The documentary Basketball Africa League, another project of director Akin Omotoso

PRETORIA, South Africa – There was a brief scene within the 2022 Disney film where a young Giannis Antetokounmpo was asked to pay a pc fee to make use of the Internet on the Amadou Café in Athens, Greece. director Akin Omotoso told Basketball Africa League president Amadou Gallo Fall on March 8 that a fictional cafe was named in his honor in a movie made concerning the Milwaukee Bucks star and two of his brothers.

“Amadou, the Amadou café where Giannis used to go, I named it after you,” Omotoso told Fall at a lavish party ahead of the beginning of the BAL 2024 season in Johannesburg.

“Really? Was that for me?” – Autumn asked.

Fall will play a rather more essential role within the upcoming documentary. Omotoso is co-executive producer and appears back at BAL’s history, its first season and the complex basketball relationship between Africa and America. BAL was founded in 2019 by the NBA and FIBA ​​and started its fourth season on March 9 with 12 qualified clubs from across Africa. BAL plays matches in Pretoria; Dakar, Senegal; Cairo; and Kigali, Rwanda this season.

The inaugural BAL season in 2020 was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. It ultimately debuted in a personal bubble format in 2021 in Kigali, with rapper J. Cole headlining the attendees. J. Cole; former President Barack Obama, strategic partner of the NBA in Africa; Golden State Warriors defend Stephen Curry; Joakim Noah, BAL investor and two-time NBA All-Star; Indiana Pacers center Pascal Siakam of Cameroon; NBA commissioner Adam Silver; and Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri of Nigeria, who also serves as co-executive producer, are amongst those interviewed within the documentary.

“When coordinating our stories, you have to capture the beginning because this will soon be a successful league,” SunBet Arena’s Omotoso said during Sunday’s BAL game. “You should record this. Taking part in a documentary is de facto crucial for me. This document was quite a bit of fun to create. It’ll be out soon. We do not have a release date yet.

“It’s a wonderful documentary about this league, the way it began during Covid-19 and the way it got here together. And also taking a look at the overall outline of basketball on this continent, the journey of Amadou and his team and the beginning of the primary season this season.

Omotoso, a Nigerian, can also be an actor and is best known for steering (2011), (2015) and (2016). He said he was terrible at football when he was younger and was inspired to take up basketball after watching a VHS movie in 1989. Omotoso began following African-American NBA players similar to Hakeem Olajuwon, Manute Bol and Dikembe Mutombo.

“Growing up here, I always thought there was a lot of talent in Africa,” Omotoso said. “But there’s plenty of talent around the globe. When we got there, we watched the games from 12:00 to three:00 within the morning. Or we might activate our VHS to record games because of the time difference.

When his family emigrated to South Africa as a youngster, he attended the University of Cape Town to check rhetoric and theater, and in addition played college basketball. The basketball enthusiast wrote a column titled on the web site Africa is a rustic in 2015. He interviewed Fall and Antetokounmpo. In 2015, Omotoso also flew from Johannesburg to New York to attend NBA All-Star Weekend.

In April 2019, while reading, Omotoso got here across an article about Antetokounmpo’s difficult path to NBA stardom, written by a Nigerian family in a racially challenged Greek environment. The article mentioned plans to make a movie about Antetokounmpo to be broadcast on Disney+. Omotoso immediately told his agent that he desired to direct Antetokounmpo’s film. He also kept it next to his bed as motivation.

“I told my agent, ‘Whatever you do, you have to get me in that room because I’ve dreamed of making a movie like this,’” Omotoso said. “His story was just amazing to me. I’ve been thinking about this for so long.”

In the summer of 2020, Omotoso interviewed Walt Disney Co. executives. He said he “presented from the heart” his vision, his experience in production, his connection to his Nigerian roots and his love of basketball.

“You basically come in to tell them why it has to be you,” Omotoso said. “I told them, ‘I like this game. Here’s my story. I moved from Nigeria. I understand the similarities, being in a unique country, what which means. “

After seven weeks of deliberations, Disney chosen Omotoso as director on September 18, 2020. Coincidentally, Antetokounmpo won his second NBA MVP award that day.

Omotoso recalls how Antetokounmpo, his brother Thanasis and their mother Veronica got here to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California on February 7, 2022 during a Bucks road trip to observe an early cut of the film. Antetokounmpo’s two youngest brothers, Kostas and Alex, watched it concurrently via streaming because they were each playing professionally overseas on the time. Omotoso said Antetokounmpo’s family viewing was private. He believed he had convinced them.

“It was a beautiful day,” Omotoso said. “They got here to the parking zone and watched the movie. It was just amazing because they were crying – Giannis, Thanasis and their mother. It was beautiful. This was the moment.

“It was such a beautiful process. I really liked this story. You’re always nervous. But we had such a community behind this film that I was excited to show it to them.”

The next day, Omotoso sat courtside at an NBA game for the primary time with Walt Disney Pictures president Sean Bailey to observe the Bucks defeat the host Los Angeles Lakers 131-116. Looking back, Antetokounmpo said working with a fellow Nigerian gave him the comfort of filming for his protective family.

“(He) was a great guy, man,” said Antetokounmpo, who signed Omotoso’s cover. “And he told me that he all the time desired to make a movie about me and his dream had come true. He had this newspaper after I was drafted on the thirteenth… This guy had been dreaming of making a movie about me ever since I used to be drafted from Greece. It’s an incredible story.

“I want to make a movie about him.” And 10 years later his dream comes true. It was crazy.”

Omotoso said attending the primary BAL matches in South Africa on March 9 was a “special moment.” He said that Africans are going through a renaissance in sports, music and film.

“It’s about BAL, knowing Amadou and what his vision was, the idea was to create a league here with the best African basketball players,” Omotoso said. “You cannot say there was no path. I met Amadou when he was first establishing the office, and I remember him talking about his vision.

“The stories of African players on the continent have the opportunity (to show that BAL) is a long (vibrant) league that continues to innovate and do great things in its early years. So working on the documentary as an executive producer was important to me because it captured the beginning.”