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Some of the biggest names in sports were in Hollywood Thursday night, but it wasn’t just because the ESPY Awards were in Los Angeles the day before.
Stars like Summer and Winter Olympian Lolo Jones, NFL player Kayvon Thibodeaux and four-time NBA champion Draymond Green were on hand for the inaugural Uninterrupted Film Festival to discuss not only their athletic accomplishments, but also the changing media landscape for athletes.
In the past few years, high school and college athletes have been allowed to be compensated for their name, image and likeness — a rapid about-face from the stiff penalties for such payments in the past — and stars can skip the press entirely and reach their fans directly on social media or through a podcast.
To highlight these trends and others for sports stars, the festival showed off what it called “a whole new ball game in storytelling.”
Uninterrupted, the athlete-empowerment brand of the SpringHill Company founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, highlighted “what it means to empower athletes, what it means to have a journey, be able to have those dreams become reality,” the Laker said in a video statement posted to social media.
Jimmy Spencer, general manager of Uninterrupted, told KTLA the festival’s offerings — screenings of the docuseries “Goliath” and documentary film “Black Ice,” a live recording of “The Draymond Green Show” podcast and panels on topics like NIL payments and athletes as filmmakers — all fit within the company’s vision of helping sports stars use their own voice.
“There’s a lot of projects that athletes are at the forefront of now, and I think that transition that we’ve seen is all part of this athlete empowerment movement,” said Spencer. “Some athletes are doing their own contracts, athletes are creating their own businesses, athletes are doing so much now. On the film side of it, we’re seeing the same thing.”
And it’s not just visual media where stars are looking to have more control over the narrative around them.
In his podcast taping, Green and guest Trae Young, the All-Star point guard for the Atlanta Hawks, discussed how the athlete empowerment movement and growing influence of podcasts and social media allows stars to respond to rumors, shut down incorrect reports and fully flesh out their thoughts.
Young said he started a podcast of his own, “From the Point,” after seeing Green’s success and the freedom it gave him to address his fans.
“Starting my own podcast was influenced by guys like you, guys speaking their mind and having certain things coming out about them that’s not really true,” Young told Green. “You don’t want to go to the media because they may take it a certain way. Now, I have my own platform where I can speak the truth, I can speak my mind, speak on what’s real and what’s not.”
While frustration with legacy outlets and companies was a point of discussion for some, the festival and the SpringHill Company are also working hand-in-hand with some established producers, companies and stars.
For instance, the festival is a partnership with the Tribeca Festival, which was founded by film producer Jane Rosenthal and Oscar- and Emmy-winning actor Robert De Niro.
“That doesn’t mean we’re doing anything with the way traditional stories are told, but there’s room for biographies and autobiographies,” Spencer explained. “I think that what we’re seeing is a lot of athletes who want to create, have the ability to create, have the funding to be able to create things, and the projects they’re doing are really true to themselves.”
With the first edition in the books, Spencer said the festival was a success at highlighting athletes’ success in storytelling.
“The beauty is, this event was the first time I think it’s really been celebrated in a way where we focus on what it is they do, and we want to keep that going,” he said. “This won’t be the last year. We’re going to get bigger and bigger by the year.”
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