In 2018, late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant made history by becoming the first professional athlete to win an Academy Award with his production, "Dear Basketball," which took home Best Animated Short Film. During Sunday's ceremony, Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant and Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley joined Bryant in the pantheon of Oscar winners when "Two Distant Strangers" won the Academy Award in the Short Film (Live Action) category.
Both Durant and Conley served as executive producers on the film, currently available to stream on Netflix, in which the protagonist, played by rapper and actor Joey Bada$$, finds himself in a time loop where he is repeatedly re-living a deadly run-in with a police officer.
Durant gave a shout out to everyone involved in the film following the win.
Big time!! Congrats @TwoDistantFilm https://t.co/r3I3ubJPlT
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) April 26, 2021
The Jazz also congratulated their point guard via Twitter.
Congratulations Mike!#Oscars pic.twitter.com/QQ5SqTr7ch
— utahjazz (@utahjazz) April 26, 2021
Writer and director Travon Free has spoken about how much the involvement of Durant and Conley led to the film's success and recognition, noting that both NBA All-Stars were much more than a source of funding. Durant's business manager Rich Kleiman and mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs also served as executive producers.
"Guys in the locker room were giving me grief about it the other day, just like, 'You might win an Oscar before you win a championship' " Conley said in an interview with CBS Los Angeles before the Oscars. "I was like, hey if I could win both, that'd be great, but obviously an Oscar was not something I thought I'd ever be a part of."
Bryant was a producer, writer and narrator of "Dear Basketball," an animated version of the poem he wrote for the Players' Tribune prior to his retirement from the NBA in 2016. After the 2018 ceremony, Bryant said that his Oscar win felt "better than winning a championship."
