Los Angeles, which hosted the N.B.A. All-Star Game on Sunday, is crawling with basketball royalty turned rookie producers. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant hope to build substantial entertainment companies that tap into the billions of dollars that Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are pouring into original programming. Kobe is already Oscar nominated this year for Best Animated Short Film for his 2017 short film, Dear Basketball.
Hollywood has always had a long history of casting athletes, who come with built-in fan bases and often exude a natural magnetism on screen. It shows progress that some of them are now company owners.
