*In her first post-ESPN gig, Jemele Hill will narrate the LeBron James basketball documentary “Shut Up and Dribble,” which premieres in November on Showtime.
As reported by THR, the three-part series is directed by Gotham Chopra (who also helmed the Tom Brady doc Tom vs. Time), and the title was inspired by conservative pundit Laura Ingraham, who last February told James and Kevin Durant to shut up and dribble after they expressed anti-Trump opinions during a segment on James’ Uninterrupted digital platform.
“Look, there might be a cautionary lesson in LeBron for kids,” Ingraham said on her Fox show. “This is what happens when you attempt to leave high school a year early to join the NBA. And it’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid a hundred-million dollars a year to bounce a ball.”
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James responded with the hashtag: #wewillnotshutupanddribble — and proclaimed: “I am more than an athlete.”
“I think LeBron, like a lot of people, has been very frustrated by the behavior of this administration,” Hill tells The Hollywood Reporter. “[Black Americans] feel very insulted and vulnerable within this time because of who’s in charge.”
Hill tapped to narrate the docu-series breaks from the tradition of having men provide the voiceovers.
“Lately LeBron has talked about gender and wanting to uplift and position black women in particular,” said Hill. “I get the sense that this is all part of that. He was raised by a black woman, he is married to a black woman and he is raising a black woman (daughter Zhuri, 3). If you look at the societal ladder, black women remain on the lowest rung. He clearly understands that we are facing a unique battle. It means a lot that he understands the intricacies of that.”
The doc includes an array of candid interviews with NBA greats and pop culture influencers such as Isaiah Thomas, Charles Barkley, Durant, Sway Calloway, Jay Z and Justin Timberlake. James also sits for an interview.
