Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua’s connections to the Los Angeles Lakers are via his hometown of Pittsburgh. Norm Nixon played college basketball at Duquesne University before becoming a first-round pick of the Lakers in 1977, and Fuqua was a fan of his play at point guard. But doesn’t every fan have a story of loyalty to a favorite team? That doesn’t make Fuqua unique, but he was charged with directing a project on the Lakers and creating something unique, which isn’t easy given the proliferation of Laker-related content on and off the court just in 2022.
“The goal was to really keep the focus on the family,” Fuqua said.
