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J. Cole, Barack Obama And Steph Curry To Appear In Documentary On African Basketball

BY Edwin Lamptey February 29, 2024 8:22 PM EDT
Photo Source: Instagram/@stephencurry30

J. Cole, Barack Obama and Steph Curry are set to appear in an upcoming documentary focused on basketball in Africa.

The documentary, Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League, doesn’t have an official release date, but is likely to star former NBA player, Joakim Noah, Nigerian-born Toronto Raptors president, Masai Ujiri, Cameroonian NBA player, Pascal Siakam, and the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver

Succession star, Fisher Stevens, is set to be the executive producer of the project while Richard Brown will be focused on writing and co-directing the documentary. 

In the course of the documentary, the former president would delve into the importance of sports to Africa.

Obama, who is also a strategic partner of NBA Africa, would go into the challenges of creating a basketball league throughout a continent made up of 54 countries. 

For J. Cole, he would focus on a first-hand account of how he made his hoop dreams (and history) come true by playing in the first-ever Basketball Africa League. 

Adam Silver will share NBA Africa’s game plan and complete vision. The outlet reports that Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League will also explore the “complex” relationship between Africa and America outside and inside of basketball. 

Three years ago, Cole famously suited up to play with the Rwanda Patriots. Jermaine appeared in three regular-season exhibition games for the Basketball Africa League. During this time, Cole scored five points, three assists and five rebounds in 45 minutes of playtime.

His career was however short-lived as he departed from the team due to a “family obligation.” He nonetheless managed to fulfill his contractual obligation of playing at least three of the six games. 

In other news, basketball fans may soon be treated to an in-depth Netflix docuseries based on some of their favorite players in the NBA.

According to The Wall Street Journal and other sources, Le Bron James, Peyton Manning, Barack and Michelle Obama are holding discussions to bring the unscripted program to life. 

According to reports, James’ SpringHill Company, along with Manning’s Omaha Productions and the Obamas’ Higher Ground imprint would join forces to go behind the scenes with professional basketball players, similar to the NFL Netflix series, Quarterback