Raw and unflinching examination of the courageous life of basketball star and social justice activist Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Born Chris Jackson, he overcame tremendous adversity to reach the NBA and found his true calling when he converted to Islam. His decision not to stand for the national anthem, however, turned him from prodigy to pariah. Told candidly by Abdul-Rauf himself more than 20 years later it’s the remarkable story of one man who kept the faith and paved the way for a social justice movement.
02-03-2023
1h 47m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Director:
Joslyn Rose Lyons
Production:
Showtime Sports, Mandalay Sports Media, Showtime Networks, NBA Entertainment
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (born March 6, 1972), nicknamed "Shaq”, is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program Inside the NBA on TNT. Standing 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall and weighing 325 pounds (147 kg), he is one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA. Throughout his 18-year career, O'Neal has used his size and strength to overpower opponents for points and rebounds. After the retirement of Lindsey Hunter on March 5, 2010, O'Neal became the oldest active player in the NBA.
Following a standout career at Louisiana State University, O'Neal was drafted by the Orlando Magic with the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. He quickly became one of the top centers in the league, winning Rookie of the Year in 1992–93 and later leading his team to the 1995 NBA Finals. After four years with the Magic, O'Neal signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won three consecutive championships, playing alongside Kobe Bryant, in 2000, 2001, and 2002. O'Neal's relationship with Bryant eventually declined into a feud, leading to O'Neal's trade to the Miami Heat in 2004. A fourth NBA championship followed in 2006. Midway through the 2007-2008 season he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. After a season-and-a-half with the Suns, O'Neal was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he played alongside LeBron James in the 2009–10 season. O'Neal played for the Boston Celtics in the 2010–11 season.
O'Neal's individual accolades include the 1999–00 MVP award, the 1992–93 NBA Rookie of the Year award, 15 All-Star game selections, three All-Star Game MVP awards, three Finals MVP awards, two scoring titles, 14 All-NBA team selections, and three NBA All-Defensive Team selections. He is one of only three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year (2000); the other players are Willis Reed in 1970 and Michael Jordan in 1996 and 1998. He ranks 5th all-time in points scored, 5th in field goals, 12th in rebounds, and 7th in blocks.
In addition to his basketball career, O'Neal has released four rap albums, with his first, Shaq Diesel, going platinum. He has appeared in numerous films and has starred in his own reality shows, Shaq's Big Challenge and Shaq Vs.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Shaquille O'Neal, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
O'Shea Jackson Sr., better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined N.W.A.
Wardell Stephen "Steph" Curry II is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association. Many analysts and players have called him the greatest shooter in NBA history.
Stephen Douglas Kerr is an American former professional basketball player and coach currently affiliated with the Golden State Warriors. He won the NBA championships five times as a player, three times with the Chicago Bulls and twice with the San Antonio Spurs, as well as three times as the head coach of the Warriors. Born and raised in the Middle East, Kerr attended Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles, California, where he was a player for the Palisades Dolphins. In college basketball, Kerr played for the Arizona Wildcats. In 1988, he began his professional career with the Phoenix Suns before being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He spent three seasons with them and one season with the Orlando Magic before joining the Chicago Bulls. Kerr played an instrumental role in garnering the Bulls their second championship. In 1999, the Spurs acquired him from the Bulls and subsequently won the championship, making Kerr one of two players to have four successive NBA titles. After a season-long stint with the Portland Trail Blazers, Kerr finished his playing career with the Spurs in 2003. Since retirement, he has been a television analyst, and from 2007 to 2010, the general manager of the Suns. In 2014, he joined the Warriors as the head coach.
Jalen Anthony Rose is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' "Fab Five" (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson) that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as both freshmen and sophomores.
Rose played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a small forward for six teams, most notably alongside Reggie Miller on the Indiana Pacers team that made three consecutive Eastern Conference finals, including the 2000 NBA Finals. He retired in 2007.
Now Rose is a sports analyst for ABC and ESPN. He is an analyst on NBA Countdown, Get Up!, and co-host of the ESPN talk show, Jalen & Jacoby.
Mahershala Ali (/məˈhɜːrʃələ/ mə-HUR-shə-lə; born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore on February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century.
After pursuing an MFA degree from New York University, Ali began his career as a regular on television series Crossing Jordan (2001–02) and Threat Matrix (2003–04), before his breakthrough role as Richard Tyler in the science fiction series The 4400 (2004–07). His first major film role was in the David Fincher-directed fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He gained wider attention for supporting roles in the final two films of the original The Hunger Games film series and in House of Cards, for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as a drug dealer in the drama Moonlight (2016) and as Don Shirley in the comedy-drama Green Book (2018). He is the first Black actor to win two Academy Awards in the same category and the second Black actor to win multiple acting Oscars. Ali won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program for executive producing We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest (2020).
In 2019, he played a troubled police officer in the third season of the HBO anthology crime series True Detective, and in 2020, he starred in the second season of the Hulu comedy-drama series Ramy. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for both performances. Ali has also played Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016) and voiced Aaron Davis in the animated films Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Mahershala Ali, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer, competing from 1985 to 2005. He reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion, and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title, at 20 years, four months, and 22 days old.
Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American retired professional basketball player who played for the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Dallas Mavericks in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon, nicknamed "the Dream," is a Nigerian-American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Houston Rockets and, in his last season, the Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. Olajuwon was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2016. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest centers, as well as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
Philip Douglas Jackson is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A power forward, Jackson played 12 seasons in the NBA, winning championships with the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973. Jackson was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, leading them to six NBA championships. He then coached the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2005 to 2011; the team won five NBA championships under his leadership. Jackson's 11 NBA titles as a coach surpassed the previous record of nine set by Red Auerbach. He also holds the NBA record for the most combined championships, winning a total of 13 as a player and a coach.
Malcolm X ( May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist.To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history, and in 1998, Time named The Autobiography of Malcolm X one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.
Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. The events of his childhood, including his father's lessons concerning black pride and self-reliance, and his own experiences concerning race played a significant role in Malcolm X's adult life. By the time he was thirteen, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in a number of criminal activities in Boston and New York City. In 1946, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.
While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole in 1952 he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years he was the public face of the controversial group. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to Malcolm X's quitting the organization in March 1964. He subsequently traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated Pan-Africanism. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated by three members of the group while giving a speech in New York.
The beliefs expressed by Malcolm X changed during his lifetime. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam he taught black supremacy and deified the leaders of the organization. He also advocated the separation of black and white Americans, which put him at odds with the civil rights movement, which was working towards integration. After he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim, made the pilgrimage to Mecca and disavowed racism, while remaining a champion of black self-determination, self defense, and human rights. He expressed a willingness to work with civil rights leaders and described his previous position with the Nation of Islam as that of a "zombie".
Description above from the Wikipedia article Malcolm X, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, King led an unsuccessful 1962 struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia (the Albany Movement), and helped organize the 1963 nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. (Wikipedia)
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated figures of the 20th century and as one of the greatest boxers of all time.
Ali was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. On March 6, 1964, he announced that he no longer would be known as Cassius Clay but as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military, citing his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War. He was found guilty of draft evasion so he faced 5 years in prison and was stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison as he appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971, but he had not fought for nearly four years and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supporting racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
Ali was a leading heavyweight boxer of the 20th century, and he remains the only three-time lineal champion of that division. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years. He is the only fighter to have been ranked as the world's best heavyweight by BoxRec twelve times. He has been ranked among BoxRec's ten best heavyweights seventeen times, the third most in history. He won 8 fights that were rated by BoxRec as 5-Star, the third most in the history of the heavyweight division. Ali is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times. He has been ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, and as the greatest athlete of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated, the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC, and the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. He was involved in several historic boxing matches and feuds, most notably his fights with Joe Frazier, such as the Fight of the Century and the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the Jungle, which has been called "arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century" and was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1 billion viewers worldwide, becoming the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many fighters let their managers do the talking, and he was often provocative and outlandish. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, anticipating elements of hip hop.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.) is an American former professional basketball player who played 20 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers. NBA coach Pat Riley and players Isiah Thomas and Julius Erving have called him the greatest basketball player of all time. Abdul-Jabbar has also been an actor, a basketball coach, a best-selling author, and a martial artist, having trained in Jeet Kune Do under Bruce Lee.
