Basketball stars including Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Devin Booker make appearances in the short film, titled Welcome to NBA Lane
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is celebrating 75 years of excellence.
On Thursday, the sports organization released a short film — titled Welcome to NBA Lane — which celebrates the league’s history and the many iconic players who have taken part in the sport ahead of the NBA’s 75th anniversary season later this month.
Set in a fictional neighborhood that is home to NBA legends past and present, Michael B. Jordan serves as the neighborhood’s “Hoopbus” driver, where he brings a group of children on a tour of the area.
There, the group comes across 14 active NBA players, 20 ex-players, seven mascots and one puppet — Lil Penny.
At the opening of the clip, a kid is seen playing basketball alone when Jordan, 34, rolls up in his bus with an invitation to take the journey through NBA history.
As the Black Panther star begins the “stroll down memory lane,” NBA greats including Magic Johnson and Dwyane Wade appear onscreen, before fellow basketball superstars such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell and Russell Westbrook pop up.
“This community right here stretches to every corner of the globe,” Jordan says in the video. “We’ve come a long way from the peach basket.”
In another more sentimental moment, Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker is seen driving in a vintage blue car when he stops to pay his respects at a mural of Kobe Bryant, the basketball legend who was killed in a Jan. 2020 helicopter crash alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.
“It certainly took a great deal of coordination to bring so many current and former players together to help tell our league’s story, and we’re grateful to all those who helped make that possible,” NBA CMO Kate Jhaveri told Adweek in a statement. “NBA Lane was filmed in a variety of locations in Los Angeles; Springfield, Mass.; and Bloomington, Ind. We were specifically attracted to [South L.A. neighborhood] Leimert Park due to its rich Black history and cultural impact in the area.”
As for hiring Jordan to serve as the video’s main star and narrator, Jhaveri added that the actor “follows our league and is a big fan of the game.”
“He has an authentic love for the game of basketball, which we recognized long before he set foot on set,” she added. “… We’re fortunate to work with our ‘NBA Lane bus driver’ who not only has a strong connection with our fanbase, but equally shares the values of our league and fans.”
