SHOWTIME has announced the airdate for its upcoming docu-series SHUT UP AND DRIBBLE, with the first episode premiering on Saturday, November 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME on-air, streaming and on demand. The remaining two episodes will continue at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Saturday, November 10 and Saturday, November 17. Narrated by acclaimed sports journalist and commentator Jemele Hill, the three-part documentary series is a powerful inside look at the changing role of NBA athletes through the lens of our shifting cultural and political environment. Hill is among one of the many luminaries featured in the documentary that includes former NBA players, executives, sports journalists and pop-culture icons. SHUT UP AND DRIBBLE is directed by Gotham Chopra and executive produced by LeBron James, Maverick Carter and Chopra. To watch and share a first look from the docu-series, go to: https://s.sho.com/2OsUXt2.
One of the most influential voices in sports media, Hill was most recently the chief correspondent and senior columnist for The Undefeated, ESPN’s feature content site that explores intersections of sports, race and culture. She is a multiplatform journalist who has contributed to a number of ESPN programs throughout her career, including SportsCenter, E:60, Outside The Lines,Around the Horn and Highly Questionable. Offering insightful opinion and commentary on issues both in and out of the sports arena, Hill in 2016 participated in The President and the People: A National Conversation – a one-hour town hall with President Barack Obama on race relations, justice, policing and equality. She has been a national columnist since 2005 when she began at the Orlando Sentinel, the only African-American female sports columnist at a daily newspaper in the U.S. at that time.
SHUT UP AND DRIBBLE takes its title from conservative pundit Laura Ingraham’s remarks directed at LeBron James in February after players from the Golden State Warriors declined an invitation to the White House following the 2018 NBA Finals. The controversy serves as a prologue to the series as it chronicles the modern history of the NBA and its players, including the 1976 merger of the freewheeling ABA and the more conventional NBA. The league soon became an incubator for many of its top athletes to grow their brands beyond the court, becoming powerful players in commerce and fashion, and transcending the game to become cultural icons. SHUT UP AND DRIBBLE charts this evolution through the experience of basketball players, who by taking control of their own destinies have helped to bring about social change and use their platform for a broader purpose.
SHUT UP AND DRIBBLE is a presentation of SHOWTIME Sports Documentary Films and a Religion of Sports/Dirty Robber production in association with SpringHill Entertainment and Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television. The series is executive produced by LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Gotham Chopra, Rich Paul, Martin Desmond Roe, Chris Uetwiller and Datari Turner.