Nets forward Kevin Durant and Jazz guard Mike Conley joined Kobe Bryant in the pantheon of NBA stars turned Oscar winners. The two served as executive producers for the film Two Distant Strangers, the winner of the 2021 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
The film, starring rapper Joey Bada$$, is about a man who is stuck in an endless loop on the same day and moment where’s he’s killed by the police.
In an interview with CBS Los Angeles, Conley touched on the project and how his teammates were giving him a hard time about the Oscar nomination.
“Guys in the locker room were giving me grief about it the other day, just like, ‘You might win an Oscar before you win a championship'” Conley said. “I was like, ‘hey if I could win both, that’d be great, but obviously an Oscar was not something I thought I’d ever be a part of.'”
Durant’s business manager Rich Kleiman and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs also served as executive producers on the film.
Bryant won an Oscar in 2018 for best his production on Dear Basketball, which won the award for Best Animated Short Film. The late star was a producer, narrator and writer on the project.
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