolves, but LeBron James has a connection to one of their notable absences.

According to Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota’s Juancho Hernangomez is not in camp with his team because he’s on set for the movie “Hustle,” starring Adam Sandler and produced by LeBron James’ SpringHill Company in collaboration with Sandler’s Happy Madison.

Hernangomez, who is originally from Spain, is filming the movie in Philadelphia. Sandler is starring in the movie as a basketball talent scout that currently finds himself outside the country, before discovering a “once-in-a-lifetime” player abroad.

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HBO Max featuring Chadwick Boseman interview from ‘The Shop’

Boseman was a guest on LeBron’s HBO show earlier in the year and the interview has newfound relevance after his death.

[jwplayer FPVlBmRz-z6KDnl0B]

The tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman sent shockwaves throughout America and the world. Boseman, unbeknownst to anybody else other than his family, continued working and starring in movies, but he did so only on his own terms. In the past view days, HBO and HBO Max have featured Boseman’s recent appearance on ‘The Shop,’ created by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, where he discussed his approach to his career.

Among the many topics that Boseman touched on, which LeBron James reflected on after Boseman’s passing, was the late Kobe Bryant.

“It was crazy because we were sitting in the party talking about philosophy and poetry — that’s who he was. He was like, ‘This is what I’m into right now as an artist, not as a basketball player,'” Boseman said about Kobe. “We started talking about it, I’m like ‘Yo we should do something together.’ He was applying the same type of focus that he’s applied to basketball, as a producer or director, whatever.”

HBO has added an in memoriam tribute about Boseman before the episode.

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Today marks 10 years since LeBron James made ‘The Decision’

10 years ago, LeBron James made history, changing sports and media forever by making “The Decision” on ESPN.

It’s been 10 years since LeBron James changed the landscape of the NBA, how athletes conduct business, and also how the media works with those athletes to tell their stories. Today marks the 10-year anniversary of LeBron James and ESPN’s airing of “The Decision,” an idea hatched by media executive Ari Emmanuel, longtime journalist Jim Gray and LeBron’s business partner/trusted friend, Maverick Carter.

The proceeds of the event were given to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and while it was widely reviled in its time, mostly due to the execution of the event more so than the actual action, it set the blueprint for James and his business partners to expand their platform, as well as a blueprint for other athletes to chart their own paths to business success outside of the lines.

It also created a new form of sports media, with players being tellers of their own stories. LeBron’s UNINTERRUPTED and the Player’s Tribune popped up shortly after this, as athletes not only realized they could tell their own stories but get paid good money to do it. Also, the NBA under Adam Silver has taken a direction in tone from predecessor David Stern, approaching players as business partners rather than employees.

With The Decision, Carter and James leveraged LeBron’s celebrity into a moment that, while in the short term turned public opinion against him, made him even more famous than he already was. That fame has been parlayed into almost anything, whether it be free airtime on the world’s biggest sports network, office space on the Warner Bros. lot, or a 2% stake in the Liverpool Football Club at literally no cost. It was a turning point for LeBron in using his platform not only to advance his narrative but to financially benefit from doing so.

There is no question that without The Decision, much of what James and his business partners have accomplished likely would not have come to fruition. It was shortly after that move that Rich Paul became LeBron’s agent and now Paul is moving away from day-to-day agenting, focusing on being the CEO of Klutch Sports, with burgeoning football and baseball divisions alongside their stacked NBA clientele.

10 years on, the legacy of The Decision is still playing out.

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LeBron James revisits 2012 Boston Game 6 in ‘The Greatness Code’

LeBron James revisits what many believe to be a turning point in his career in a new series on Apple TV+.

Way back in March, when the NBA season shutdown and the country had begun to quarantine, LeBron James went on Instagram Live and was asked about what many believe to be a turning point in his NBA career: Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics. And while he revealed his fears that the Heat could be broken up had they lost that game, LeBron dives deeper into his own mindset heading into that game in a new series called “The Greatness Code,” set to premiere globally on Apple TV+ on July 10.

LeBron teases the interview in a new trailer. LeBron’s UNINTERRUPTED sports media company is one of the producers of the show, along with Religion of Sports, a content platform founded by Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, and director Gotham Chopra.

James, of course, is not the only elite athlete to be featured. Brady will have his own episode as well, along with Usain Bolt, Katie Ledecky, Alex Morgan, Shaun White, and Kelly Slater.

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LeBron’s SpringHill Company partners with ABC for scripted content

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James’ newly-formed SpringHill Company made a pretty big deal with Disney’s ABC company.

Less than a day after LeBron James and Maverick Carter announced that they would be combining several of their off-court entertainment ventures into one larger company, the SpringHill Company announced that it had agreed to a two-year partnership into scripted content with Disney’s ABC.

“SpringHill Entertainment makes the shows LeBron and I want to watch. We look at every project as a way to connect with our community and ask ourselves if it will entertain and empower them. We want our content to be insightful in every way,” said Maverick Carter, CEO of The SpringHill Company in the press release. “Disney is an incredible home for SpringHill’s future growth in scripted television. Disney’s variety of platforms, extensive reach, depth of talent, and diversity of audience opens up so much opportunity for us to keep creating great stories.”

“LeBron and Maverick bring the same passion and commitment to excellence to SpringHill as LeBron brings to the NBA,” said Jonnie Davis, president, ABC Studios. “We’re thrilled they’re setting up shop with us and can’t wait [to] roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

What started as the brainchild of LeBron James and Maverick Carter secured a massive $100 million investment on Thursday, indicating that bigger things are yet to come.

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