Cineflix Productions Teams with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Cineflix Productions has partnered with six-time NBA MVP and Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his longtime business partner Deborah Morales for The Pioneers.

The four-part docuseries will detail the off-the-court story behind basketball’s racial integration, beginning with the Boston Celtics’ second-round selection of Chuck Cooper during the 1950 NBA draft. Cooper’s pick was met with severe pushback, but it also opened the doors for other Black players to make the league, including Earl Lloyd and Nat Clifton.

The production team will have unprecedented access to the Chuck Cooper Foundation and its archives, as well as the backroom maneuvering in the battle for justice, including in-depth interviews the sport’s leading luminaries. Abdul-Jabbar, who holds the record as the longest standing activist athlete, will also be interviewed on camera to frame the nature of basketball’s story through time.

The Pioneers is being produced by Cineflix Productions, with executive producers J.C. Mills, president and head of content at Cineflix Productions; Abdul-Jabbar; Morales, who works at Iconomy Multi-Media & Entertainment; Robin Keats; and Michael Harris.

“Isaac Newton wrote, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,’” Abdul-Jabbar said. “Cooper, Lloyd and Clifton are some of the giants whose shoulders I stood on to be able to have the career and life I have had. I pay grateful homage to them every time I fight for social justice for others.”

“When we first looked at the stories of Cooper, Lloyd and Clifton, it struck us how little we all knew about these three incredible trailblazers, and we weren’t alone,” said Mills. “The Pioneers will pay homage to these game-changers and their successors, who, against all odds, have braved racism while propelling themselves to stardom. We are honored to have one of those successors, NBA legend and Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as a part of this project to give us the play by play as he experienced it firsthand.”

Morales commented, “It’s important to me that we celebrate the people in history who sacrificed so much so that others could live their dreams. Part of celebrating them is to make sure they don’t get lost in a climate that is trying to erase the achievements of people of color. That’s why I am so committed to this project.”

“The evolution of the NBA uniquely mirrors that of the country from the 1950s through today,” noted Keats, who brought the project to Cineflix with Harris. Harris’ father Chris was a close friend and teammate of Cooper’s on the St. Louis Hawks.